Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

to his patrons. Later he removed to New
Canaan, Connecticut, where he worked
in the shoe shops for a number of years.
Still later he returned to Norwalk, but
did not remain there permanently. He
went to Ansonia, New York, and worked
for his son, Charles M. Arthur, who had
established a thriving business in manufacturing
paper boxes. Charles M. Ar-
thur was the original patentee of the
folding cardboard box idea, which has
developed into an immense industry and
is adopted by the manufacturers of an
endless variety of products for the pro-
tection of their goods. Mr. Arthur remained
with his son in Ansonia for about
four years, then went back to New
Canaan, where he resided until within two
years of his death ; he was always actively
occupied in his own line of work. He
then became a resident of Glenbrook, a
suburb of Stamford, where he died, Oc-
tober 15, 1915. Mr. Arthur, at the time
of the Civil War, tried three times to en-
list, but was refused, because the examiners
claimed he had a weak heart. He
had the satisfaction of outliving all the
people who had passed judgment on his
physique. He married Jeannette Wig-
gins, daughter of David Wiggins, of
Huntington, Long Island, and granddaughter
of Dr. Wiggins, of that place.
They had twelve children, of whom seven
grew to maturity : Rev. Charles M., a
clergyman of the Christian denomination;
Jeanet E., who has been a teacher in the
public schools of Waterbury for many
years ; Mary, who married Charles L.
Parmele ; William Henry, of further men-
tion ; George, now deceased ; Fanny Etta,
of Stamford ; and Harriet, widow of Halsey
Reynolds, of Omaha. The mother
was a member of the Dutch Reformed
church. She died in 1907, aged seventy-
nine years.
William Henry Arthur, the engineering
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
72
contractor of Stamford, was born in Nor-
walk, Connecticut, February 22, 1866, a
son of William and Jeannette (Wiggins)
Arthur. He attended the public schools
in the different towns where his parents
resided, learning much of value in the ex-
perience of changing from one town to
another. He was a lad of keen interests,
active and full of life and vim, and was
always fond of machinery or anything
of a mechanical nature. He learned the
machinists trade in New Haven, and followed
it for thirteen years, most of the
time as master mechanic, or chief engi-
neer. To gain wider experience he spent
some time in each of a number of important
cities, among them Waterbury,
Connecticut, and Binghamton, New York,
also spent much time in New York City,
everywhere having charge of large manufacturing
interests. In 1894 he removed
to Stamford and took charge of the city's
power station, which position he held for
nearly five years, then in 1899 was appointed
superintendent of public mines
at Stamford, which position he held for
nine years. On November 9, 1908, he re-
signed this position to go into business
for himself. This had been his ambition
for some time, the end toward which he
had been working. He has developed one
of the really important business enter-
prises of the city of Stamford. He han-
dles large contracts, such as the building
of sea walls, roads, stone bridges and
piers, trolley roads, sewers, etc. The pub-
lic, to whom these undertakings are little
more than an inconvenience in the building,
and a matter of course, once com-
pleted, in the daily use, gives little
thought to their significance. By such
effort is civilization built. The man who
constructs anything in line with civic or
industrial progress is a benefactor of his
kind, both in the achievement and in the
means of livelihood which it places within