Tag Archives: Hugh Campbell (son)

Old-time religion with the Campbells

Syd­ney exam­in­ing micro­film of Camp­bell checks to see which char­i­ties around town they supported.

Thanks to Syd­ney, one of our tal­ent­ed sum­mer interns, we now have a beau­ti­ful and inter­ac­tive way to show the Camp­bells’ reli­gious his­to­ry. When Syd­ney came on board in June, she did­n’t waste any time dig­ging into Camp­bell doc­u­ments and church records to build a more com­plete pic­ture of the fam­i­ly’s faith.

For her exit project, she made an online time­line, com­plete with maps, images, quotes from our local news­pa­pers, and his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives. When Syd­ney was­n’t giv­ing tours, she was dili­gent­ly read­ing, com­par­ing facts in dif­fer­ent sources, com­pil­ing infor­ma­tion, and writ­ing. This was a big job.

The fruit of her efforts can be found here. Not only did she do all the research and writ­ing, but Syd­ney also fig­ured out how to make her idea into some­thing she could imple­ment. She found Dip­i­ty, and made her time­line come alive in a way that’s eas­i­ly acces­si­ble and sim­ple to share with others.

Take a look, and let us know what you think. Pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to “Hugh’s Gen­eros­i­ty” toward the end of the time­line. This entry cap­tures much of her often-tedious micro­film research, and this gives a won­der­ful glimpse into Hugh’s per­son­al­i­ty. He gave freely to a vari­ety of church­es, regard­less of affiliation.

One more time, here’s the link to her time­line. A big thanks and three cheers for Sydney!

Mystery Mail

Some of the mys­te­ri­ous mail bear­ing the return address “Some­where in Time.”

Between the mys­te­ri­ous half-dol­lars and elu­sive foot­steps through­out the house, we’re used to the unex­plained around here. One of our favorite — and longest-run­ning — mys­ter­ies arrives via the U.S. Post Office.

For years, Camp­bell House has received mail addressed to Camp­bell fam­i­ly mem­bers. The hand­writ­ing’s always the same, it’s always post­marked from St. Louis, and the return address says noth­ing more than “Some­where in Time.”

We received three in close suc­ces­sion this year: Hugh’s birth­day, Robert’s birth­day (from Vir­ginia) then James’ birth­day. Before that, Vir­ginia received a “think­ing of you” card from Robert, and Vir­ginia sent Robert an anniver­sary card. Sad­ly, poor Hazlett has been over­looked by the mailman.

Who­dunit? Do you know?

Received in March of 2012 in time for his 152nd birth­day on March 16th, here we have a cus­tomized birth­day card to James. The sender wrote “The Beloved Pup­py, to James –” James, inci­den­tal­ly, was rather fond of his dogs. Take a look at this ear­li­er post.

The inside is signed: “Time is fleet­ing! Yor [Your] Lov­ing and devot­ed Parents.”

Robert was the “some­one spe­cial” ref­er­enced in this let­ter that came to the muse­um in Feb­ru­ary, right before his 208th birth­day in Feb­ru­ary 2012.

…and it’s from Vir­ginia! Per­son­al­ized, “To my dear­est Robert.…from your lov­ing wife, Virginia.”

Vir­gini­a’s been busy. Here’s an anniver­sary card she sent to Robert that arrived in 2008 on their 167th anniversary.

It’s a clas­sic Hall­mark tear-jerk­er, too: “Dear Robert: What we share togeth­er is a beau­ti­ful part­ner­ship. From the joy and pas­sion to the gen­tle car­ing of our fam­i­ly and home — It means every­thing to me to have you as my friend and my part­ner in life.…And on your birth­day I hope you can feel all the love I have for you in my heart. — Vir­ginia.” *sniff*

This is prob­a­bly the best one in the bunch. Baby Owl arrived for Hugh’s birth­day last Novem­ber and he says, “Whoo’s hav­ing a Birthday?’

.…and on the inside, the author Robert and Vir­ginia changed “You are!” to “Hugh are!” Also writ­ten: “Your 164th! From Your Par­ents.” This is quite pos­si­bly the best Camp­bell House pun ever.

Just a lit­tle note for Virginia.….

…from her Robert! “My Dear Vir­ginia: I’m think­ing of you/And warm wish­es I send, For days filled with joy/From begin­ning to end. Your devot­ed Hus­band, Robert.” Awwww.

This week in history: April 5–10 part 2

We have already post­ed Robert Camp­bel­l’s 1832 will.  Near­ly 60 years lat­er — 59 years minus 1 day to be exact, Robert’s son Hugh did the same thing.  Like his father’s 1832 will, this was not Hugh’s final will — he would write a lat­er one to include bequests to faith­ful ser­vants Gus Mey­er and Mary Boer­ste.  The muse­um does not have a com­plete copy of this will, so only the first page has been tran­scribed; it is post­ed here.  How­ev­er, this 1891 will did include a very large bequest to Yale Uni­ver­si­ty on the con­di­tion that they build the “James Alexan­der Camp­bell Memo­r­i­al Build­ing” and hang the por­trait of James, Hugh’s youngest sur­viv­ing broth­er, in the build­ing.  Although Yale did use and rec­og­nize Hugh’s even­tu­al bequest after his death in 1931, the James Alexan­der Camp­bell build­ing as Hugh had envi­sioned it was nev­er built.

After Hugh’s death in 1931, sev­er­al par­ties tried to break his last will.  The lawyer who had pre­pared this will in Paris in 1891 tes­ti­fied in the case and described Hugh: “Phys­i­cal­ly he was stur­dy, hearty, appar­ent­ly well built, young and vig­or­ous.  Intel­lec­tu­al­ly he appeared well poised, entire­ly con­ver­sant with what he want­ed in the way of tes­ta­men­tary dis­po­si­tion, was spe­cif­ic … as to what he desired to do for each.  he also man­i­fest­ed entire famil­iar­i­ty with the nature and extent of his prop­er­ty, real and per­son­al.  In tem­pera­ment, he seemed to me cheer­ful, hearty, and genial.”  We hope you enjoy learn­ing about the thoughts of Robert’s hearty, cheer­ful, and poised son Hugh.

[Enve­lope]
Hugh Campbell
Last Will and Testament
On French Stamped Paper
Exe­cut­ed this April 9th, 1891

In the name of God, Amen. I Hugh Camp­bell of the City of St. Louis, State of Mis­souri, and Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca, tem­porar­i­ly sojourn­ing in Paris, France, being of sound and dis­pos­ing mind and mem­o­ry do here­by make, pub­lish and­de­clare this and for my last Will and Tes­ta­ment, here, by revok­ing and annulling all wills and cod­i­cils by me at any time hereto­fore made.

Clause First–    I direct my execu­tors here­in after appoint­ed as soon as may be after my decease to pay all my just debts and my funer­al expenses.

Clause Sec­ond–    I give and bequeath to my friend Miss Lil­lie B. Ran­dell should she sur­vive me or if not to her sis­ter  Mrs. Laeti­tia W. Gar­ri­son, both now or late­ly resid­ing at Num­ber Four (4) Great Stan­hope Street, May­fair, Lon­don all and sev­er­al the shawls, laces, plate and oth­er arti­cles of what­ev­er nature which may at the time of my death be con­tained in those cer­tain cedar chests deposit­ed by me and now on deposit in the Safe Deposit Com­pa­ny locat­ed in the build­ing on the North West cor­ner of Sixth and Locust Streets and between Sixth and Sev­enth Streets in the City of St. Louis, Mis­souri, also all pre­cious stones, jew­els and jew­el­ry deposit­ed by me and now on deposit in a box on the Safe Deposit Com­pa­ny locat­ed on the north side of.….[End page 1, for com­plete doc­u­ment, see originals]

This Week in History: August 11–17

—
Fort Laramie Aug 15/63
Dear Father,
I arrived on Tues­day 11 after a very pleas­ant and speedy  journey.

I am treat­ed with the great­est kind­ness by every­body par­tic­u­lar­ly by Mr. Bullock.

Major McK­ay the gen­tle­man who has com­mand of the gar­ri­son has  showed me a great many marked attentions.

Day before yes­ter­day I went to the dis­tri­b­u­tion of annu­ties on  the Major’s own horse which is very beau­ti­ful and at the same  time most spir­it­ed ani­mal that I ever rode.  Mr. Bul­lock kind­ly  gave us a let­ter of intro­duc­tion to Maj. Loree the Indi­an agent.

[Pg. Break] He was exceed­ing­ly polite and said that he thought if the Indi­ans knew who I was that they would give me a dog feast.

Mr. Bur­deau was intro­duced to us and spoke to me most touch­ing­ly  of you.  He told me that you had raised him up. [See Notes on  this next part] I was also intro­duced to Fri­day who when I said  on going away and offer­ing my hand to him “Come Fri­day let us  shake hands for old acquain­tance sake” filled up instant­ly and I  was very much afraid that he would cry. [See Notes]

The coun­try around here is very much dried up.

Mr. Ward’s mule train start­ed this morning.

On Mon­day I go out on my first hunt.

I shall send a let­ter to moth­er and one to grand­moth­er under your care to St. Louis.  You will oblige me exceed­ing­ly if you will  send them to whom they are addressed [spelled adressed].

I am now going out to try my gun with David who is going to try  one of Mr. B’s.  And now dear father I must close expect­ing an  answer to this let­ter from your
affec­tion­ate son
Hugh.

P.S. I have just returned from shoot­ing.  None of us hit the cen­ter but of four shots two came about the length of your fin­ger from the black spot.  All of them said that I could have killed an ante­lope.  The dis­tance was about 75 feet.  I hope you will excuse this as

[Pg. Break] I have writ­ten it in a great hurry.

I have made a mis­take in spelling the Major’s name it is spelled  [spelled spellt] Mackey.

[On the sec­ond page, Hugh writes about Fri­day.  This is on the back of the copy:

From Across the Wide Mis­souri by Bernad Devoto
page 29: The Prairie Trav­eller (1833)

… Camp­bell was also tak­ing to the moun­tains an Ara­pa­ho boy who had been in school in St. Louis and whose strange, affect­ing sto­ry some­one should tell in full.  Tom Fitz­patrick had found him lost and starv­ing in the south­west­ern plains two years before, had called him Fri­day, and infor­mal­ly adopt­ed him, and had sent him East for some edu­ca­tion.  Now he was return­ing to his fos­ter father and his coun­try, a divid­ed soul, an Indi­an who had learned to feel the emo­tions of a white man.]

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This Week in History: July 6–13

Let­ter of Vir­ginia Camp­bell to hus­band Robert
———————————————————————————————-
Mt Car­bon July 7, 1856
Dear Husband
I received your tele­graph yes­ter­day. Mr Tuck­er had been so kind as to write a mes­sage the day before announc­ing your  tele­graph­ic mes­sage. I was sor­ry to hear you did not get there on Sun­day as you expect­ed you must have been oblig­ed to lie over at some place for some hours.

Our blessed chil­dren are well and the baby’s flesh is so firm and he improves every day per­cep­ti­bly, if you could hear ^him [^]  talk­ing in his way — you would be sur­prised to hear what a loud  noise he can make and it is to my ear the sweet­est music. Hazlett was so pleased with your Daguerre he said “Lady is laugh­ing at  me” Mama talk to Lady” and makes me take it out for him to see,  he seems to take a plea­sure in look­ing at it, as if you were  present.

[Page 2] The tableaux came off very suc­cess­ful­ly the oth­er day ‑I nev­er saw any as good Hughy & Tom­my had their full share of the  fun I assure — Tom­my offi­ci­at­ed as “a wash­er­woman” at a big tub  with cap, pet­ti­coats, etc etc — and Hugh was dressed as a “page”  and he gave it as his opin­ion that he was the pret­ti­est one there the inno­cence of
child­hood! I like to pro­long it as long as pos­si­ble.  You will be sur­prised to hear that I was at a par­ty last night. We were at  that hand­some house on the hill near Pottsville where the  Mon­u­ment stands. Mrs Banan came and invit­ed the whole Camp­bell  par­ty as well as some oth­er ladies in the house — we had a very  nice tea, and ice cream etc etc after tea — they had been at the  tableaux here the
evening before — Cousin Mary & I ordered ice cream and cake as  refresh­ments con­sid­er­ing that as our part in the necessary

[Page 3] preper­a­tions. I met at Mrs Banan’s at Capt Sim­mons of  the army and his lady we had a good deal of talk togeth­er She knows
all of our army friends in St Louis, she had a very star­tling  occur­rence to spoil her evening, a young son who has just been a  month at West Point and is about to be phys­i­cal­ly exam­ined as  to his qual­i­fi­ca­tion for that pro­fes­sion had a hemaraghe from the lungs and with the blood com­ing from mouth and nose came up the  hill on foot to
find his Moth­er & father who were sit­ting play­ing whist Their  plea­sure was soon destroyed. I’m told she has lost maybe t??  before in that way as soon as they come to matu­ri­ty. I  sym­pa­thized with her very much. Sis­ter and Bet­ty seem to be very  hap­py here. I intend to write to Moth­er very soon. I want Sis­ter  to write her own ver­sion of Bet­ty’s love affair

[Page 4] Bet­ty is not for­ward in her ways at all she seems to  love fun
and danc­ing and is a very cheer­ful talk­a­tive hap­py dis­po­si­tion I  think in a month she will not care a ??? for her dandy danc­ing  ?eau. I have not said a word to her about it, ??? she to me.  Broth­er Hugh is going down to the city tomor­row — there is some  lit­tle busi­ness doing and I think he tires of the monot­o­ny here — to us it is very pleas­ant and our sewing and gos­sip occu­pies us. dear lit­tle Hazlett is com­pa­ny for us all with his sweet tongue  — he is the dear­est child ever was — he enjoyed the tableaux very much — but said “I wont keep still” I will talk” when Mr  Whitak­er was recit­ing a long pro­gramme he made every
body laugh.

The wid­ow Mrs Bryan with her family

[Page 5, on Page 1] are here — I should rather be at
home — (not sure which sen­tence is next} They all think the  Daguerre good, but old­er than you a good deal. I like it pret­ty  well. I do not think it is a very good one, but the chil­dren  think it is just like you, so it is bet­ter than none.

Hugh sends his good love he reads a good deal to me I had a very  nice let­ter from Cousin Mis­souri say­ing many kind things of you  your kind­ness­es to aunt Bet­sy. {} if l were She ‑I sup­pose she  thinks it will do her chil­dren good

Dear hus­band I feel so sor­ry to think you are out in St Louis  alone ‑I feel anx­ious to hear what you do with your­self where you eat and so on Give my love to Mr Branch and Macken­zie & Woods if you see them

Your affect wife
VJ Campbellletter