Alexander Arthur

Alexander Alan Arthur (August 30, 1846 – March 4, 1912) was a Scottish-born engineer and entrepreneur active primarily in the southeastern United States in the latter half of the 19th century. Flamboyant, charismatic, and energetic, Arthur used his prominent American and European financial connections to fund numerous business ventures, most of which were overly ambitious and ultimately failed. A proponent of economic advancement in what became known as the New South, Arthur played a primary role in the development of the Cumberland Gap area, and in the course of his endeavors established the cities of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Harrogate, Tennessee. The community of Arthur, Tennessee, is named for him. Later in the same decade, Arthur identified the abundant iron ore deposits in the Cumberland Gap region, and established a multimillion-dollar iron production operation in hopes of making Middlesboro the "Pittsburgh of the South."

While he never experienced great financial success, Arthur's endeavors were a harbinger of the great logging and mining operations that became major economic forces in Southern Appalachia in the early 20th century.

Biography

Early life Alexander Arthur was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the eldest son of Alexander and Catherine Allen Arthur. While Alexander was still a child, the Arthurs moved to Montreal, Canada, although Arthur returned to Glasgow within a few years to attend school. In 1867, Arthur joined the 167th Highlander Regiment, and during the same period married his first wife, Mary Forrest. Arthur moved several times throughout the following decade, living in Norway and Sweden before immigrating to the U.S. city of Boston in 1879. After the death of his first wife, Arthur married Boston socialite Nellie Goodwin, who introduced him to numerous New England financial connections. Dykeman said of Arthur:

... he rode, lord and master, on a shiny black stump-tailed horse over his domain, never settling the bulk of his weight into the saddle, but always standing in the stirrups as if personally overseeing in the wilderness the birth of empire.

Arthur built a large house in Newport— known as "The Mansion"— and made plans to redesign the rough frontier village as an ideal community, complete with parks, clubhouses, hotels, a new town hall, and a college. However, Arthur underestimated the volatility of Appalachian Mountain streams, which swell to many times their size after heavy rains. In Spring 1886, a cloudburst dumped torrential rains into the upper Pigeon Valley, and the river flooded, threatening the boom that held the company's stock of logs. Arthur spent 12 hours in the pouring rain directing efforts to save the boom, but it eventually collapsed, and the logs scattered for miles downstream. An investigation by Scottish Timber blamed Arthur for the loss, determining that he should have foreseen such a flood, and the entire operation folded shortly afterward.

By 1890, Arthur and American Association, Ltd. had spent twenty million dollars on the Cumberland Gap operation, and Arthur's British backers, among them the British Steel Syndicate, began to grow skeptical of Arthur's grand schemes and outrageous spending. They grew even more concerned when the ore deposits in the Yellow Creek Valley were determined to be of low grade, and after the failure of Baring Brothers in 1891, Arthur's British financiers backed out of American Association. The company struggled forward until the Panic of 1893 in the American stock markets brought about a total collapse. American Association's assets were liquidated, with tens of thousand of acres around Middlesboro selling for just fifteen thousand dollars.

In 1897, a group led by General O. O. Howard and Reverend A. A. Myers established Lincoln Memorial University on what remained of the Four Seasons property in Harrogate. The school set up a conservatory in Arthur's house, although an observation tower is all that presently remains of the structure. Affluent Cocke Countians used Arthur's Newport house for decades after his departure, and Scottish Timber's Newport office became a notorious saloon known as the "Last Chance/First Chance." The old Arthur, Tennessee post office is currently on display at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee. With more than 10,000 residents, Middlesboro remains one of the more prominent cities in Southeastern Kentucky.