Untitled From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901- page 545

EVAN ARTHUR, a well-known and esteemed pioneer of Grant county, was born in Tredegar, South Wales, England, about the year 1815. At an early age he was apprenticed to the trade of tool turner in a rolling mill, and before his term of service was over, his father was killed in the mill, leaving a wife and four children, of whom Evan was the youngest. However, the family was left in fair circumstances, and all of the children were given a common-school education in Welsh.

At the age of eighteen Evan ARTHUR left his native land for America, and after a voyage of nine weeks landed in New York city, where he secured a position as master workman in the iron works. Attending night school, he soon perfected himself in the English language. Some years later he was sent to the Pennsylvania rolling mills, and a year and a half later to the rolling mills at Richmond, Va., where he remained about two years. His next removal was to Nashville, Tenn.., where he took charge of a rolling mill, and remained until the gold fever broke out and he migrated to Iowa, settling upon a farm about thirty miles below Dubuque. Later Mr. ARTHUR sold his farm and bought another, about four and one-half miles from Dubuque, at Table Mound. The excitement over the discovery of lead soon induced him to sell his farm and engaged in mining, which pursuit he followed until a few years before his death, March 21, 1881, at the old homestead, at Muscalonge, Grant county. In 1850 Mr. ARTHUR and his eldest son, David, bought a mine at Cassville, Wis., to which place he removed his family in 1851. Later they removed to Beetown, and then to Muscalonge, and then to Muscalonge, where a son, Christmas E. ARTHUR, still resides.

About 1835 Mr. ARTHUR married Martha BIVAN, who bore him eleven children, seven of whom are still living. Mrs. ARTHUR died at Cassville with her infant son, in 1852. Of a happy, jovial disposition, Mr. ARTHUR made many friends, and was a man of deeds as well as words. Early in life he became a devoted Christian, and his first thought in settling in a new home was to organize a church and Sunday-school. When he came to Cassville there were four stores and two saloons, but no school house or church, in the town of 350 souls. Soon after his arrival rooms were secured, a Sunday-school organized, and a minister engaged to come occasionally from Beetown; thus a church was commenced. When it was impossible for the clergyman to be present "Father" ARTHUR, as he was usually called, preached in his stead, and he was afterward ordained as elder, with the privilege of administering the sacraments, burying the dead, and performing the marriage ceremony. The illness of this good man was very short, and his last words were: "I am ready to go. My peace was made with God many years ago."




This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck