# James Arkell

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{{Short description|American businessman and politician (1829–1911)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
 | name           = James Arkell
 | image_upright  = 
 | alt            = 
 | caption        = 
 | order          = 
 | office         = [New York State Senator](/source/New_York_State_Senate)<br>18th District
 | status         = <!--If this is specified, overrides Incumbent.-->
 | term_start     = 1884
 | term_end       = 1885
 | alongside      = <!--For two or more people serving in the same position from the same district.  (e.g. United States senators.)-->
 | president      = [Benjamin Harrison](/source/Benjamin_Harrison), [Grover Cleveland](/source/Grover_Cleveland)
 | governor       = Grover Cleveland, [David B. Hill](/source/David_B._Hill)
 | constituency   = 
 | predecessor    = [Alexander B. Baucus](/source/Alexander_B._Baucus)
 | successor      = [Edward Wemple](/source/Edward_Wemple)
 | birth_name     = <!-- only use if different from name -->
 | birth_date     = October 16, 1829
 | birth_place    = [Oxford, England](/source/Oxford%2C_England)
 | death_date     = {{Death date and age|1911|02|28|1829|10|16}}
 | death_place    = [New York](/source/New_York_(state))
 | death_cause    = <!-- should only be included when the cause of death has significance for the subject's notability -->
 | citizenship    = <!-- use only when necessary per [WP:INFONAT](/source/WP%3AINFONAT) -->
 | party          = [Republican Party](/source/Republican_Party_(United_States))
 | other_party    = <!--For additional political affiliations-->
 | spouse         = Sarah Hall Bartlett Arkell
 | children       = 
 | parents        = 
 | mother         = Mary Arkell
 | father         = William Arkell
 | relatives      = 
 | education      = 
 | alma_mater     = 
 | occupation     = Businessperson, politician, investor, inventor
 | profession     = 
 | known_for      = Inventing mass production of the [paper bag](/source/paper_bag)
 | salary         = 
 | cabinet        = 
 | committees     = 
 | portfolio      = 
 | awards         = <!-- For civilian awards - appears as "Awards" if |mawards= is not set -->
 | signature      = 
 | signature_alt  = 
 | signature_size = 
 | website        = 
 | footnotes      = 
}}

'''James Arkell''' (October 16, 1829 – February 28, 1911) was an American politician who served as a [Senator of New York](/source/List_of_senators_of_New_York) from 1884 until 1885.<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/><ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/> He also operated a large paper bag manufacturing plant in [Canajoharie, New York](/source/Canajoharie%2C_New_York), and invented the machines used in the factories.<ref name="1:19:nyt:1884"/><ref name="1:16:nyt:1884"/> He was granted thirty-two patents for the manufacturing of paper bags.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

==Early life and education==
James Arkell was born in [Oxford, England](/source/Oxford%2C_England) on October 16, 1829, to William and Mary Arkell.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/> The family later moved to [Canajoharie, New York](/source/Canajoharie%2C_New_York),<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946">{{Citation
| title = Bartlett Arkell, Food Packer, Dies
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| pages = 22
| date = October 14, 1946
| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/10/14/93158813.html?pageNumber=22
| archive-url = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> to Arkell farm east of Canajoharie village, and Arkell was educated in the school and academy in the town.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

==Career==
===Newspapers and factories===
While working on the farm, he frequently contributed to the ''Canajoharie Radii'' newspaper, which Arkell and L. F. Allen then bought from [Levi Backus](/source/Levi_Backus) in 1863. He was editor of the ''Canajoharie Radii'' until 1866, when he sold his interest in the ''Canajoharie Radii'' paper to Angell Mattewson. He also remained a writer in his later years, and contributed articles to ''[Leslie's Weekly](/source/Leslie's_Weekly)''.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

In 1859, he became interested in the manufacturing of flour bags, and that year he printed his first bags on a hand press in the ''Radii'' printing office. His father supported his bag business, Arkell & Smith, as the price of cotton cloth became expensive during the [Civil War](/source/American_Civil_War), and Arkell experimented until he had created a manila paper sack that was as durable as a cotton one.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/> Deciding to focus entirely on paper bags because of the high price of cotton bags, he opened the plant of Arkell & Smiths and Canajoharie.<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/>

He was granted thirty-two patents for the manufacturing of paper bags. In 1873, the bag factory suffered an explosion, with a worker dying and the factory destroyed. Arkell's son William J. Arkell was also badly burned. A more modern factory was erected on the same site.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

===New York Senate===
{{See also|107th New York State Legislature|108th New York State Legislature}}
Arkell was active in public affairs and served in the New York Senate<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/> for one term<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925">{{Citation
| last = Greene
| first = Nelson
| author-link = 
| title = Vol. III, pp. 22-26 of History of the Mohawk Valley: Gateway to the West 1614-1925
| publisher = Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company / Schenectady County Public Library
| year = 1925
| url = https://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/mvgw/bios/arkell_james.html
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> as a Republican.<ref name="1:5:richardson:2010">{{Citation
| last = Richardson
| first = Heather Cox
| author-link = 
| title = Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre
| publisher = Basic Books
| date = May 25, 2010
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7JNMy_RzNHsC&dq=%22James+Arkell%22+senator&pg=PA93
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> He was elected senator for the eighteenth senatorial district in 1883.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

As of 1885, he was serving as a New York senator and along with his son W. J. Arkell, then the proprietor of the Albany ''Evening Journal'', were both supporting [William M. Evarts](/source/William_M._Evarts) to Senate. That year,  ''[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)'' described the senior Arkell as "reported to be a regal entertainer. He is of English stock, one of the family traditions linking an ancestor with the Royal Plantagenets, and the hospitalities of his race have lost none of their generosity by lapse of time."<ref name="1:16:nyt:1884">{{Citation
| title = The Senatorial Contest
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| pages = 1
| date = December 17, 1884
| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/12/17/106289669.html?pageNumber=1
| archive-url = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> He hosted a series of tea parties to rally support for Evarts' US senatorial bid.<ref name="1:19:nyt:1884">{{Citation
| title = Starting an Evarts Boom - The Ex-Secretary to be a secon choice candidate - how Senator Arkell proposes to run his campaign - claims of the Platt-Morton-Erwin combination
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| date = December 16, 1884
| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/12/16/106289458.html?pageNumber=1
| archive-url = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref>

===After senatorship===
As of 1886, James Arkell had a firm, Arkell & Smith.<ref name="1:3:jstor:1947"/>

Around 1879, Louis Paul Juvet partnered with James Arkell and businessman A.G. Richmond to mass-produce around 60 variations of his invented time globes, which were built at a Canajoharie factory.<ref name="1:11:posstar:2014">{{Citation
| last = Gruse
| first = Doug
| title = Upstate New Yorkers had hand in changing the clock
| publisher = [The Post-Star](/source/The_Post-Star)
| date = April 20, 2014
| url = https://poststar.com/news/local/museum-files-upstate-new-yorkers-had-hand-in-changing-the-clock/article_2b0e45f6-c8cd-11e3-9e23-0019bb2963f4.html
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> The factories burned in 1886, ending production of the object.<ref name="1:8:americanhistory">{{Citation
| title = Juvet Time Globe
| publisher = [National Museum of American History](/source/National_Museum_of_American_History)
| url = https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1203340
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref>

As of 1887, Arkell continued to be known as a paper bag manufacturer out of Canajoharie, and had been recently named as a principal stockholder of the [Saratoga, Mount McGregor and Lake George Railroad](/source/Saratoga%2C_Mount_McGregor_and_Lake_George_Railroad). He also remained a chief proprietor of the Albany ''Evening Journal'', a journal that had reportedly long supported Governor Hill.<ref name="1:17:nyt:1887"/> On March 2, 1887, Governor Hill named James Arkell to replace Railroad Commissioner [John O'Donnell](/source/John_O'Donnell_(Lewis_County%2C_New_York)) when the latter's term expired January 29, 1886. ''The New York Times'' called the nomination "scandalous" due to the governor's apparent enmity to O'Donnell, with the ''Times'' calling Arkell "a follower of the fortunes of the [Platt](/source/Thomas_C._Platt)-[Morton syndicate](/source/Levi_P._Morton)," a collection of New York senators.<ref name="1:17:nyt:1887">{{Citation
| title = Gov. Hill Nominates a Railroad Commissioner - Ex-Senator Arkell Named for Mr. O'Donnell's Place - A New Deal Shrewdly Planned
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| date = March 2, 1887
| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1887/03/03/100897341.html?pageNumber=5
| archive-url = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref>

In September 1897, he was elected to the board of the National Paper Sack Company, along with ten other people.<ref name="1:20:nyt:1897">{{Citation
| title = National Paper Sack Company
| newspaper = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| date = September 16, 1897
| url = https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/09/17/102543335.html?pageNumber=5
| archive-url = 
| archive-date = 
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref>

==Personal life and family==
Married on July 23, 1853,<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/> James and his wife Sarah Hall (Bartlett) Arkell<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/><ref name="1:3:jstor:1947"/> had their first child, Bartlett Arkell, on June 10, 1862.<ref name="1:3:jstor:1947">{{Citation
| last = Bent
| first = Flora E.
| title = Obituaries - New York History - Vol 28, No 1
| publisher = Cornell University Press
| date = January 1947
| jstor = 23148207
| url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/23148207
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref> Bartlett died in 1946.<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/> Their son William J. Arkell was head of the Arkell News Company,<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/> and the couple also had three daughters.<ref name="1:21:nyt:1946"/>

In March 1887, ''The New York Times'' reported that Arkell's daughter, Laura Arkell, had been disinherited by her father after she determined to marry John C. Ilse, a business superintendent from Canajoharie, against Arkell's objections. However, that month she came of age and she gained access to $20,000 bequeathed to her by her deceased uncle Leonard Carter, and was instead escorted by her other uncle John Forsberg for the marriage ceremonies.<ref name="1:1:nyt:1887">{{Citation
| title = Romance of 'The Mikado': the Daughter of Ex-Senator Arkell Married for Love
| work = [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)
| date = March 18, 1887
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1887/03/18/archives/romance-of-the-mikado-the-daughter-of-exsenator-arkell-married-for.html
| access-date =May 26, 2023}}</ref>

James Arkell died on August 12, 1902, at the age of 72, in Canajoharie. His wife Sarah died on February 28, 1911.<ref name="1:13:schemectadyhistory:1925"/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Politics}}
*[List of New York state senators](/source/List_of_New_York_state_senators)
*[Frank Barbour](/source/Frank_Barbour)

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-ny-sen}}
{{succession box | before = [Alexander B. Baucus](/source/Alexander_B._Baucus) | title = [New York State Senate](/source/New_York_State_Senate) <br>18th District | years = 1884–1885 | after = [Edward Wemple](/source/Edward_Wemple)}}
{{s-end}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arkell, James}}
Category:1829 births
Category:1902 deaths
Category:New York (state) Republicans
Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [James Arkell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Arkell) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Arkell?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.