My Genealogy Hound

CHARLES FENELON CAMPBELL (deceased) was born at Lexington, Va., September 13, 1803. His father was a farmer and a practicing physician. His mother was a sister of Dr. Archibald Alexander, President of Princeton University. There were five sons and three daughters in the family. One of the sons became a preacher, two lawyers, and one a doctor, while one died young. The subject of this sketch graduated at Washington College, Lexington, Va., and afterward graduated at a military school at that point. Studying law, he was admitted to the bar, and removed to Ohio to practice, choosing a Northern State in preference, because of slavery at the South, though his parents were slaveholders. In 1824, he located at Georgetown, Brown Co., Ohio, for the practice of his chosen profession. Remaining at Georgetown a short time, he removed to Ripley, where he spent the remainder of his days. His tastes were of a literary character, and, in 1840, he published the Ohio Whig at Ripley. In 1849, he purchased a controlling interest in the Ripley Bee, which he edited up to the time of his death. As a writer, he was graceful, logical and fair, and his editorials were copied throughout the State. As a lawyer, he was noted for his thorough understanding of the principles of law, and he was consulted by the members of his profession throughout the county. As a practitioner, he was not successful as the world views success. He was conscientious, and dissuaded rather than encouraged men to engage in law suits, and his fees were so moderate that he did himself injustice. Although a member of a profession that is often censured for its lack of strict integrity, he won the sobriquet of “Honest Charley,” and went to his grave universally esteemed and respected. Talented, educated, and in the strictest sense a man of honor and integrity, he was one who would have graced any public position; but his modest character kept him from even pushing his claims upon the public, and such honors as he wore came to him unsought. He was elected Mayor of his village, Justice of the Peace, and Probate Judge of the county, and was once a candidate for State Senator. Being an ardent Whig and Republican, and those parties being in the minority in his county, his chances for political preferment were small, yet he was always an ardent advocate of his party. When the war broke out, though nearly sixty years of age, he was active in the raising and drilling of troops, his military education making him one of a very few who were then capacitated for that work. In 1831, he was married to Harriett E. Kephart at Ripley, who still survives him. To them were born six children, five sons and one daughter — Angus K., Frank T., J. Q. A., William Archie, Charles D. and Mary A. The five sons have all edited papers in Ohio and Iowa, and J. Q. A. is still editing the Bellefontaine (Ohio) Republican, which he has edited ever since the war. Angus K. is an attorney at Newton, Iowa; Frank T. has served two terms as Lieutenant Governor of Iowa; William A. is a prominent business man at Lima, Ohio, and Charles D. is Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth United States District of Ohio at Bellefontaine. Mary Antoinetta was married to James W. Christie, since deceased, and lives with her mother at Ripley, and is a teacher in the Union schools. Three of the sons— Frank T., J. Q. A. — and William A. served in the army, and C. D., who was too young to enter the service, in the Home Guards. The subject of this sketch died at Georgetown, Ohio, August 2, 1864, of fever while serving as Probate Judge of the county, leaving to his children a character and memory more precious and more cherished than any material possessions or worldly fortune could have been, and his name will always be held in respect by the community with whom he spent this life.