Private Arlington McAlpin was born on march 1st, 1832 at Gadsden County, Florida.

He married Margaret Elizabeth (Eliza) Dolan on May 9th, 1859 at Gadsden County Florida. Three months after the marriage, Elizabeth freely relinquished her dower property, formerly given to her by Deed of Gift by her mother, Ellen Dolan. On August 25th, 1859, an inventory of Eliza’s property was conducted to comply with a statute known as “Woman's Law.”[1]

The inventory showed that Ellen Dolan provided nine head of hogs before their marriage and Arlington provided seven head of cows. In 1860, Arlington was living near Quincy, Gadsden County, Florida with Eliza and infant daughter, Mary who was born about a month before the 1860 US Census was conducted.

Arlington was farmer, owning real estate valued at $200 and a personal worth of $400. He enlisted in Captain Davidson’s Company on March 19th, 1862 and mustered out of service on April 26th, 1865.

Arlington returned to Gadsden County; Eliza bore him another seven children.

Arlington died at the age of 70 on December 9th, 1902, and is interred at McAlpin Cemetery. Chattahoochee, Gadsden County, Florida.

[1] Under the “Women’s Law”, married women were allowed to own (but not control) property in their own name. Florida's statute, probably resulting from Florida’s Spanish civil law heritage, appears to have been the result of a desire to protect marriage arrangements made under civil law before the territory became a state in 1845. See “W. Cord, “A Treatise on the Legal and Equitable Rights of Married Women 719 (1861); E. Warbasse, supra note 2, at 77, 163.”