21st President Chester Alan Arthur

1829 - 1886  (57 years)    Has 39 ancestors and 3 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Chester Alan Arthur
  Prefix	21st President
  Birth	5 Oct 1829	Fairfield, Vermont, USA
  Gender	Male
  Prominent People	1881
  US President
  Death	18 Nov 1886	New York, New York, USA
  Burial	Albany, New York, USA
  Siblings	8 Siblings
  1. Regina Arthur,   b. 1822-1823   d. Yes, date unknown   2. Jane Arthur,   b. Abt 1824   d. Yes, date unknown   3. Almeda Arthur   4. Ann Eliza Arthur + 5. 21st President Chester Alan Arthur,   b. 5 Oct 1829, Fairfield, Vermont, USA d. 18 Nov 1886, New York, New York, USA  (Age 57 years) ▻ Ellen Lewis Herndon,  m. 25 Oct 1859   6. Malvina Arthur   7. William Arthur,   b. 1834   d. 1915  (Age 81 years) ▻ Alice Bridge Jackson   8. George Arthur,   b. Abt 1836   d. Yes, date unknown   9. Mary Arthur   d. 1916 ▻ John Edward McElroy
  Person ID	I74590	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	2 Feb 2001

  
  

  Father	Rev. William Arthur,   b. 5 Dec 1796, the Draen, near Ballymena, Antrim, Éire d. 27 Oct 1875, Newtonville , New York, USA (Age 78 years)
  Mother	Malvina Stone,   b. 1802   d. 1869 (Age 67 years)
  Marriage	12 Apr 1821	Dunham, Quebec, Canada
  Family ID	F30321	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Ellen Lewis Herndon,   b. 30 Aug 1837, Culpeper County, Virginia, USA d. 12 Jan 1880, New York, New York, USA (Age 42 years)
  Marriage	25 Oct 1859	Calvary Church, New York City, New York, USA
  Children	1. William Lewis Herndon Arthur,   b. 10 Dec 1860, New York, New York, USA d. 7 Jul 1863, Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey, USA (Age 2 years)   2. Chester Alan Arthur, Jr.,   b. 25 Jul 1864, New York, New York, USA d. 18 Jul 1937, Colorado Springs, El Paso Co., Colorado, USA (Age 72 years)   3. Ellen (Nell) Herndon Arthur,   b. 21 Nov 1871, New York, New York, USA d. 6 Sep 1915, Mount Kisco, New York, USA (Age 43 years)
  Family ID	F30320	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Aug 2000

  
  

• Event Map	Click to hide
  		Death - 18 Nov 1886 - New York, New York, USA Burial - - Albany, New York, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos

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• Notes

  - US President No. 21 Was never elected; succeeded James A. Garfield after his death following assassination 80 days earlier. His vice-presidents were Thomas F. Bayard, David Davis, and George F. Edmunds, all Presidents per tempore of the Senat. Was not nominated by his party in 1884. Dignified, tall, and handsome, with clean-shaven chin and side-whiskers, Chester A. Arthur "looked like a President." The son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from northern Ireland, Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, in 1829. He was graduated from Union College in 1848, taught school, was admitted to the bar, and practiced law in New York City. Early in the Civil War he served as Quartermaster General of the State of New York. President Grant in 1871 appointed him Collector of the Port of New York. Arthur effectively marshalled the thousand Customs House employees under his supervision on behalf of Roscoe Conkling's Stalwart Republican machine. Honorable in his personal life and his public career, Arthur nevertheless was a firm believer in the spoils system when it was coming under vehement attack from reformers. He insisted upon honest administration of the Customs House, but staffed it with more employees than it needed, retaining them for their merit as party workers rather than as Government officials. In 1878 President Hayes, attempting to reform the Customs House, ousted Arthur. Conkling and his followers tried to win redress by fighting for the renomination of Grant at the 1880 Republican Convention. Failing, they reluctantly accepted the nomination of Arthur for the Vice Presidency. During his brief tenure as Vice President, Arthur stood firmly beside Conkling in his patronage struggle against President Garfield. But when Arthur succeeded to the Presidency, he was eager to prove himself above machine politics. Avoiding old political friends, he became a man of fashion in his garb and associates, and often was seen with the elite of Washington, New York, and Newport. To the indignation of the Stalwart Republicans, the onetime Collector of the Port of New York became, as President, a champion of civil service reform. Public pressure, heightened by the assassination of Garfield, forced an unwieldy Congress to heed the President. In 1883 Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission, forbade levying political assessments against officeholders, and provided for a "classified system" that made certain Government positions obtainable only through competitive written examinations. The system protected employees against removal for political reasons. Acting independently of party dogma, Arthur also tried to lower tariff rates so the Government would not be embarrassed by annual surpluses of revenue. Congress raised about as many rates as it trimmed, but Arthur signed the Tariff Act of 1883. Aggrieved Westerners and Southerners looked to the Democratic Party for redress, and the tariff began to emerge as a major political issue between the two parties. The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and lunatics. Congress suspended Chinese immigration for ten years, later making the restriction permanent. Arthur demonstrated as President that he was above factions within the Republican Party, if indeed not above the party itself. Perhaps in part his reason was the well-kept secret he had known since a year after he succeeded to the Presidency, that he was suffering from a fatal kidney disease. He kept himself in the running for the Presidential nomination in 1884 in order not to appear that he feared defeat, but was not renominated, and died in 1886. Publisher Alexander K. McClure recalled, "No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted, and no one ever retired ... more generally respected."