Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr - Father of General Douglas MacArthur

Every once in a while, I think about all the famous people who were born or at least had lived in or near Springfield, Massachusetts.  The list is long!  We live in Chicopee, Mass which is a city that until 1848 was part of Springfield.

Springfield is the home of many well known companies: Smith and Wesson, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, the Springfield Armory (which is a National Historic site having been founded by George Washington in 1777 to provide arms for the Revolutionary War), Breck Shampoo, Merriam Webster Dictionary, Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, Indian Motocycle,  Milton Bradley Corp (Milton Bradley himself is buried in the Springfield Cemetery) and many others that most would recognize.  Even Rolls Royce was once manufactured here.  There are several excellent examples of the Rolls' that were built here in Springfield that are housed in the Museum of Springfield History.  Springfield is also the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame as this city is where the game was first played.

All the personalities are too numerous to mention but include Johnny "Appleseed", Samuel Bowles (one of the founders of the Republican Party), Theodor Geissel (Dr Seuss), Kurt Russell (actor), Taj Mahal (blues musician),  Timothy Leary (drug culture guru), James Naismith (inventor of basketball) and Tim Mayotte (professional tennis player).

But today, in response to a request from a fellow blogger, I'm mentioning Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, Jr who was the father of his even more famous son, General Douglas MacArthur.  The elder McArthur was born in what is now Chicopee Falls, Mass when it was part of the larger Springfield, Mass.  I promised that the next time I drove past the memorial in the center of Chicopee Falls (and the weather was good!) that I would take a picture or two of "MacArthur's Ball" and post it here on my blog. So, here they are!

The biographies and careers of both MacArthur's are extensive which is why I've provided the links to their articles on WikiPedia.  And there is certainly plenty more than what can be found there!

The elder MacArthur was the Military Governor-General of the Philippines until he clashed with the civilian Governor, the future president, William Howard Taft.  (Taft, by the way is in my family tree somewhere but only very distantly related.) At the age of 17, he became a commissioned officer in 1862 and saw action in many battles of the Civil War for which he earned the Medal of Honor.  That was when he was 19 years old!  He became a brevetted colonel and became known nationwide as "The Boy Colonel".

After service in the Indian Wars, the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, he returned to the United States as one of the last officers on active duty who had served in the Civil War.

He died in Milwaukee waiting to address a reunion of his Civil War unit.  He suffered a heart attack while on the dais.  Originally buried in Milwaukee, he is now interred at Arlington National Cemetery.  But his impressive memorial stands proudly right here in little old Chicopee, Massachusetts!