Arthur Robert Beidelman was born August 8, 1878, in Wheatland Township, Will County, Illinois, the son of Sylvester G. “West” Beidelman and Louisa Eichelberger.
Arthur went to work at the age of 17 for his uncle Fred Long at the Naperville Lounge Factory where it was his job to care for the horses and haul lounges to the freight station in Naperville and surrounding towns. He moved to Belvidere and was employed for several months by the Willard & Schmidt Furniture and Undertaking business as an embalmer.
He returned to Naperville in 1900 and again was employed by the Naperville Lounge Company as a traveling salesman and then an upholsterer.
Arthur attended a school of embalming in Chicago and became a licensed undertaker. In 1906 he started his own undertaking and monument business.
Arthur married Edwidge Adelia Cora Yundt on January 14, 1914, in Chicago at the home of her parents, Perry Keller Yundt and Loure Cordelia Schwarz. They had no children.
He opened his Memorial Lawn Studio at the corner of Ogden Avenue and Sleight Street in 1936, which served as a display center for his monument works. His monument and undertaking business lasted almost 50 years.
Arthur donated the marble pedestal tops for the Naperville Masonic Lodge room in 1909 and donated the cornerstone for the Masonic Lodge when the building was erected in 1916. Cornerstones for the Masonic Lodges in Aurora, LaGrange and Downers Grove were donated by Arthur as well as the cornerstones for the Naperville YMCA and numerous churches in Naperville and the surrounding area.
Arthur also donated marble, cement vases, and benches for the Shrine at St. Joseph’s Health Resort in Wedron, IL, where he had been a patient. He supplied nearly 40 bronze tablets for the marking of historical sites, notably the DuPage County Courthouse and our City’s first Board of Aldermen.
He served Naperville as First Ward Alderman from 1907 to 1912 and Commissioner of Public Property from 1915 to 1919. Arthur purchased the Hattendorf Granite Works of Wheaton in 1919 and operated that business along with his Naperville business that had been located at 318 S. Washington Street.
Arthur served as a Naperville School Board member from 1932 to 1934. He was raised as a Master Mason on November 23, 1908, and exalted a Royal Arch Mason July 6, 1916. Arthur was also a member of the Knights Templar, the Shrine, Order of Eastern Star, Moose, and the Odd Fellows.
Arthur Robert Beidelman died June 2, 1951, in Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois. Funeral services were held in the First Methodist Church of Naperville and Arthur was buried in the Naperville Cemetery.
