THE ALEXANDER AND ENOS CAMPBELL FAMILIES
By Harold L. O'Donnell, Ruth Boyd, Effie Switzer, Helen Campbell Smith,
Fleeta Cooke Jones Smith and Mrs. Hazel Anderson of Omaha, Nebraska.
The Campbell Family held many reunions and the family stories and anecdotes were well preserved.
These two brothers came to Vermilion County, Illinois in 1833 or 1834 and settled in Section 36 in what is now McKendree Township. They came here from Tennessee, were already married and brought several children with them. The parents of the two brothers were James John Campbell and Catherine Phillips Campbell of North Carolina.
Both Alexander and Enos had large families and they intermarried with other families in the area like the Buchanans, Cookes, Henthorns, Patricks, Scotts, Sprouls and Whitlocks. Several of these marriages resulted in many double cousins.
In Alexanders family three of his children, Robert M., Catherine and Delawna moved to Butler, Missouri in the 1860s. Nancy married Thomas Whitlock. He was unusually tall, handsome, a harness maker, storyteller & and he was blind. Hogans son David became the Attorney General of the state of Colorado. Leonard Campbell was a schoolteacher and while he was teaching in Eugene Township he married a daughter of Silas N. Todd, an early Cayuga lumberman. Abraham Campbell lived along the Georgetown Road near the original section #36 where the Campbells originally settled.
Every large family has a black sheep and the Campbells had theirs. Abrahams son, James Alexander, better known as Aleck, filled this role perfectly and brought sorrow and financial straits to his family.
The Enos Campbell branch of the family has its stories as well. Their oldest daughter, Catherine was considered to be a medicine woman in the area. Stories are told that she had a special knowledge and way of treating sick infants. She never divulged these secrets to anyone. She would take the babies out to the barn, and when she brought them back they were either healed or on the mend.
Enos' son Alexander wore a long beard and the family used to tease that it looked like he'd swallowed a horse. John P. Campbell came to an untimely death in Georgetown. In January of 1895 he was killed by a shotgun blast as he left a Masonic Lodge meeting in Georgetown. The shotgun was fired by a Frank Richardson. The newspapers were very unclear about the reason for the shooting and Mr. Richardson was acquitted of the crime.
Mary Matilda and Elizabeth Marina married Patrick brothers, Hiram and William. William L. Campbell was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and filled the pulpit at Liberty Church for many years. He also worked in the pork packing plant in Eugene. Alfred C. moved to Lincoln, Nebraska and Albert Ross, known as Ab , was a photographer in Cayuga, Beatrice, Nebraska and last in Danville. He was also the first Superintendent of the Collett Home for Orphans.