William W. Arnold

William W. Arnold (commonly "W. W."; August 28, 1843 – March 30, 1923) was a physician better known across the country for his avocation as an ornithologist. Born in Connersville, Indiana, he initially practiced medicine near Rushville, Indiana. In 1886, he visited Colorado and decided he would like to move there and he settled in Colorado Springs in October of that year. He operated a practice in downtown Colorado Springs and compounded medicine for his patients. He is best known as the founder and operator of a bird hospital, where he cared for ill and injured birds. He took care of domestic birds and had a large influx of wild birds after bad weather, like hail storms. He wrote articles about nature and birds, and he gave talks about them to school children in Colorado and Indiana. He worked as a physician and caregiver for the bird hospital until shortly before his death at age 79. Early years Arnold was born August 28, 1843, in Connersville, Indiana. His father, Dr. John Arnold, born in 1815, came to the United States in 1820 or 1821 from the Isle of Wight. John had a medical practice at Connersville. His mother, Sara Ann Ball, descended from Davis Ball, an American Revolutionary War soldier, and Mary Hatfield. He had an older sister Mary and a younger brother John. He was raised in Union Township, Rush County, Indiana, where the Arnolds were pioneers and had a farm. Arnold was among the first students to a school that was established in 1847 by a well-educated minister, George Campbell. Within a year or two, a larger academy was built in Fairview to manage the influx of school children. Physician In 1869, he treated a girl of pneumonia after her grandfather, a medicine man, had failed. In appreciation, Arnold was given a long-stemmed pipe and bear claw necklace and was adopted by the Chippewas of the Crow Wing Reservation in Minnesota. He and his fathers were members of the Indiana State Medical Society and were from Rushville.