Samuel P. Campbell

SOURCE: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889
Contributed by Michael Brown
18 Oct 1998

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SEBASTIAN COUNTY
page 1299

Samuel P. Campbell was born in Cumberland County, Ky., July 6, 1832. Samuel Campbell, the father, who was born in Virginia, of Scotch parents, went to Kentucky when young, where he lived about twenty-five years, and engaged in farming, manufacturing tobacco and distilling. While there he married Miss Christina Pevehouse, whose parents had immigrated to that country from Pennsylvania. She was of German descent. They there became the parents of nine children: George W., Adam P., William J., Dudly F., Joseph F., Cyrus W., Louisa J., Chloe E., and Samuel P., the subject of this sketch, who is the youngest of the family. In 1834 they immigrated, with all their children, to the Territory of Arkansas, and settled on the bank of a river of the same name, in what is now Crawford County, a few miles below the town of Van Buren, where they lived ten years and opened a large farm, but unfortunately were broken up by the great flood of 1844, after which they moved to the south side of the river, where they both died within two years, well stricken in age. Benjamin Campbell, the grandfather, emigrated from Scotland in the days of the colonies, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and had many fights with the Indians in the [p.1299] settling of Kentucky and Virginia. He once came to Arkansas, to visit his son, Samuel, while in his dotage, and soon after died, near Versailles, Mo., in his one hundred and sixth year. Samuel P., the son and grandson of Benjamin and Samuel, was but two years old when brought to Arkansas, and states that the first thing he can remember of this life was living in a camp on the bank of the Arkansas River, when his elder brothers wounded a deer and caught it with the dogs near the camp, giving him the worst scare he hasever had. During the ten years of his stay on the place he was taught to work at everything then necessary on a farm. During the time he was boarded out, and sent to several sessions at school. At the death of his parents he lived with a brother, going to school at times. At the age of nineteen he joined a band of gold seekers at Fort Smith, bound for the Pacific Slope, while the gold fever was at its greatest height. A few days later the train of 130 wagons and 300 men started on their 2,000 mile journey through what was then a wilderness, where there was nothing known but deserts, mountains, wild beasts and Indians. After a six months' journey and many hardships the survivors reached the settlements of California. When the winter was over Samuel P. took stock in the Bullion Fluming Company. The summer past, the next winter was spent in prospecting, the river claim being worked out, and some money was cleared. For five years Mr. Campbell engaged in different mining companies, lastly in the Lone Star Tunnel Company, and in 1857 sold his interest, and came back home by the way of Panama, Cuba and New York. After his return he engaged in trading and hauling bacon from Sebastian County to Fort Worth, Texas, for about two years, and on the 22d of January, 1860, he married Laura P., daughter of Dr. C. P. H. Ake. Mrs. Campbell was born January 8, 1840, and was a native of Arkansas. She became the mother of six children: Henry A., William A., Cyrus W. and Martha C. now living; Eugene P. and Ernest F. deceased. She died February 14, 1877. Mr. Campbell lived a widower about five years, and on the 23d of July, 1882, he married Tennessee McClendon, a widow, daughter of Wiley O'Neal, of Tennessee. She is the mother of two children, Oscar J. and Emmer C. McClendon. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell belong to the Missionary Baptist Church, and the former belongs to the Masonic fraternity and the Agricultural Wheel. He was one of the first settlers near Biswel Springs, now famous in Sebastian County as the great camp ground. Mr. Campbell settled near Union Grove, where he now lives, in 1867. He has 400 acres of land, 100 in cultivation and well stocked.