Eclectic Ann: Small Town to Automotive Executive

Oscar Lee Arnold 1888-1956

I ran across some interesting information, I know, I say that a lot! But I was looking at some census hints in my tree and saw one for Oscar Lee Arnold which led me to other hints about him.

Oscar was born on Sep 19, 1888 in Bedford, PA, the oldest child of Harry Spang Arnold (a carpenter) and Martha Lee. One census states that Oscar completed the 8^th grade, but by 1910, he was working as a bookkeeper in an office in Pittsburgh. He was listed as single, but later, on Jun 30, 1910 in Wilkinsburg, he married Lila Moore of Johnstown. Oscar and Lila had three daughters all born in Pittsburgh. Oscar’s WW1 draft registration from 1917 shows him living in Houston, Texas and employed as a manager for Ford Motor Company and he was claiming an exemption from military service stating his dependent family and job in the industrial area. He must have been granted that exemption or not drafted at all because there is no record of him having served. Ford’s Houston assembly plant operated from 1914 – 1932. It did produce war materials from 1917-1918 including boats, trucks and cannons and was developing armor technologies for equipment and men. Oscar must have been transferred and was working as a Manager for the Ford company while living at 53 N. Fremont Ave in the Bellevue neighborhood of Pittsburgh according to the 1920 census. Ford had an assembly plant in Pittsburgh from 1915 – 1932. It was located at Baum Blvd & Morewood Ave. By 1930, the family had moved to Detroit and Oscar has risen to Vice President of a truck division. They lived at 19180 Canterbury Rd, an affluent neighborhood in Detroit, as the house they lived in had a value of $40,000 at that time (selling for over $500,000 in 2022) and they also list a house servant as living with them. In 1940, the census shows that the family moved once again, (minus the older daughter Helen who had gotten married in 1933) to Chicago where Oscar is listed as a Sales Manager for an automobile company, possible General Motors. Oscar’s 1942 WW2 Draft Registration card shows him as working for the Nash-Kelvinator Corp in Detroit at age 51. During World War 2, this company manufactured many different things needed for the war effort, from helicopters to propellors to binoculars. His youngest daughter, Marion, married an Army officer in 1943 and by 1950, Oscar had retired from the Nash automobile company and lived in the Biltmore Forest neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina. After 7 years of retirement, Oscar passes away from a cerebral hemorrhage on Apr 24, 1956 in Asheville. Oscar’s middle child, Marie, lived with her parents her entire life and lived with her mother after Oscar’s death until her own passing in 1972. Lila, her mother passed in 1974 still living on Busbee Rd where they had retired to in 1949.

I found Oscar interesting because he was said to be a personal friend of Henry Ford. Remember, the Ford company was still young, founded in 1903, when Oscar began working there. So did Oscar meet Henry Ford somehow in Pittsburgh or maybe on a business trip to Detroit or after he began working in Detroit? That would be interesting to know. Imagine the conversations! According to various news articles about Oscar’s death, he worked for the Ford Company in Pittsburgh and Detroit. Then later at General Motors and finally retired as president of the Nash Motor Company in 1949. All of this with an 8^th grade education. I did find one article in a Bedford newspaper that listed an Oscar Arnold on the Honor Roll in the Bedford Schools in 1901. Oscar would have been 13. I wonder what possible further education he may have had to be able to work as a bookkeeper in 1910? Maybe self-taught? Or a business school course? Obviously, self-made and driven to succeed.

Our relationship to Oscar is that his grandfather, Henry Wertz Arnold, was my 3^rd great grandfather making us 1^st cousins 3 times removed. Not all that distant if you consider that Oscar was Ralph Arnold’s (our great grandfather) 1^st cousin.

In writing this, which was originally going to just be a short paragraph about a cousin who knew Henry Ford, I came up with more and more questions about the things I was finding out. I won’t put it all in here, but if anyone is interested in the Nash Company, as I became, here are a few links. I never knew most of this.

http://www.usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/nash-kelvinator.htm

https://carshowsafari.com/from-cars-to-planes-and-back-again-part-five/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Motors