University of Virginia Library

DAVID CAMPBELL.

Of all the family names of Scotland, there is hardly another so invested
with lustre in the varied manifestations of human greatness, so
renowned for valorous deeds, or so proudly enshrined in the national
affection, as that of Campbell: and the race transplanted in America
has flourished alike, and in its distinguished representatives, by numerously
attested examples, has lost naught of that which constitutes true
nobility; for in every department of learning and of useful service, and
in heroism by sea and land, has the name lent honor to our national
annals.

It is believed that a majority of those in this country, of the name,
who claim Scottish origin, are descended from Duncan Campbell, of
the noble branch of Breadalbane.[20] Duncan Campbell, born in Inverary,
Scotland, accompanied, it is thought, the English army sent by
Queen Elizabeth, in March, 1579, under the Earl of Essex (who was
succeeded by Mountjoy), to suppress the rebellion in Ireland, headed
by Hugh O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone. After the forfeiture of lands in
Ulster was declared in the reign of James I., in 1612, Duncan Campbell,
who had married Mary McCoy, bought a lease from one of the
English officers, and remained there. His son Patrick bought the lease
and the estate in remainder, thus acquiring the estate in fee simple.
Another son, John Campbell, born in 1621; married, in 1655, Grace,
daughter of Peter Hay,[21] and had issue:

i. Dugald, whose descendants settled in Rockbridge County, Virginia.

ii. Robert, born in 1665; married in 1696. His descendants settled
in Orange (now Augusta) County, Virginia, in 1740.

iii. John, born in 1666; died in 1734; emigrated to America in 1726,
and settled in Donegal, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, but soon removed
with several of his family to that part of Orange County, Virginia,
which in 1738 was formed into Augusta County. Had issue:
i. Patrick, born in 1690; "a strong churchman;" removed to Virginia
in 1738, and was the father of General William Campbell, the hero of
King's Mountain (after whom the county of Campbell, formed in 1784
from Bedford, was named), born in 1745, and was killed in September,
1781; married Elizabeth, the sister of the orator Patrick Henry, and
she married, secondly, General William Russell, of the Revolution,
born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1758, and died in Fayette
County, Kentucky, July 3, 1825. ii. John, born in 1692; a minister
of the Protestant Episcopal Church at York, Pennsylvania; died in
1764; married, and had issue: James, born in 1731; removed to Virginia

in 1760; Ellen Frances, and John, born in 1740; died in 1797;
one of the most eminent lawyers of Pennsylvania; married Ellen Parker,
and their descendants in the names of Lyon, Chambers, and others,
are quite numerous. The late Parker Campbell, banker of Richmond,
Virginia, was a son. iii. Robert, migrated to Virginia; had issue five
children, of whom four daughters survived. iv. William, died in youth.
v. James, died in England. vi. David, married, in 1735, Mary Hamilton
(who came to America in the same ship with him), and, about
the year 1772, settled at the "Royal Oak," in the Valley of the Holstein
(now rendered Holston), about one mile west of Marion, the
county seat of Smyth County. He left issue seven sons: i. John, born
April 20, 1741. ii. Colonel Arthur, born in 1742; hero of Indian wars;
married a sister of General William Campbell; removed in 1804 to Yellow
Creek, Knox County, Kentucky, where he died in 1815. He had two
sons, who died in the war of 1812—Colonel James Campbell, at Mobile,
and Colonel John B. Campbell, who fell at Chippewa, where he commanded
the right wing of the army under General Winfield Scott.
iii. James; iv. William; v. David, first clerk of Washington County,
which office he held until March 17, 1779, when he was succeeded by
his brother John. Removing to Tennessee, he became distinguished in
its annals. vi. Robert, Colonel, and Indian fighter, born in 1755; displayed
great bravery in many conflicts with the Cherokees, and subsequently
at the battle of King's Mountain; nearly forty years a magistrate
of Washington County, and in 1825 removed to Tennessee; died
near Knoxville in February, 1832. vii. Patrick.

Of the above sons of David Campbell, the eldest-born, John, was
one of the justices (commissioned by Governor Patrick Henry) who,
after the county of Washington (embracing portions of Wythe, Tazewell
and Grayson, and all of Smyth, Russell, Buchanan, Dickinson,
Wise, Scott and Lee, and its own present limits) had been formed in
1776, met at Abingdon and organized and held the first county court,
January 28, 1777. He succeeded, March 17, 1779, his brother David
Campbell as clerk of the county, and continued to hold the office by
successive re-election until 1814. In 1778 he married Elizabeth, daughter
of Edward and Mary (Robinson) McDonald,[22] of the section of what is
now Botetourt County, Virginia, and, it is said, built the first dwelling in
Abingdon (a log-house), on the lot on which the Arlington Hotel now stands.
In 1788 he purchased of Thomas Madison, attorney of James Buchanan,
a farm of eleven hundred acres in the south-western portion of Washington
County, to which he gave the name of "Hall's Bottom," and shortly

after removed to and continued to reside there until his death, on the
20th of April, 1825. David Campbell, his eldest son, and the subject
of this sketch, was born August 2d, 1779, at "Royal Oak," and was
about eight years of age when his father removed to "Hall's Bottom."
There he grew up, receiving such education as the frontier settlements
could provide. In the way of books it was necessarily limited, but this
great disadvantage was largely compensated for by the character of the
people among whom he was reared; by their recitals of the scenes and
deeds of the Revolution, in which they bore so conspicuous and important
a part, and which were then but as the acts of yesterday; and
by the lessons of self-reliance which were taught by all his surroundings.
In 1794, being then in his fifteenth year, David Campbell was
appointed an Ensign in "old" Captain John Davis' company of militia
in the 2d Battalion of the 70th Regiment, which position he held until
he removed to Abingdon as an assistant in the clerk's office there. In
the spring of 1799 the 70th Regiment was divided and the 105th Regiment
formed. In the 2d Battalion of this regiment David Campbell
was commissioned as Captain of a company of Light Infantry assigned
to it, and which he raised and organized In the fall of the same year
Captain Campbell married his cousin Mary Hamilton, by whom he had
no issue. He now studied law, and obtained a license, but never practiced
his profession. He was fond of reading (history and the English
classics being his special favorites), and thus enriched his mind and
acquired his style of written composition. In 1802 he was appointed
deputy clerk of the county court of Washington County, and chiefly
discharged the duties of the office to the year 1812, on the 6th of
July of which he was commissioned a Major in the 12th Infantry,
United States Army. He assisted Colonel Parker in collecting recruits,
organizing and drilling them at Winchester, and marched with his command
for the Lakes of Canada on the 29th of August, and efficiently
served there under the command successively of Generals Smyth and
Van Rensellaer. On the 12th of March, 1813, he was promoted to the
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 20th United States Regiment and
participated in the arduous campaigns of that regiment on the St. Lawrence
and towards Lake Champlain. The troops on the Northern
frontier were greatly exposed during the campaigns of 1812 and 1813,
and the constitution of Colonel Campbell, naturally delicate, gave way
under the hardships to which he was exposed. He was so severely attacked
with rheumatism as to incapacitate him for duty, and in consequence
applied to the Secretary of War for a transfer to the Southern
Division of the Army. His application was recommended by his superior
officers, Colonel Randolph and General Parker, but from some
cause was disapproved by the Secretary of War, and Colonel Campbell
was necessitated to resign his commission January 28th, 1814. Upon
returning home, he in a short time entered the service of Virginia as
Aide-de-Camp to Governor Barbour, and gave valuable assistance in organizing
the large militia force called into service in the neighborhood
of Richmond and below it and about Petersburg in the summer of 1814.
These services Colonel Campbell performed without pay. In the session
of the Assembly of 1814-15 a law was passed for raising 10,000 troops
and under it Colonel Campbell was elected General of the 3d Brigade.
On the 25th of January he was appointed Colonel of the 3d Virginia
Cavalry, and by the formation of the 5th Division of militia was afterwards
transferred to the 5th Regiment of cavalry. Upon his return to Abingdon,
Virginia, he re-entered the clerk's office, where he continued until
1820, when he was elected to the Senate of Virginia for four years.
He actively participated in public affairs both before and after his election
to the Senate. He was remarkable for his ready and correct judgment
of men, and this, coupled with the opportunity which his position
gave him, enabled him to exercise a wide-spread influence in his resident
section of the State. In 1824 he was elected clerk of the county court
of Washington, and continued to hold the office until he was elected
Governor of Virginia, in 1836, and entered upon the office March 31,
1837.

Virginia at this period was preponderantly Democratic in politics;
so decided was the sentiment of Washington County, in the Presidential
election of 1828, that only thirteen votes against General Andrew Jackson
were cast. David Campbell was a Jackson Democrat, as was also each of
his four brothers. In his first message to the General Assembly, among
other matters of public utility he proposed the establishment of the
common school system, of which he was one of the earliest advocates.
This was, no doubt, greatly stimulated by the fact that his own section
of the State was, by its remoteness from the institutions of learning of
high grade, deprived of their advantages, and was due, also, largely to
his attachment to Republican institutions; and his decided conviction
was potential, if not essential, in their preservation. Whilst Governor,
and during the administration of President Van Buren, the Sub-Treasury
scheme and the Standing Army bill, as they were commonly
called, were made party measures; being opposed to them, he warmly
supported General Harrison in the canvass of 1840, and ever after acted
with the Whig party. He was alike opposed to centralization on the
hand, and nullification and secession on the other. Governor Campbell
was succeeded in the office, March 31, 1840, by Thomas Walker
Gilmer, and retired to his home in Abingdon. Soon afterwards the
office of Justice of the Peace being tendered him, he accepted it, and
was diligent in the discharge of its entire duties to the year 1852, when
he retired to private life after having spent nearly a half century in
the public service. In person Governor Campbell was about five feet
eleven inches in height, spare, and erect in carriage, with dark hair

and eyes, an intellectual countenance, and pleasing manners. He was
not gifted as a public speaker. As a writer, his style was simple, terse,
and vigorous.

He was not a member of any religious denomination, but, profoundly
convinced of the truth of the Bible, he believed that the highest and
best manifestation of religion was a life in accordance with its teachings.

For the last two years of his life he was confined by declining health
to his chamber, but gave no evidence of that mental decay which sometimes
attends old age, and his interest in public affairs seemed unabated.
He died, calmly and peacefully, March 19, 1859, in the eightieth year
of his age. A portrait of Governor Campbell is exhibited in the State
Library at Richmond. A nephew, Hon. John A. Campbell, of Abingdon,
Virginia, a distinguished jurist, late Colonel Confederate States
Army, gallantly commanded during our late war the 48th Virginia
Regiment, which he raised and organized. It was incorporated in the
2d Brigade of the Division of General "Stonewall" Jackson, which was
composed of the 21st, 42d, and 48th Virginia Regiments, the Irish
Battalion, and the Battery of Lawrence S. Marge, afterwards Colonel
Marge. The Brigade was for a time commanded by Colonel William
Gilham of the 21st Virginia, then by Colonel Jesse S. Burks of the 42d
Virginia, who, receiving a disabling wound at the battle of Kernstown
in March, 1862, was succeeded by Colonel Campbell, who remained in
command until the month of May, when he also was severely wounded
in front of Winchester, Virginia. Before recovering sufficiently to return
to the army Colonel Campbell was elected Judge of the Sixteenth
Judicial Circuit of Virginia, and at the request of his constituents resigned
his commission in the army. The Campbell family of the common
ancestry of Governor Campbell has been numerously and distinguishedly
represented in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and other States.