Tag Archives: St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick’s day from Campbell House Museum

With Camp­bell House­’s mul­ti­ple con­nec­tions to the Emer­ald Isle, we could­n’t let St. Patrick­’s day pass us by with­out rec­og­niz­ing it.  Both Robert Camp­bell and his broth­er Hugh emi­grat­ed from Ire­land to Amer­i­ca.  Oth­er Camp­bell rel­a­tives even­tu­al­ly fol­lowed, but many remained behind.  Today we post a 1937 St. Patrick­’s Day let­ter between two mem­bers of Robert’s extend­ed Irish fam­i­ly, at least one of whom has moved to the US and lives in a place called Hugh­esville.  It talks not only about their lives but also reports on the state of their cousin Hazlett Camp­bell, Robert’s last liv­ing son.  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.  Hap­py St. Patrick­’s Day from Camp­bell House Muse­um, home of a true Irishman!

This St Patrick’s day The USA 1937 at Hughesville …….

Dear Lady McFarlane.

So long since I rit­ten,  so long since I heard from you. Ill­ness has kept me silent, am nor­mal again now. Spring is in the air & the fine sun­shine will make me strong again. Our win­ter has been long and severe.

The coun­try is beau­ti­ful and up on my Plan­ta­tion things are begin­ning to hum. There has been so much fail­ure in crops in the past three years that the start this sea­son most hope­ful­ly on account of the fine & recent rains.

An indi­rect word from St Louis and cousin Hazlett Camp­bell came yes­ter­day, that he was quite well , had passed a night in excel­lent condition.

He has such per­fect care tak­en of him. About a year ago one of his old­est atten­dants, a ser­vant that had been with him 35 years had died, & yes the man ser­vant is left doing time­ly duty as he promised cousin Hugh Camp­bell he would. The old Camp­bell home where Hazlett lives is a fine estab­lish­ment …….. run & con­duct­ed beau­ti­ful­ly by 5 ser­vants, his Dr & lawyer, com­ing reg­u­lar­ly to see him & look after his uncle.

You must rite to me & tell me how the world is treat­ing you & your chil­dren. Best wish­es of my heart brings this to you

Your Cor­dial­ly

Mrs C Annie S MacFarlane.