Alexander Arthur
Encyclopedia
Alexander Alan Arthur was a Scottish
-born engineer
and entrepreneur
active primarily in the southeastern United States
in the latter half of the 19th century. Flamboyant, charismatic, and energetic, Arthur used his prominent American and European financial connections to fund numerous business ventures, most of which were overly ambitious and ultimately failed. A proponent of economic advancement in what became known as the New South
, Arthur played a primary role in the development of the Cumberland Gap
area, and in the course of his endeavors established the cities of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Harrogate, Tennessee
. The community of Arthur, Tennessee
, is named for him.
After spending his early life migrating back and forth between Scotland, Canada
, and Scandinavia
, Arthur moved to Boston in 1879, and accepted a position as the general manager of the Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company's American operations. In the early 1880s, Arthur identified a rich stand of timber in the upper Blue Ridge Mountains
along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, and devised a boom
system to extract the timber from the difficult mountain terrain. Later in the same decade, Arthur identified the abundant iron ore deposits in the Cumberland Gap region, and established a multimillion dollar iron production operation in hopes of making Middlesboro the "Pittsburgh of the South." While he never experienced great financial success, Arthur's endeavors were a harbinger of the great logging and mining operations that became major economic forces in Southern Appalachia
in the early 20th century.
and Sweden
before immigrating to the U.S. city of Boston in 1879. After the death of his first wife, Arthur married Boston socialite Nellie Goodwin, who introduced him to numerous New England financial connections.
as an agent for the Glasgow-based Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company, concocted a plan to harvest the dense, virgin forests of the Pigeon River Valley
on the northern fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains
east of Knoxville. While these mountains contained one of the richest timber stands in the eastern United States, their general remoteness and rugged terrain had left them mostly untouched by loggers for much of the 19th century. Arthur's plan called for harvested logs to be floated down the Pigeon River in a controlled fashion using a series of logging booms.
Arthur chose the small community of Newport
, near where the Pigeon River exits the high mountains and enters the upper Tennessee Valley, as a base for his logging operations. Company employees and specialists from as far away as South Africa
arrived to begin building the booms, and by 1884 the company had begun accumulating logs in its boom reservoirs. Historian Wilma Dykeman
described Arthur during this period as the "epitome of elegance," moving about in a Prince Albert coat
and "lord mayor air." Dykeman said of Arthur:
Arthur built a large house in Newport— known as "The Mansion"— and made plans to redesign the rough frontier village as an ideal community, complete with parks, clubhouses, hotels, a new town hall, and a college. However, Arthur underestimated the volatility of Appalachian Mountain streams, which swell to many times their size after heavy rains. In Spring 1886, a cloudburst
dumped torrential rains into the upper Pigeon Valley, and the river flooded, threatening the boom that held the company's stock of logs. Arthur spent 12 hours in the pouring rain directing efforts to save the boom, but it eventually collapsed, and the logs scattered for miles downstream. An investigation by Scottish Timber blamed Arthur for the loss, determining that he should have foreseen such a flood, and the entire operation folded shortly afterward.
, and Kentucky) to report on the feasibility of building a railroad in the area, and was impressed by the abundant iron ore and coal deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley, on the Kentucky side of the Gap. Arthur initially tried to interest the Richmond and Danville Railroad
in establishing an iron production operation in the area, but after failing to do so, he took the initiative himself. In August 1886, he and several investors formed the Gap Associates, and purchased 20000 acres (8,093.7 ha) in Bell County, Kentucky
. The following year, after gaining major funding from London, Arthur's investment group was reorganized as the American Association, Ltd., and Arthur continued purchasing land in the region, eventually acquiring upwards of 100000 acres (40,468.6 ha).
Arthur established a new company town— named "Middlesboro" after Middlesbrough, England— in the Yellow Creek Valley, and built furnaces to convert the ore into pig iron
, and coke ovens to convert the mined coal into coke
. Arthur then formed the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad to build a spur line to Middlesboro which would transport the pig iron and coke out of the valley. To house the workers needed to build a railroad tunnel through a mountainside near the Gap, Arthur set up a work camp at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee
in early 1888. The railroad's inaugural train ran on August 23, 1889, with several prominent Knoxvillians onboard, among them Knox County judge George Andrews, Sheriff Andrew Reeder, attorney William F. Yardley
, and businessmen Peter Kern
, W. W. Woodruff, and Frank Hockenjos. Just outside of Knoxville, however, the train derailed, killing six, including Andrews, Reeder, and Hockenjos, and injuring several others, including Arthur, Kern, and Woodruff.
By 1890, Arthur and American Association, Ltd. had spent twenty million dollars on the Cumberland Gap operation, and Arthur's British backers, among them the British Steel Syndicate, began to grow skeptical of Arthur's grand schemes and outrageous spending. They grew even more concerned when the ore deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley were determined to be of low grade, and after the failure of Baring Brothers
in 1891, Arthur's British financers backed out of American Association. The company struggled forward until the Panic of 1893
in the American stock market
s brought about a total collapse. American Association's assets were liquidated, with tens of thousand of acres around Middlesboro selling for just fifteen thousand dollars.
in England. In 1888, Arthur built a large house for himself in Harrogate, and American Association, Ltd. spent two million dollars developing the area. By far the most lavish feature of the new community was the Four Seasons, a 700-room resort hotel believed to have been the largest hotel in the United States at the time of its completion. The hotel included a sanitarium
, a casino, an extravagant lobby, and an elegant 50 feet (15.2 m) by 160 feet (48.8 m) dining room. A smaller hotel was built at the nearby Cumberland Gap community.
Arthur advertised the Four Seasons resort far and wide, but the hotel's remote location and distance from the railroad made it less desirable to the nation's wealthy. At times, the hotel's large staff outnumbered guests by a 15 to 1 margin. After the collapse of its parent company in 1893, the hotel was sold for just twenty-five thousand dollars and dismantled.
along the railroad south of Cumberland Gap, but the lack of financing in the mid-1890s doomed any real chance of obtaining the success Arthur desired. In 1897, Arthur travelled to Alaska
to join the Klondike Gold Rush
, and eventually settled in New York
. After suffering a stroke
, however, he moved back to Middlesboro, where he decided to live out his remaining years. He died March 4, 1912, and is buried in a family plot in the Middlesboro Cemetery.
and the steam-powered skidder
that large-scale logging of the mountains' timber became profitable. In the early 1900s, firms such as the Little River Lumber Company and Champion Fibre saw enormous returns logging the timber stands Arthur had attempted to reach decades earlier. Likewise, by the time of Arthur's death, the mountains north of Middlesboro had become one of the world's great coal mining regions.
In 1897, a group led by General O. O. Howard
and Reverend A. A. Myers established Lincoln Memorial University
on what remained of the Four Seasons property in Harrogate. The school set up a conservatory in Arthur's house, although an observation tower is all that presently remains of the structure. Affluent Cocke Countians used Arthur's Newport house for decades after his departure, and Scottish Timber's Newport office became a notorious saloon known as the "Last Chance/First Chance." The old Arthur, Tennessee post office is currently on display at the Museum of Appalachia
in Norris, Tennessee
. With more than 10,000 residents, Middlesboro remains one of the more prominent cities in Southeastern Kentucky.
Scottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
-born engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
active primarily in the southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
in the latter half of the 19th century. Flamboyant, charismatic, and energetic, Arthur used his prominent American and European financial connections to fund numerous business ventures, most of which were overly ambitious and ultimately failed. A proponent of economic advancement in what became known as the New South
New South
New South, New South Democracy or New South Creed is a phrase that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, after 1877. The term "New South" is used in contrast to the Old South of the plantation system of the antebellum period.The term has been used...
, Arthur played a primary role in the development of the Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
area, and in the course of his endeavors established the cities of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Harrogate, Tennessee
Harrogate, Tennessee
Harrogate is a city in Claiborne County, Tennessee, United States. The community has been known as "Harrogate" since the 19th century, but did not incorporate as a city by that name until 1993....
. The community of Arthur, Tennessee
Arthur, Tennessee
-History:In 1870, land developer Alexander A. Arthur moved to the area from Montreal, Canada. He laid out a town, based on consolidated land parcels. In 1876 the area was called Butcher Springs and with the creation of a post office the town became known as Arthur in 1890...
, is named for him.
After spending his early life migrating back and forth between Scotland, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, Arthur moved to Boston in 1879, and accepted a position as the general manager of the Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company's American operations. In the early 1880s, Arthur identified a rich stand of timber in the upper Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, and devised a boom
Log boom
A log boom is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating logs timbered from nearby forests sometimes called a fence or bag. The term is also used as a place where logs were collected into booms, as at the mouth of a river...
system to extract the timber from the difficult mountain terrain. Later in the same decade, Arthur identified the abundant iron ore deposits in the Cumberland Gap region, and established a multimillion dollar iron production operation in hopes of making Middlesboro the "Pittsburgh of the South." While he never experienced great financial success, Arthur's endeavors were a harbinger of the great logging and mining operations that became major economic forces in Southern Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
in the early 20th century.
Early life
Alexander Arthur was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest son of Alexander and Catherine Allen Arthur. While Alexander was still a child, the Arthurs moved to Montreal, Canada, although Arthur returned to Glasgow within a few years to attend school. In 1867, Arthur joined the 167th Highlander Regiment, and during the same period married his first wife, Mary Forrest. Arthur moved several times throughout the following decade, living in NorwayNorway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
before immigrating to the U.S. city of Boston in 1879. After the death of his first wife, Arthur married Boston socialite Nellie Goodwin, who introduced him to numerous New England financial connections.
Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company
In the early 1880s, Arthur, working in Knoxville, TennesseeKnoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
as an agent for the Glasgow-based Scottish-Carolina Timber and Land Company, concocted a plan to harvest the dense, virgin forests of the Pigeon River Valley
Pigeon River (Tennessee - North Carolina)
The Pigeon River of western North Carolina and east Tennessee rises above Canton, North Carolina. Below this, it flows roughly parallel to Interstate 40 for many miles and is impounded by a dam -- Walters Dam -- belonging to Progress Energy before entering Tennessee, where it flows into the French...
on the northern fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province. The range is sometimes called the Smoky Mountains or the...
east of Knoxville. While these mountains contained one of the richest timber stands in the eastern United States, their general remoteness and rugged terrain had left them mostly untouched by loggers for much of the 19th century. Arthur's plan called for harvested logs to be floated down the Pigeon River in a controlled fashion using a series of logging booms.
Arthur chose the small community of Newport
Newport, Tennessee
Newport is a city in Cocke County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 7,242 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Cocke County.-Geography:...
, near where the Pigeon River exits the high mountains and enters the upper Tennessee Valley, as a base for his logging operations. Company employees and specialists from as far away as South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
arrived to begin building the booms, and by 1884 the company had begun accumulating logs in its boom reservoirs. Historian Wilma Dykeman
Wilma Dykeman
Wilma Dykeman Stokely was an American writer of fiction and nonfiction whose works chronicled the people and land of Appalachia.-Biography:...
described Arthur during this period as the "epitome of elegance," moving about in a Prince Albert coat
Frock coat
A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by knee-length skirts all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted style is sometimes called a Prince Albert . The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features...
and "lord mayor air." Dykeman said of Arthur:
"... he rode, lord and master, on a shiny black stump-tailed horse over his domain, never settling the bulk of his weight into the saddle, but always standing in the stirrups as if personally overseeing in the wilderness the birth of empire."
Arthur built a large house in Newport— known as "The Mansion"— and made plans to redesign the rough frontier village as an ideal community, complete with parks, clubhouses, hotels, a new town hall, and a college. However, Arthur underestimated the volatility of Appalachian Mountain streams, which swell to many times their size after heavy rains. In Spring 1886, a cloudburst
Cloudburst
A cloudburst is an extreme amount of precipitation, sometimes with hail and thunder, which normally lasts no longer than a few minutes but is capable of creating flood conditions.-Etymology:There are similar names for such events in other languages...
dumped torrential rains into the upper Pigeon Valley, and the river flooded, threatening the boom that held the company's stock of logs. Arthur spent 12 hours in the pouring rain directing efforts to save the boom, but it eventually collapsed, and the logs scattered for miles downstream. An investigation by Scottish Timber blamed Arthur for the loss, determining that he should have foreseen such a flood, and the entire operation folded shortly afterward.
American Association, Ltd.
In 1885, Arthur travelled to Cumberland Gap (at the junction of Tennessee, VirginiaVirginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and Kentucky) to report on the feasibility of building a railroad in the area, and was impressed by the abundant iron ore and coal deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley, on the Kentucky side of the Gap. Arthur initially tried to interest the Richmond and Danville Railroad
Richmond and Danville Railroad
The Richmond and Danville Railroad was chartered in Virginia in the United States in 1847. The portion between Richmond and Danville, Virginia was completed in 1856...
in establishing an iron production operation in the area, but after failing to do so, he took the initiative himself. In August 1886, he and several investors formed the Gap Associates, and purchased 20000 acres (8,093.7 ha) in Bell County, Kentucky
Bell County, Kentucky
Bell County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed August 1, 1867, from parts of Knox and Harlan Counties and augmented from Knox County in 1872. As of 2010 the population was 69,060. Its county seat is Pineville...
. The following year, after gaining major funding from London, Arthur's investment group was reorganized as the American Association, Ltd., and Arthur continued purchasing land in the region, eventually acquiring upwards of 100000 acres (40,468.6 ha).
Arthur established a new company town— named "Middlesboro" after Middlesbrough, England— in the Yellow Creek Valley, and built furnaces to convert the ore into pig iron
Pig iron
Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...
, and coke ovens to convert the mined coal into coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
. Arthur then formed the Knoxville, Cumberland Gap, and Louisville Railroad to build a spur line to Middlesboro which would transport the pig iron and coke out of the valley. To house the workers needed to build a railroad tunnel through a mountainside near the Gap, Arthur set up a work camp at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee
Cumberland Gap, Tennessee
Cumberland Gap is a town in Claiborne County, Tennessee, near the Cumberland Gap pass, the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, and the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park...
in early 1888. The railroad's inaugural train ran on August 23, 1889, with several prominent Knoxvillians onboard, among them Knox County judge George Andrews, Sheriff Andrew Reeder, attorney William F. Yardley
William F. Yardley
William Francis Yardley was an American attorney, politician and civil rights advocate, operating primarily out of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century. He was Tennessee's first African American gubernatorial candidate, and is believed to have been the first African American attorney to...
, and businessmen Peter Kern
Peter Kern (American businessman)
Peter Kern was a German-born American businessman and politician active in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known as the founder of the confections company that eventually evolved into Kern's Bakery, a brand still marketed in the Knoxville area...
, W. W. Woodruff, and Frank Hockenjos. Just outside of Knoxville, however, the train derailed, killing six, including Andrews, Reeder, and Hockenjos, and injuring several others, including Arthur, Kern, and Woodruff.
By 1890, Arthur and American Association, Ltd. had spent twenty million dollars on the Cumberland Gap operation, and Arthur's British backers, among them the British Steel Syndicate, began to grow skeptical of Arthur's grand schemes and outrageous spending. They grew even more concerned when the ore deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley were determined to be of low grade, and after the failure of Baring Brothers
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office.-History:-1762–1890:Barings Bank was founded in 1762 as the...
in 1891, Arthur's British financers backed out of American Association. The company struggled forward until the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
in the American stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
s brought about a total collapse. American Association's assets were liquidated, with tens of thousand of acres around Middlesboro selling for just fifteen thousand dollars.
Harrogate
Believing Middlesboro would one day grow into a great industrial center, Arthur decided to establish a suburb for the city's future elite on the Tennessee side of the Cumberland Gap. He named it "Harrogate" after the resort town of HarrogateHarrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...
in England. In 1888, Arthur built a large house for himself in Harrogate, and American Association, Ltd. spent two million dollars developing the area. By far the most lavish feature of the new community was the Four Seasons, a 700-room resort hotel believed to have been the largest hotel in the United States at the time of its completion. The hotel included a sanitarium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
, a casino, an extravagant lobby, and an elegant 50 feet (15.2 m) by 160 feet (48.8 m) dining room. A smaller hotel was built at the nearby Cumberland Gap community.
Arthur advertised the Four Seasons resort far and wide, but the hotel's remote location and distance from the railroad made it less desirable to the nation's wealthy. At times, the hotel's large staff outnumbered guests by a 15 to 1 margin. After the collapse of its parent company in 1893, the hotel was sold for just twenty-five thousand dollars and dismantled.
Later life
His Middlesboro project in shambles, Arthur nevertheless sought to begin anew, and established his small namesake crossroads communityArthur, Tennessee
-History:In 1870, land developer Alexander A. Arthur moved to the area from Montreal, Canada. He laid out a town, based on consolidated land parcels. In 1876 the area was called Butcher Springs and with the creation of a post office the town became known as Arthur in 1890...
along the railroad south of Cumberland Gap, but the lack of financing in the mid-1890s doomed any real chance of obtaining the success Arthur desired. In 1897, Arthur travelled to Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
to join the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
, and eventually settled in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. After suffering a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, however, he moved back to Middlesboro, where he decided to live out his remaining years. He died March 4, 1912, and is buried in a family plot in the Middlesboro Cemetery.
Legacy
Arthur understood the great wealth that could be obtained from extracting the abundant natural resources of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, but even with million-dollar financing, the lack of technology and inaccessibility of the region proved too much to overcome. It was not until the invention of the Shay locomotiveShay locomotive
The Shay locomotive was the most widely used geared steam locomotive. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive...
and the steam-powered skidder
Skidder
A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. Here they are loaded onto trucks , and sent to the mill...
that large-scale logging of the mountains' timber became profitable. In the early 1900s, firms such as the Little River Lumber Company and Champion Fibre saw enormous returns logging the timber stands Arthur had attempted to reach decades earlier. Likewise, by the time of Arthur's death, the mountains north of Middlesboro had become one of the world's great coal mining regions.
In 1897, a group led by General O. O. Howard
Oliver O. Howard
Oliver Otis Howard was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War...
and Reverend A. A. Myers established Lincoln Memorial University
Lincoln Memorial University
Lincoln Memorial University is a private four-year co-educational liberal arts college located in Harrogate, Tennessee.LMU's campus borders on Cumberland Gap National Historical Park....
on what remained of the Four Seasons property in Harrogate. The school set up a conservatory in Arthur's house, although an observation tower is all that presently remains of the structure. Affluent Cocke Countians used Arthur's Newport house for decades after his departure, and Scottish Timber's Newport office became a notorious saloon known as the "Last Chance/First Chance." The old Arthur, Tennessee post office is currently on display at the Museum of Appalachia
Museum of Appalachia
The Museum of Appalachia, located in Norris, Tennessee, north of Knoxville, is a living history museum that interprets the pioneer and early 20th-century period of the Southern Appalachian region of the United States...
in Norris, Tennessee
Norris, Tennessee
Norris is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. Its population was 1,446 at the 2000 census. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
. With more than 10,000 residents, Middlesboro remains one of the more prominent cities in Southeastern Kentucky.
External links
- Photograph of Alexander Arthur (seated) — Digital Library of Appalachia
- Photograph of Alexander Arthur (portrait) — Digital Library of Appalachia
- Photograph of Alexander Arthur and wife Nellie Goodwin Arthur on horseback — Digital Library of Appalachia
- Photograph of Arthur family in front their Harrogate home — Digital Library of Appalachia