Richard James Arnold

RICHARD JAMES ARNOLD. Richard James Arnold (1796-1873) acquired nearby White Hall Plantation through his marriage in 1823 to Louise Gindrat. A Rhode Island native, Arnold invested heavily in White Hall for the cultivation of cotton and in his Cherry Hill and Mulberry tracts further up the Ogeechee River on which he became the most prosperous rice planter in the region.

By 1860 Arnold was the largest landowner in Bryan County, with over 15,000 acres and 195 slaves. Arnold was an innovative planter, regarded as being well advanced for his times in terms of his business concepts, his application of scientific principles to his agricultural methods and techniques and his philosophy of plantation and slave management.