History
Arnold was incorporated in 1972, and is named after George Arnold, the
city's first postmaster. Four communities merged with Arnold, and their old
names still have some currency: Beck (named after local farmer Emmanual
Beck), Flamm City, Maxville (named after Max Stengel, first business owner),
and Ten Brook (named after landowner John Ten Brook).[citation needed]
The first European settler in Arnold was Jean Baptiste Gamache, who
operated a ferry boat across the Meramec River in exchange for 1050
arpents of land granted by the King of Spain. This ferry was on the King's
Trace or El Camino Real, (royal road), from St. Louis, Missouri, to Ste.
Genevieve, Missouri. This road became known as Telegraph after 1850, after
the first telegraph lines in the state were put along it