James Mason Arnold Biography - Mississippi Genealogy Trails

James Mason Arnold

Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, By Dunbar Rowland, B.S., LL.B., LL.D., Press of Hederman Press, Jackson, Mississippi, 1935, pgs 117-119

James Mason Arnold, chief justice of the supreme court of the State of Mississippi, was born in Elbert county, Georgia, October 21, 1838. he was the son of Wilton Jackson Arnold and Edna Ann Beall Arnold.

His parents removed from Georgia to Mississippi during his infancy and settled on a farm. They were unable to educate their large family of children beyond the free schools of Mississippi. Judge Arnold attended the public sixteenth section school of Concord Church on the Starkville road between Columbus and Mayhew. Later, through the interest of Honorable John T. Connell, Thomas Bell, and his son James R. Bell, he was brought to the attention of John A. Foster, afterwards chancellor of the Mobile chancery court district, who was teaching a high school at Monticello, Mississippi. Mr. Foster offered to admit young Arnold to his school without compensation, and to pay him for teaching primary grades several hours of the day. After attending this school for a year he took charge of the school at Concord Church, where he taught for a year. The he entered the University of Mississippi in 1855, graduating in 1858.

While Arnold was a student at the university he heard the joint debate between L. Q. C. Lamar, then a young man of thirty-two years of age, and James L. Alcorn. Lamar was the nominee of the Democratic party for congress, and Alcorn the nominee of the Whigs, and of the debate Judge Arnold wrote the following graphic description:

“While at the university I witnessed a joint political discussion between Gov. James L. Alcorn, who was then the strong and aggressive leader of the Whig party in Mississippi, and Col. L. Q. C. Lamar, in the first race made by Judge Lamar for congress, and in which he was elected over Governor Alcorn. There were thousands of enthusiastic partisans of each side present, and music and beauty and generous rivalry and patriotic ardor lent their attractions to the scene. It was a contest between giants conducted with the utmost courtesy and decorum, over great principles and policies. The older and more experience Whig leader, who had but few equals in his State as a political speaker, spoke well, and conducted his lines of assault defense with consummate skill and ability, but it was generally conceded that he had found his match in the young Harry Percy of Democracy, from Georgia. I have never before or since witness such a discussion. It was an inspiration to everybody, instructive to the young, refreshing to the old, and elevating in all its aspects.”

After leaving the university Arnold returned to the school at Concord Church, and taught there until the outbreak of the War between the States when he resigned to enlist in the Confederate army. He joined a volunteer company, which was ordered into action in the spring of 1861. He served as a private in the Columbus Riflemen, Company K, Fourteenth Mississippi Regiment, throughout the war, except during the period of his imprisonment at Camp Douglas, Chicago, after the fall of Fort Donelson. He was slightly wounded at that battle, but was not in either case disabled for further service/

In 1863, while he was serving in the army, he was elected to the Mississippi legislature, from Lowndes county. He attended the session of the legislature, declining to accept the exemption from military service that the law provided for members of that body, and returned to the army when the sessions were over. He was re-elected to the legislature at the next session after the war. He was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Mississippi. At the end of the term he was reappointed without opposition. Before the expiration of his second term, upon petition from the bar and citizens of the district, he was appointed by the governor of Mississippi to the office of associate justice of the supreme court of the State. Two years later he was made chief justice of the supreme court, holding that position until 1889, when he resigned because of failing health and his desire to get back into the practice of law.

Removing to Birmingham, Alabama, he formed a law partnership with Col. George A. Evans (formerly of Columbus, Miss.), and continued to practice law in that city, until his death. Judge Arnold was twice married; his first wife was Orline Lowry, daughter of Col. And Mrs. Robert Lowry, of Baldwyn, Mississippi. They had two children, Orline Lowry and Jemmy. Judge Arnold’s second wife was Florence Lowry, daughter of Colonel and Mrs. Robert Lowry, of Baldwyn, Mississippi, and this union was blessed with five children: Frances Lowry Arnold who married Ferdinand DeBardeleben; Nellie Louise Arnold who married Jesse LaFayette Drennen; James Mason Arnold, Jr., and Daniel Webster Arnold and Prentiss Arnold who died in infantry.

Judge Arnold was a devout member of the Baptist church and up to the time of his death was the teacher of a large class in the Sunday school of the First Baptist church of Birmingham. He died in Birmingham, Alabama, in July 1897. he belonged to the order of Masons, and was buried at his old home in Columbus, Mississippi, with Masonic honors.