The Biographical Dictionary of America/Arnold, Isaac Newton

ARNOLD, Isaac Newton, statesman, was born at Hartwick, Otsego county, N. Y., Nov. 30, 1815, son of George W. Arnold, physician, who emigrated from Rhode Island in 1800 and settled in the wilderness of western New York. In 1835 he was admitted to the bar, and the following year removed to the village of Chicago, Ill. When Chicago was organized as a city, he was elected city clerk and subsequently held other municipal offices. He was a representative in the Illinois state legislature, 1842-'43, and in 1856; a presidential elector in 1844, and was elected to the 37th and 38th congresses, serving, 1861-'65. He was appointed an auditor of the U.S. treasury in 1865, and was president of the Chicago historical society for several years. He lectured before literary societies in England and America and published "Life of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery" (1867), and "Life of Benedict Arnold" (1880). He died April 24, 1884.