Dignified, tall, and handsome, with clean-shaven chin and side-whiskers, Chester A. Arthur may have looked like an American President, but was he born in America, or Canada? Well, that depends on who you ask.
The son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from northern Ireland, Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, in 1829, but some say he was born in Quebec over the Canadian border the following year in 1930. The main charge is that William Chester Alan Arthur was born in Dunham Flats, Canada, on March, 1828, and that he represented himself to have been born at North Fairfield, Vermont, the birthplace of a younger brother, Chester Abell Arthur, who was born in 1830, and died a year later. It is stated that in 1834 when another son was born he received the name of William Arthur, Jr., and then the name William was dropped by William Chester Alan Arthur, and he was henceforth known as Chester Alan Arthur. The records, copies of which are given, show that in 1845 Chester Alan Arthur entered Union College, stating his age to be 16.
Given the rumors about Obama born in Kenya claims in a bio of Barack Obama and the Arizona Secretary of State looking for more proof Obama was born in Hawaii, this is a reminder that President Obama is not the first president dogged by these rumors of foreign birth, a 2005 blog post explaining the controversy surrounding Chester Arthur’s place of birth.