CAMPBELL, Hettie Elma - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Covington- Miss Hettie Elma Campbell, 100 years died at 7:35 a.m. Sunday in the Rudisill Nursing Home where she had been a patient since last February. Miss Campbell, who celebrated her 100th birthday last November with a party at the nursing home lived almost all of her life in Fountain County. She was born Nov 17, 1860 in Fountain County, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah Spinning Campbell. Miss Campbell was injured in a childhood accident and had been an invalid since she was 5 years old. Surviving are a brother, James Campbell, several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by 7 brothers and 4 sisters. Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at Osborne Priarie Church with Rev. John Dulin in charge. Burial will be in Osborne Prairie Cemetery. Friends may pay their respects at Bodine & Shelby Funeral Home.

Covington, Ind. - Services were held at 2:30 p.m. CST Tuesday at the Osborne Prairie Church, northeast of Covington, for Miss Hettie Elma Campbell, 100, a life resident of Fountain County, who died at 6:25 a.m. Sunday (Jan. 1, 1961) at the Rudisill Nursing Home in Crawfordsville where she had been a patient since February 1960. Born Nov. 17, 1860, in Fountain County, she was the daughter of Samuel and Sara Anna Spinning Campbell. She was injured when she was 5-years-old, and had been an invalid since. Survivors include a brother, James of Veedersburg, and 17 nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by seven brothers and four sisters. The Rev. John Dulin officiated, with burial in the Osborne Prairie Cemetery. The Bodine & Shelby Funeral Home was in charge.

Miss Hettie Elma Campbell, who Nov. 17, 1960 celebrated her 100th birthday anniversary, died at 6:25 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 1, 1961, at the Rudisill Nursing Home in Crawfordsville where she had been a patient since last February. A party was given at the nursing home honoring her on her birthday. Miss Campbell, who was familiarly and affectionately known as "Aunt Het" was born in VanBuren Township, Fountain County, Nov. 17, 1860, the daughter of Samuel and Sara Ann Spinning. She was injured in a fall off a horse when she was only five years old and had been an invalid the remainder of her life. Her entire life, with the exception of her stay in the nursing home, was spent in this county. Surviving "Aunt Het" are: one brother, James Campbell of Veedersburg, and 17 nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, seven brothers and four sisters. Funeral services were held at 2:30 o'clock Tuesday afternoon at the Osborn Prairie Church, northeast of Covington. The Rev. John Dulin, pastor, officiated. Burial, with the Bodine & Shelby Funeral Home in charge, was in the adjoining church cemetery. Pallbearers were her great nephews: Don Campbell, Richard Campbell, Robert and Kennard Boord, Roy Campbell and George Hershberger.

Hettie Campbell was born November 17, 1860, in Van Buren Township, Fountain County, Indiana. She was one of 13 children born to Samuel Campbell and Sarah A. Spinning Campbell. All of her brothers and sisters, except James E. Campbell of Veedersburg, predeceased her and many of her nieces and nephews have passed away. In addition to her brother, she is survived by 17 nieces and nephews and a host of younger relatives. Except for a few years during her early childhood when her parents lived in Illinois, she spent all of her life as a resident of Fountain County, Indiana, and for more than 70 years she lived in her ancestral home between Stone Bluff and Covington, Indiana. She was a descendant of one of the early families in Fountain County. The Board of Justices of the county held their second meeting at the house of her grandfather, Isaac Spinning, in 1826, and her great-grandfather, Mathias Spinning, was a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The whole pattern of her life was determined by a tragedy which befell her when she was about five years of age, when she was paralyzed from the waist down, and for more than 95 years she was unable to walk. Despite this handicap and her inability to attend school, she learned to read and write and received the equivalent of a common school education from her brothers and sisters, who taught her each night the lessons they had learned during the day. She always took an active interest in the activities of her family and of the neighborhood. For nearly a half century, she and her maiden sister, Eve Campbell, maintained a home together, which was a haven and a refuge for all of their nieces and nephews, and for other children who were not members of the family. Despite her affliction, she was always active in the homework and never complained about her condition. She was always cheerful and interested in the people around her. The poet has said: "Of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these 'it might have been." Hettie Campbell spent a lifetime within the confines of her own home, and her horizons were limited, almost literally, by the distance she could see from her own front yard. The tragedy of her life is not her death, but the affliction which she bore with patience for more than 95 years. Perhaps now an understanding God will let her run barefooted through Eternity or dance in golden slippers on the streets of Heaven. Hettie Campbell was an intelligent woman and those who can remember tell us she was a pretty girl. But it is idle to speculate on what might have been her fate and her station in life if she had not been paralyzed in childhood. Here in the churchyard of her country church, we recall the famous lines from Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard:" "Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear; Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Far from the maddening crowd's ignoble strife, Her sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool sequestered vale of life She kept the noiseless tenor of her way. Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhimes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribune of a sign.: 1-4-1tx