Arthur Olaf Christensen

Biography

Of the five children, Arthur was the most inclined to strike out on his own. For years, he seemed to resist returning to Beaufort. Educated at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he did not seem to know what to do with his life. For a period of time, he jumped from job to job. For a few years after finishing his education, he traveled throughout the United States and South America working on mining projects. For a period of time he lived in New Jersey and worked as the manager of the Stoneware Electric Stove Works in New York and traveled from door to door trying to sell stoves. Perhaps in some ways, he was most like his grandfather, Reuben Holmes, in that he possessed a wandering spirit and could not, or did not want to, settle down. He was briefly married from approximately 1912 to 1916 to a woman named Helen Eddy. They had a son, Minot; however, after the divorce not a word was mentioned about the marriage or the child. Arthur married Lillian Dutton and had two daughters, Cornelia and Carroll.

Source: Christensen Family Papers 1806-1999 Selected Chronologies

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Profile written by Arthur Christensen

I left Harvard the middle of my junior year, partly because the Massachusetts Institute of Technology seemed a better place to pursue mining, and partly because the dean and I could not see things from a common ground. I finished the course of mining at the Massachusetts Institute ol Technology in 1907, but did not receive a degree until 1908. I spent two years gaining practical experience at mining throughout the West. In 1909 I took a position as mine superintendent of a mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. I was very successful in bringing a mine in bad shape into a prosperous condition. The outlook was so bright that I came to the United States and married, expecting to spend at least several years at that mine. The revolution soon drove us away as it became unsafe for my wife there. Since leaving Mexico in 1912, I have been a rolling stone with a four years stroke of bad luck. I worked as miner, etc., gaining experience, was mine foreman of a gold mine in Canada and another in South Dakota then held the same position for the New Jersey Zinc Company at Franklin, N.J. for two years. I am now occupied in developing and exploiting a line of electric stoves of my own get up. 

Source: Harvard College Class of 1906 Secretary's Third Report By Harvard College (1780- ). Class of 1906

• Link:https://books.google.com/books?id=PMgnAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA79&lpg=PA79&dq=...