Biography of Edward Campbell, pages 857/858/859.   History of DeKalb 
County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.



Edward Campbell



	To indulge in prolix encomiun of life which is one of distinctive 
modesty and unpretentiousness would be most incongruous, and yet in 
reviewing the career of the subject of this sketch, who is one of the 
sterling agriculturists of Smithfield township, DeKalb county, and who 
holds a position of unequivocal confidence and esteem in the community 
in which he has long lived and labored to so goodly ends, feelings of 
admiration are prompted.

	Edward Campbell was born on August 14, 1841, in Summit county, 
Ohio, and is the son of Abel and Jane (Taylor) Campbell. Abel Campbell 
was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, on October 26, 1807, and 
when a boy moved with his parents to Stark county, Ohio, where he was 
reared and married on June 16, 1831, to Jane Taylor, also a native of 
Washington county Pennsylvania, born on May 25, 1812. In 1836 they 
moved to Summit county, Ohio, and thence to DeKalb county, making the 
journey by team, taking two weeks to make the trip, and locating on the 
southwest quarter of section 28, Smithfield township, on the 12th of 
May, 1847.  This farm had been entered in 1836 by John Taylor, father 
of Mrs. Campbell, who sold it to Andrew Houhn, from whom Mr. Campbell 
bought it.   Sixteen acres were cleared and there was a small, round-
log house on the land into which the family moved.  Mr. Campbell 
cleared about seventy-five acres and erected good buildings, making it 
his home until his death, which occurred on November 9, 1860.  They had 
a family of eight children. Abel Campbell was one of the most prominent 
men of his community and in politics was first a Whig, but later a 
strong supporter of the Republican party.  His death occurred on the 
day following the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.  His 
wife lived to a ripe old age, her death occurring on the old homestead 
farm on May 20, 1903, when she lacked but twenty days of being ninety-
one years old.  Abel Campbell followed active farming pursuits up to 
the time of his death and served one term as trustee of Smithfield 
township.

	Edward Campbell was reared to the life of a farmer and was 
successful in his pursuit.  He remained with his mother after his 
father’s death and was drafted for military service during the Civil 
war. His mother being a widow with three children to care for, the 
subject felt it his duty to remain at home and help her, and he 
therefore purchased his release, obtaining a substitute at Waterloo, to 
whom he paid three hundred dollars. This money he was compelled to 
borrow and thus when he returned home he was three hundred dollars in 
debt.  However, he went to work in earnest on the homestead farm and 
eventually rented one hundred and sixty acres known as the old

Campbell farm, to which he kept adding by buying the interests of the 
other heirs.  This farm he still retains and has maintained it through 
the years at the highest possible standard of excellence, so that it 
has been long considered one of the noted farms of Smithfield township.  
The place is kept well improved in every respect, the old buildings 
being commodious and convenient, the soil’s fertility being conserved, 
and in every respect Mr. Campbell has shown his ability as a 
progressive and enterprising farmer.

	On May 4, 1865, Mr. Campbell married Marium Childs, daughter of 
B.E. and Jane A. (Wood) Childs.  Mr. Childs, who was a native of New 
York state, was a farmer and also worked at the carpenter trade, 
although agriculture commanded the greater part of his attention.  He 
came to DeKalb county, Indiana, in September, 1847, buying forty acres 
of land in Fairfield township, which he traded five years later for one 
hundred and eleven acres in Smithfield township, to the operation of 
which he gave his attention until his death, which occurred in 1878.  
He was an active Republican in politics, but held no offices.  He was 
well liked, thoroughly posted in all the branches of agriculture and 
was successful in his operations.  He was a faithful member of the 
Methodist church.  His wife, on coming west, came as near as she could 
to DeKalb county by canal boat in 1847, and prior to her marriage was a 
seamstress and also taught school. To Mr. and

Mrs. Childs were born eight children: Theodocia, Marvin, Marium, 
Frances, Martha J., Sarah A., Henry and Anson A.   Theodocia became the 
wife of Henry Willing, and she now lives at Los Angeles, California.  
Her husband was a successful merchant in Iowa and died there, after 
which she moved west.  She had two children, Arminta and William; Henry 
Charles is a railroad carpenter and lives in Hudson, Steuben county, 
Indiana; Sarah Childs became the wife of William Hefty, of Hicksville, 
Ohio, and they have four children, three boys and a girl; Martha J. is 
the wife of Andrew Cole, and they live in Iowa; they have four 
children; Henry Childs, who operated the home farm for a years, is 
still following agricultural pursuits.  To Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have 
been born five children, Frank, Elnora, Albertus, Clark and Thomas S.  
Elnora is the wife of Oliver Hinman, a carpenter at Waterloo, and they 
have one child, Mary W.

	Politically, Mr. Campbell is an ardent Republican and has been 
influential in advancing the interests of that party in this locality, 
fraternally, he has for a half century been an enthusiastic member of 
the Masonic order, being the only survivor of the charter members of 
this lodge at Waterloo.  On the 25th of August, 1913, a party of thirty 
members of this lodge came to Mr. Campbell’s home and presented him 
with a jeweled gold Masonic emblem bar pin, which he prizes very 
highly.  In every phase of life’s activities in which he has engaged 
Mr. Campbell has performed his full part and, because of his genuine 
worth, his business success and his interest in the welfare of  the 
community, he is deserving of the high place he holds in public esteem.



Submitted by:

Arlene Goodwin

Auburn, Indiana

Agoodwin@ctlnet.com