Tag Archives: Ann Campbell

Letter of the week, June 21, 2010

Here’s a short let­ter Robert wrote to his niece Mar­garet Mac­Cul­loch in Ball­yarton, Ire­land.  He sent Mar­garet 5 pounds Ster­ling, which is just over $500.00 today.  Robert’s youngest child that he refers to is Robert (the third child who had that name, inci­den­tal­ly) who would have been five years old dur­ing their sum­mer trav­els.  He died the fol­low­ing sum­mer of diph­the­ria.  And par­tic­u­lar­ly time­ly is Robert’s para­graph about his finan­cial woes dur­ing the Civ­il War — depre­ci­at­ing prop­er­ty val­ues, peo­ple in debt — sound famil­iar?  Times real­ly haven’t changed much.

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St Louis
June 21 1861
My Dear Niece,

Hav­ing net with the enclosed bill of exchange of the Nation­al Bank at Roscom­mon in the Nation­al Bank of Lon­don for Five pounds ster­ling I pur­chased it and con­clud­ed to send it to you as a present, and at some time to drop you a line to show that I have not for­got­ten you.  I have had fre­quent talks with my brother’s fam­i­ly about you and all our fam­i­ly in Ire­land and was grate­ful to hear such good account of them.

I had a let­ter yes­ter­day from your sis­ter Mary Clark in which she men­tions all her chil­dren who seam to be very promis­ing and affec­tion­ate to her. She has named her youngest child Hugh Camp­bell I think it is some four­teen months old and she says is a very large, fine boy- her daugh­ter are of great assis­tance to her.

Char­lotte is very com­fort­ably sit­u­at­ed at Kansas city and when I was last there had got into a very excel­lent house which John had just built and she felt quite com­fort­able- She had two fine boys and since then has added a daugh­ter to her fam­i­ly of which of course you have been advised. Your broth­er Robert B is in the gold region of the Rocky Mnts and through oth­er par­ties I hear that he is well, but I have not had any let­ters from him.

Your uncle Hugh lives but a short dis­tance from my res­i­dences and my chil­dren feel as much at home there as at their own home. They call it “ the oth­er house”. I was about to have left with my fam­i­ly for New Port, Rhode Island where we have passed the last two sum­mers but my youngest child has been unwell and we will not leave before tomor­row or day after as the child in improv­ing and we like to have it well before we start, my broth­er will fol­low with his fam­i­ly ten days or so later.

The “Oth­er House,” Hugh & Mary Camp­bel­l’s home on Wash­ing­ton Avenue. The Ely Walk­er Loft build­ing is now on the property.

You have seen by the news­pa­pers that our coun­try is in a very deplorable con­di­tion, and no imme­di­ate prospect of a change busi­ness is almost sus­pend­ed and rents great­ly reduced and such …. ……. To be the case until peace is returned. We are unfor­tu­nate­ly in a con­di­tion to feel these changes less than most peo­ple as we are entire­ly out of debt.  But we will be losers by the gen­er­al depre­ci­a­tion of prop­er­ty in val­ue and many who are indebt­ed to us will not be able to pay for some time and oth­er debts we will lose.

We have not had a let­ter from sis­ter Ann for some months and she was then just recov­er­ing from a severe attack of ill­ness. I trust that she is now quite well again as we all love her very much. I was glad to learn that your father and moth­er were in good health at last account. You will remem­ber me kind­ly to you hus­band and chil­dren and to your Father, moth­er Aunt and sis­ters- in short to all our relatives

I know you as a good child of some three years, and I like still to rec­ol­lect you, as such

Affec­tion­ate­ly Your Uncle

Robert Camp­bell

This week in history: May 2‑May 8

We’ve post­ed let­ters about the hell-rais­er in the Camp­bell fam­i­ly, Robert and Hugh Camp­bel­l’s niece Bessie Camp­bell.  But even with all the trou­ble that Bessie caused the fam­i­ly, her actions were very lit­tle when com­pared to her broth­ers Hugh Kyle Camp­bell and Robert Boyle Camp­bell.  Iron­i­cal­ly named after their St. Louis uncles, these two were the true source of grief for Andrew and Eliz­a­beth Camp­bell.  Accord­ing to The Camp­bell Quest, writ­ten by the pair’s great-great-nephew, “Hugh Kyle fol­lowed in his father’s foot­steps and became an alco­holic, while Robert Boyle became a bul­ly …” .  These two caused trou­ble in Ire­land, like­ly burn­ing their grand­fa­ther’s will and harass­ing their Aunt Ann so that Hugh Kyle Camp­bell could lay claim to their Uncle Hugh Camp­bel­l’s right­ful estate, Augh­a­lane.  Hugh Kyle Camp­bell final­ly mar­ried, but nev­er stopped drink­ing and final­ly died of “intem­per­ance, one year.  Delir­i­um tremens, one week” in 1877, a year after writ­ing this let­ter.  Robert Boyle Camp­bell came to live with his Uncle Robert and Aunt Vir­ginia for a while, but even­tu­al­ly left and moved west, hop­ing to strike it rich.  He also caused trou­ble for the fam­i­ly in the Amer­i­can Civ­il War.

Today’s let­ter is from Hugh Kyle Camp­bell to his broth­er-in-law (and Patrick Camp­bell Mac­Cul­loch’s great-grand­fa­ther) Hugh Mac­Cul­loch about his Aunt Ann’s death.  He makes is abun­dant­ly clear that he is not hap­py that Aunt Ann left so lit­tle to him in her will, obvi­ous­ly a very wise choice on Ann Camp­bel­l’s part when it came to this par­tic­u­lar rel­a­tive.  The let­ter was tran­scribed by Frank Collins of the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park in North­ern Ire­land, which now hous­es Robert’s birth­place, Augh­a­lane house.  It was part of a col­lec­tion that Collins and the Folk Park donat­ed to Camp­bell House Muse­um last sum­mer upon the Euro­pean release of the book The Camp­bell Quest.  We hope you enjoy the account from anoth­er ‘black sheep’ of the Camp­bell family!

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Let­ter­bratt
7th May 1876.

Dear Hugh.

Enclosed I send you what you drew up with all the names prop­er­ly signed there was no a dis­sent­ing voice as they all glad­ly signed it. As to those in Amer­i­ca as to them sig­na­to­ries it is not at all nec­es­sary in a legal point of view as to have signed it, at least all but…. & I pre­sume she’ll not object. I con­grat­u­late you on the straight­for­ward man­ner in which all has been con­duct­ed as far as I know,by both you and R Dunn.

This I can say for myself I am the great­est los­er over my Aunt as I can …. And have been the pro­pri­etor of Augh­a­lane only for her & her con­tin­u­al­ly writ­ing to my uncle Hugh. I nev­er knew this until I was exam­ined in Dublin and had I wished to be con­tention at that time I’d at all event pre­vent­ed the sale of it for years but I nev­er opposed it.

She always was my great­est ene­my- all I ever got from her was those £27 and a bed­stead? and cur­tains except I think £2 and I count­ed one of those due me for tidy? cows she allowed me keep the other.

I need not enlarge on this but I trust she may be hap­py as God only can dis­cern our inter­mit thoughts and pri­vate actions and many a one to the human eye here is count­ed God fear­ing  & lend­ing poor moral life by appear­ances, but when laid on the bed of sick­ness and death then decep­tive and for­mer hypocrisy   Tell then in their hard strug­gles not wish­ing to leave this world yet a let­ter? Wished and all as they count­ed it.   I am informed my Aunt did tou­se? the expres­sion very hard.

One thing I do know Mar­garet had the great­est trou­ble with my Aunt. & most cer­tain­ly £100 would not have repaid the trou­ble & sleep­less nights she suf­fered over her sickness.

With kind­est regards to you and Mgt.

I remain Your Affect Bro-in-law

Hugh Kyle Campbell

Mr H MacCulloch.

This week in history: February 28-March 5

This week we post a let­ter from Robert’s sis­ter Ann Camp­bell.  Ann is in Ire­land and has appar­ent­ly not been feel­ing well.  The let­ter almost makes it sound like she may be on her deathbed, but she would in fact live till 1876.  Ann tells Robert how much she thinks of him and how often he and his fam­i­ly are in her prayers.  Ann Camp­bell lived in Augh­a­lane House, which is now part of the Ulster Amer­i­can Folk Park.  Enjoy get­ting all the news from Ireland.

Augh­a­lane March 5th 1856

My Beloved Broth­er Robert
Your affec­tion­ate let­ter did me so much good, it was more to me  than all the med­i­cine in Europe, it real­ly did exhil­a­rate me and  made me so hap­py that I am sure your kind heart would rejoice to  see me.

It is a year since I wrote you and fin­ished my farewell let­ter  that I began the pre­vi­ous Jan­u­ary.  The doc­tors ordered me as  soon as sum­mer would com­mence to go to the shore but on the first week in July I was faint­ing from extreme weak­ness.  I had to  leave the house to get two floors that were bad­ly laid made  right, as I could not endure the noise of the ham­mers; so I went  to Jane McHar­lands’ [McFar­lands?] with Annie’s atten­tion and kind­ness (for her  dis­po­si­tion is like yours) thank God I felt stronger although I  was with her but ten days on 16th Aug I went to Hugh McCul­lough  Margt was also very atten­tive and I was enabled through divine  assis­tance to pro­ceed to [?]_______.  I returned home on 16th  Sept and the day pre­vi­ous to my return

[Pg. Break] I walked six miles with­out much fatigue.  Thank God I have been pret­ty well through the win­ter.  I was not in bed an  hour out of my usu­al time since I came from [?]______ ______ I  had the house [?]________ in March last and paint­ed in Sep­tem­ber  both doors and win­dows are paint­ed white: I thought all my dear  rel­a­tives would have been here before this; that we might meet  again under the roof in which we first breathed and may God grant with bless­ing I may not be dis­ap­point­ed yet I think He will  real­ize this favor to me and should I not be here the thought  that my dear broth­er would [?]_____ on my grave would be a  con­so­la­tion to me now for to what pur­pose was all the expense the pre­pare the house the fine apart­ments that were always neat were enough for me but the hope of see­ing you all did stim­u­late me to every­thing I did and made any lit­tle care I had only delight;  write me on receipt of this and say you will with the Almighty’s  help be here next sum­mer; it might renew sis­ter Vir­gini­a’s health that God may long spare her to you and give her per­ma­nent health is my fer­vent prayer.  I hope the sweet boy Hugh [Hugh Camp­bell, lived to 81] is well and also lit­tle Hazlett [spelled Haslett,  the first Hazlett Kyle Camp­bell, died at the age of 3] and the  oth­er lit­tle fel­low.  I trust he will be as healthy as the oth­er  two are and God grant they may be as great a com­fort to you

[Pg. Break] and their dear moth­er as you have been to me.  I hope I nev­er do go to bed with­out wish­ing a bless­ing on you and yours and I trust I nev­er will and that the hours of prayer will grant any requests for you and your family.

I was look­ing over a let­ter of yours the oth­er day dat­ed 11th May 1833 and the affec­tion and love in it caused tears of grat­i­tude  that you are still unchanged for the same kind­ness that breathed  through it per­vades your last; Oh! that I may be grate­ful to the  great first cause for tis’ pater­nal care to an aged orphan in  giv­ing such broth­ers as He has giv­en me.  In the let­ter I am  speak­ing of Broth­er Hugh in a post­script [?]____ the decease of  your father in law on 5th of same month and adds I have sel­dom  met with a more ami­able lady than his wid­ow; nor more inter­est­ing chil­dren than his daugh­ters; I am sure if there had been ten  daugh­ters there could be none more ami­able than sis­ter Vir­ginia  thank God she  is yours.  I trust her health is restored.

Andrew and his numer­ous fam­i­ly are well; both he and sis­ter Bet­ty are youth­ful look­ing for their age, his sons assist on the farm; they are like their moth­er’s broth­ers, gen­teel look­ing and tall  of their age; Bessie lives with me since I was ill she nev­er  looked bet­ter in her life than she does at present; Vir­ginia is  grow­ing tall and is an ami­able child.

[Pg. Break] Annie has a fam­i­ly of five sons and one daugh­ter all  health a love­ly baby died from her in Autumn; her hus­band is a  decent per­son and doing well the for­mer has fours on and the  lat­ter two daugh­ters and one son; both their hus­bands have a fine share of busi­ness at [?]_____ ______.  Mar­garet is also doing  well and has three sons and one daugh­ter; she is much beloved by  her neigh­bors.  Mary wrote of your kind­ness in reliev­ing her from her dif­fi­cul­ties; poor dear she was a stranger and in debt; the  Lord reward you for what you have done for her and though last  not least dear Char­lotte.  She wrote me late­ly and John nev­er  wrote a let­ter home but he was so good as to men­tion me; he was  always a favorite with his moth­er and I’ve thought there was  some­thing very noble in John even when a lit­tle boy.  Give my  kind love to Mr. Camp­bell [?]_____ & Char­lotte; I am so hap­py to  hear that she has a fine lit­tle child.  I hope it will live for a bless­ing to them, Joseph and Mrs. Camp­bell are well, she does  not vis­it much in Win­ter as she is sus­cep­ti­ble of cold but her  health is good.  I do not know when I shall write my good  Char­lotte, for I have not [?]_____ to do any­thing as before I was sick but she is devare she has my prayers, for her wel­fare.  May every hap­pi­ness be sis­ter Vir­gini­a’s and yours here and  here­after is the prayer of your grate­ful sister
Ann Campbell

This Week in History: August 18–24

Rich­mond 21st Augt. 1825

My Dear Robert
On Fri­day last I had the pleasure
Of yours dat­ed 27th ult cov­er­ing two unit­ed states
Bank notes of One Hun­dred dolls each.  For the remittance
I sin­cere­ly thank you   As you observe I do not want money,
But the receipt of this sum, accom­pa­nied by a very handsome
Let­ter in which sen­ti­ments of the high­est order are expressed
Has done me more good than twice the amount under
Any oth­er cir­cum­stances — even if in poverty.
Since date of my last, I had a let­ter from Andrew by
Me from Anne, under date of 2nd June. I had also a large
Pack­age of Irish N.papers by a lat­er con­veyance. The news
From both sources is pleas­ing yet scarce­ly worth recapitulating
Anne’s health was del­i­cate but not dan­ger­ous. She had
Advised with Doc­tors Cald­well Rogan & oth­ers and hopes were
Enter­tained of her recov­ery. Hamil­ton & Margery had returned
To Ire­land. Andrews two lit­tle chil­dren were quite promising
The ten­ants were reg­u­lar­ly pray­ing up to Andw. McFarland
I shall short­ly send one or two papers by mail yet I
Feasr that will scarce find their way to St. Louis

[next page]
.
In expla­na­tion of what was for­mer­ly men­tioned respect­ing the
Affairs of moth­er I ought to have observed that all the old tenants
Were mere­ly con­firmed in the pos­ses­sion of their sev­er­al holdings
Leav­ing orders with Andy & Moth­er to rent off (after Nov. Last)
All the farm for­mer­ly occu­pied by moth­er except the stoney
Park, the park below the house, the lit­tle mead­ow Hous­es gardens
Etc. etc. I had sup­posed that these with priv­i­lege of the
Moun­tain would have sup­port­ed them gen­teel­ly & comfortably
And that the remain­der would bring upwards of 20 d per arm
& at the same time dis­en­cum­ber the, of a use­less burthen
This was not done, of if so I am not yet advised of it. It
Was my wish that you should point out this prop­er­ty of
Doing so, when writ­ing them
I wrote James Reed about a week ago — since when
I have been informed that Bob (N one of uncle Johns Steves)
Died very sud­den­ly. They are much depressed in consequence
Say ton him that I most hearti­ly con­grat­u­late him — not
On his mar­riage — but on his res­o­lu­tion to become on of
Hymens votaries. His silence is now account­ed for and
Read­i­ly excused.
IN the course of a day or two you shall have the
“Rich­mond con­sti­tu­tion­al Whig” a semi week­ly paper published
by Gov. Pleas­ants son in the city. Why not tell me what paper,
or what descrip­tion of paper you wished for?  If N. York
Phi­la­da. or Boston papers will suit you bet­ter you shall

[next paper]

them. The “Whig” is a respectable lit­er­ary & political
mis­cel­lany and prefer­able to the Enquir­er inas­much as there
are few­er dis­ser­ta­tions on state rights in the for­mer. I shall
sub­scribe for the short­est pos­si­ble time — If you like it to be
con­tin­ued — if not it can be stoped any any oth­er you prefer
sent you in communication
Both my par­ents are now in N. York. Your
old acquain­tances Mis­sr D. Kyle (Mil­ton) & Kerr and here on their
way North­ward. This morn­ing John Kyle of Mil­ton was
shipped to N. York with instruc­tions to have him thence
trans­shipped to some dis­tant part of the world. His
father is near­ly heart bro­ken in con­se­quence of [miss­ing]
his mis­con­duct & dis­obe­di­ence.”  Sic tran­sit Glo­ria mun­di [miss­ing]
In a for­mer let­ter I told you of having
Sent home 50 pounds ster­ling to moth­er Anne & Andy
I have not yet heard of the receipt. It was forwarded
Ear­ly or about the mid­dle of June
God bless you!
Hugh Campbell

[Next page]

(post­mark)
RICH VA
AUG
22

Mr. Robert Capbell
At Miss­er O Fal­lon & Keytes
St. Louis
Missouri

Hugh Camp­bell
Richmond
August 21st
1825

This Week in History: August 4–10

Spar­ta, Wis Aug. 5/74

Dear Robert
I have your of 28 ult
Inclos­ing an excel­lent let­ter from our
Niece Mary It gives the best account
Of our poor sis­ters sad acci­dent, and is
Quite dis­cour­ag­ing in every respect.
It is here­with returned,
I also inclose Mary T let­ter to me
And the let­ter of our nephew R. B.C.
You will rec­ol­lect that the last let­ter to
Me from this fel­low gave me some lying
Details of fam­i­ly quar­rels and requested
Me to turn sis­ter Ann out of Aughalane
As being the cause of all their trou­bles! He
Doubt­less wished to suc­ceed her in the
Occu­pan­cy of the old house and this
Let­ter to me is evi­dent­ly writ­ten with
The same view. I feel cer­tain that if I had
Writ­ten to him in reply he would have used
My let­ter as author­i­ty to take pos­ses­sion. He
Is a bad and dan­ger­ous scoundrell.

[next page]

I shall be glad to learn that your
Vis­it to the Pres­i­dent proved agreeable -
Yet I scarce­ly expect that it was. The
Only thing that annoys me is the prompt
Appoint­ment of your suc­ces­sions & retaining
The same name. The new commissioners
Being all of the Sec­re­tary’s selec­tion, will only
Serve to enlarge the “Indi­an Ring: and in
Future his­to­ry their acts will read as yours.
I would protest, and insist that some
Change should be made in the style & title
Of this con­gre­ga­tion of See: Delaon, friends.
I have already sug­gest­ed that you
Should send dft to Ann on D Stu­art & Co fo 50 pounds
By way of pay­ing expens­es atten­dant on her
Acci­dent, If you con­cur with me in
This, I would beg you to write a kind
Reply to Mary & M.C. for both of us & inclose
In your let­ter the dft, pay. To Ann’s order
Under no cir­cum­stances do I desire
That either you or I should cor­re­spond with
Our nephew. They are cun­ning & treacherous;
And would use our let­ters for bad purposes.

[next page]

Hugh sent me from Nehol­son’s 8
Bot­tles of whiskey. The bot­tles were a cross
Between quarts & pints — with a preponderance
In favour of the lat­ter. They have very nearly
Evap­o­rat­ed, Please send half a dozen more
By express — not quite so new and finery.
You will also oblige by direct­ing the
“News & Book store” to for­ward the July number
of Black­wood & pay postage if required.
Sub­scrip­tion has been paid — 4th st. near olive
A let­ter from Hugh recd. this morning
Shows that he is unwill­ing to go eastward
I beg that you will urge him to go He needs
A lit­tle fresh air and relax­ation, after the
Heat­ed term in St. Louis
We all get along famous­ly. It seems
That I have gained 3 lbs since my arrival.
Mary does not wish to acknowl­edge a single
Pound addi­tion­al — and Mary T says nothing.
All join me in kind regards to you & Hugh
I trust this will meet you on your arrival
Ever tru­ly yours
H. Campbell