ARRINGTON, Alfred W., lawyer, born in Iredell County, North Carolina, in September 1810; died in Chicago, Illinois, 31 December 1867. He was the son of Archibald Arrington, a Whig member of congress from North Carolina from 1841 to 1845. In 1829 young Arrington, who had received a good education in his native state, was received on trial as a Methodist circuit preacher in Indiana, and in 1832-'33 he preached as an itinerant in Missouri, his remarkable mental powers and his eloquence everywhere drawing crowds to hear him. In 1834 he abandoned the ministry and studied law, being admitted soon after to the Missouri bar. He removed in 1835 or 1836 to Arkansas, attained distinction in his profession, and was sent to the legislature. In 1844 he was nominated an elector on the Whig ticket, but withdrew his name, and avowed himself a democrat. Soon afterward he removed to Texas, and in 1850 was elected judge of the 12th district court, over which he presided till 1856. His health failing, he was compelled to seek a more northern climate and removed to Madison, Wisconsin, where he remained but a short time. In 1857 he went to Chicago, which thenceforward was his home. In that city he soon won a very high reputation as a constitutional lawyer, practicing constantly before the United States district and circuit courts and the Supreme Court at Washington. His death was hastened by overwork. He wrote much under the signature of "Charles Summerfield," and was the author of an "Apostrophe to Water," which he puts into the mouth of an itinerant Methodist preacher, and which was often quoted with great effect by John born Gough. A volume of his poems, with a sketch of his character and a memoir, was published in Chicago in 1869. His works in book form include "Sketches of the Southwest," and "The Rangers and Regulators of the Tanaha" (New York, 1857).