History of Schuyler County; p 796; CAMPBELL, Joseph W.
The upward struggle of Joseph W. Campbell expresses rare ability to
overcome obstacles and make the most of opportunities. This long time resident
of Schuyler County, who owns 180 acres of land in Section 13, Rushville Township,
is a native of Armstrong County, Pa., where he was born January 29, 1843.
Behind him are the advantages of excellent birth and breeding, of practical
education, and family history closely interwoven with the momentous events
which have shaped the history of this country. His parents, Joseph and Elizabeth
(Hallabaugh) Campbell, also were natives of Pennsylvania, and his maternal
grandparents born in Germany. John Campbell, his paternal grandfather, came
from Ireland, his wife being born in Scotland. John Campbell shouldered a
musket in the Revolutionary War, and also fought in the Indian War, enlisting
from Pennsylvania. His son, Joseph, after acquiring an education under difficulties,
and because he was able to pay his own way, devoted his life to educational
work to the end that he was recognized as one of the ablest and most successful
teachers in Armstrong County. Of the family of twelve children, Joseph W.
was the only son and is the only survivor. Nine of the daughters grew to
womanhood, while two died in infancy. The mother subsequently became the
wife of Henry Rhodebush, and in 1853 came by water to Illinois, where she
remained with her husband for six months in Pleasantview. They then bought
forty acres of land in Frederick Township, and in the spring of 1866 moved
to Missouri, and soon after to Kansas, where the mother died. The step-father
finally returned to Schuyler County, where his death occured in 1901. His
son, John Rhodebush, lives in Kansas.
Joseph W. Campbell was ten years old when he came with his mother
and step-father to Schuyler County in 1853. A year later he went to work
for a Mr. Edgar as chore-boy on a farm, remaining in that capacity a couple
of years, and receiving as wages his room and board. At the age of thirteen
years he went to work for an uncle, and at the expiration of three years
received as compensation for work performed the sum of fifty dollars. When
sixteen years had rolled over his head he received
twenty-five cents a day and board during the summer, and about the same during
the winter. In his monotonous and work-weary life, the prospects of service
in the Civil War was by no means disheartening, and this same service proved
the mettle of the boy and assisted in the framing of the
character of the man. Enlisting in Company D, One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois
Volunteer Infantry for three years, he was sent to Kentucky and marched twice
through that State, and subsequently marched across Tennessee four or five
times. The One Hundred and Fifteenth took part in the battles of Dalton and
Resaca, was two days at Chickamauga, and at Lookout Mountain it was the first
to climb to the top of the Mountain. At the block-house fight forty-eight
men of the company, including Mr. Campbell, were placed in the house to keep
at bay Hood's army of forty thousand men until the United States forces could
be rallied. During this encounter five of the forty-eight were killed, twenty-two
wounded, and
twenty-one able bodied men were taken prisoners and placed in Andersonville
prison. Thirteen of these managed to be paroled at Millen, Ga. At the block-house
Mr. Campbell was among the wounded, and on that account he was paroled and
sent home, returning, however, within thirty days to join his regiment, at
Montgomery, Ala. Finally he was honorably discharged in June, 1865, and thereupon
returned To Schuyler County to take up the burden of farming.
October 25, 1865, Mr. Campbell was united in marriage to Martha Ann
Teal, a native of Ohio, and daughter of John Teal, one of the pioneers of
Schuyler County. The same year Mr. Campbell bought twenty-nine acres of land
in Section 13, Rushville Township, which land had on it a log cabin with
puncheon floor, and here the wife died in 1868, leaving a daughter, Clara
May, who died at the age
of nineteen years. For his second wife, Mr. Campbell married October 25,
1870, Miss Elizabeth McNeely, who was born in Schuyler County in 1849, a
daughter of John McNeely, also an early settler of this County, and long
since deceased. The year of his second marriage, Mr. Campbell sold his
twenty-nine acres of land, and in 1872 bought forty acres in Section 7, Browning
Township, which, like his former farm, had a log cabin and few improvements.
In 1879 he bought thirty acres in the same section, later sixty acres, and
still later forty acres in Section 13, Rushville Township, and forty acres
in Browning Township, having 180 acres in one body in Rushville and Browning
Townships. In 1884 he moved to his present home in Section 13, where he has
many fine improvements, and is conducting
general farming and stock-raising under the most favorable conditions.
By his second marriage Mr. Campbell has had nine children: Minnie,
deceased wife of Oliver Martin, and mother of Jerry, William and Madison
Martin; Charles T., born October 9, 1873, married Sadie Howe, has four children
named Ollie, Maggie, Hanna and Shelton, and is engaged in carpenter work;
Inza Ann, born August 20, 1876, wife of Oliver Martin, mother of Dannie and
Dora Martin, and lives in McDonough County, Ill.; James Eli, born June 12,
1880, a farmer on the old homestead, married Grace Stephens, and they live
on the home farm and have two children, Minnie and Homer; Ina E., born July
18, 1883, wife of William Reno, has one child, Inza B., and is a foreman
in the Macomb Pottery Works; Austin, born April 28, 1885, living at home;
Valentine, born February 14, 1887; and Otis, born July 21, 1890. Few more
industrious men have contributed to the growth of Schuyler County than Mr.
Campbell. He has known little of the leisure or diversions of life, but has
made of his work an expression of himself, a rendering of his character in
material form. He is honored because he is honest and fair, loyal and obliging,
and because once known, he always may be depended on to do the best that
the situation requires.
From: Robin Petersen 1861 Militia Roll
