Chester Alan Arthur, 21st president of the United States, died November 18, 1886. He was 56.

Arthur was born October 5, 1830 in Fairfield, Vermont. He graduated from Union College in 1848. He became a teacher and a lawyer.

He married Ellen Lewis Herndon on October 25, 1859. They had three children---William, Chester Alan Jr. and Ellen.

When the Civil War began, Arthur was appointed Quartermaster General of New York state. In 1871, President Grant named him Collector of the Port of New York. He remained in that position until President Hayes fired him in 1878.

Arthur ran as a Republican for the vice presidency of the United States in 1880, and succeeded to that office when James Garfield won the presidency.

Five months into Garfield’s term, Arthur became president when Garfield succumbed to wounds suffered from an assassin’s bullet.

One of Arthur’s first acts was the establishment of a Civil Service Commission to hire federal employees on the basis of merit instead of patronage.

Arthur signed the Tariff Act of 1883 to lower trade revenues. And his administration secured the passage of the first all-encompassing Federal immigration law.

Arthur did not actively seek the presidential nomination in 1884, due in part to his failing health. He died of kidney disease on November 18, 1886 in New York.