501 N Main St, Louisburg, NC 27549, United States
Archibald was educated at Bobbit's celebrated Louisburg Academy.
501 N Main St, Louisburg, NC 27549, United States
Archibald was educated at Bobbit's celebrated Louisburg Academy.
congressman lawyer military politician
Archibald Hunter Arrington was born on November 13, 1809, in Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina, United States. He was the son of John and Elizabeth Mann Arrington. His father was an influential and wealthy planter of Nash County who had served in the state senate and who, on his death in 1830, willed his three children, Samuel Lewis, Elizabeth Ann Williams, and Archibald Hunter, over sixty slaves and extensive property and money.
Archibald was educated in the local schools of Nash County and at Bobbit's celebrated Louisburg Academy. He studied law under Judge William H. Battle.
Prior to the Civil War, Archibald Hunter Arrington was a lawyer and planter with large landholdings.
From 1841 to 1845, he served as a Democrat from North Carolina in the United StatesHouse of Representatives. He lost a bid for reelection in 1844. Arrington, a secessionist, voted for secession as a delegate to the state convention in 1861.
In a vicious campaign, he defeated Josiah Turner for the First Confederate Congress. He served on the Indian Affairs and Special Committees and was frequently absent from Richmond.
He lost a bid for reelection in 1863. Arrington managed to continue planting and produced food for the North Carolina army. He retired to private life and his political career seems to have stopped in 1863.
He was one of the earliest North Carolinians to request a pardon from President Andrew Johnson. In 1866, he was a delegate to the Union national convention in Philadelphia. Little else is known of his postwar public life, except for his flirtation with the Republican party.
Arrington was also a county commissioner in 1868 and chairman of the Court of Common Pleas for Nash County. He had saved his large estate and spent much of his private life managing his holdings.
Standing as a staunch Democrat when that party was very much in the minority in the state, Arrington was elected to the Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses.
As a congressman, he opposed a majority of the Davis legislation.
Archibald's personal life, characterized by a hospitable and industrious nature, a passion for blooded horses, and a strong consciousness of family ties, was typical of his class.
Archibald was married twice. His's first wife, Mary Jones Arrington, was the daughter of Peter Arrington, purportedly the richest man in Nash County, and the mother of Mary Arrington Thorpe and John Peter. Arrington's second wife, Kate Wimberly, who was the daughter of Robert D. Wimberly of Edgecombe County, bore him nine children, of whom six sons lived to maturity.
1764-1844
1806-1878
1808-1851
1820-1851
1834-1871
1849-1883
1851-1904
1856-1872
1857-1918
1858-1892
1860-1918
1863-1928
1864-1885
1865-1866
1867-1897
