University of Virginia Library

WILLIAM CREIGHTON CAMPBELL, D. D.

The gentleman whose name captions this article was
born in Gerrardstown, Berkeley County, Virginia,
now West Virginia, and is a son of Hugh Lyle Campbell
and Mary Eliza (Van
Metre) Campbell. His
ancestors have lived in
Berkeley County, West
Virginia and Frederick
County, Virginia, for
nearly two centuries.
On his mother's side his
people were of Dutch
descent, the original
emigrants coming from
Holland to New York in
1630. A century later
John and Isaac Van
Metre migrated from
New York to the Valley
of Virginia, and held the
first grants of land in the
valley. The grant consisted
of about forty thousand acres of the finest lands
lying along the Opequon Creek and the Shenandoah
and Potomac rivers. This was known as the "Great
Grant."

Dr. Campbell's great, great grandfather is said
to have been the first white child born in the Valley of
Virginia, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The will
of John Van Metre, his ancestor, made in 1745, is still
on record in Winchester, Virginia.

On his father's side Dr. Campbell descended from
Scotch and Scotch-Irish ancestry. The Campbells and
Lyles came into the valley about 1760 and settled in
Berkeley and Frederick counties. His ancestors were
active in the early struggles antedating the Revolution.
His great grandfather, James Campbell, was an officer
in the Continental Army and was wounded in one of
the battles in New Jersey. His grandfather, Dougal
Campbell, was a major in the War of 1812. His
maternal grandmother was Sarah Wallace Lyle.

William Creighton Campbell attended the schools of
his native village and in early life determined upon the
ministry as a profession. With this end in view he
entered Hampden-Sydney College and after graduating
from that institution, became a student at the Union
Theological Seminary of Virginia and for three years
studied under such tutors as Robert L. Dabney, B. M.
Smith, Thomas E. Peck, and Henry A. Alexander.
After being ordained as a minister by the Presbytery of
Winchester, he took charge of the Presbyterian Church
at Harpers Ferry and remained there for two years.
In 1881 he received a call and came to Big Lick, now
Roanoke. Here for nearly thirty-one years he has
lived and labored. His church, the First Presbyter