Goddess Ishtar (Inanna) on an Akkadian Empire seal, 2350–2150 BC. She is equipped with weapons on her back, has a horned helmet, and is trampling a lion held on a leash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inanna
Despite the exquisite engineering that has brought us to our modern stage of humanity, we are—most of us, for the most part—still ruled by our animal brain. That doesn’t mean we don’t feel the pressure of our extraterrestrial part. To whatever extent our consciousness has been cut off from awareness of our genetic inheritance from our Sirius ancestors (or Pleiades, Orion’s Belt, etc., or perhaps all of these), the barrier to self-knowledge needs to be struck down so that we can see our true nature.
Admittedly, our ET brain has started to recognize itself. Perhaps there have been a few who have known over the millennia, but those were the exceptions often targeted for hostility by the rest of our herd. As our culture and technology advances, allowing us finally to know about DNA and gene manipulation as well as space travel, the possibilities of our origins have become more understandable. Of course there are some primitive tribes like the Dogon of West Africa who have not lost their awareness of ancestry from Sirius although in recent decades their primal knowledge has been polluted by the evangelizing of other religious beliefs.
Glimmers of our extraterrestrial/animal dualism leak into our consciousness in various ways, but only enough to cause suffering. Which is not how it was meant. There have been many times when one or more group of extraterrestrials tried to help us. We are, apparently, a project of theirs whose intervention has advanced our slow progress toward Homo sapiens. Interventions by these visitors have made our previous animal brain receptive to extraterrestrial consciousness. The evidence of these phases increasingly appears in the fossilized remains of a long list of human predecessors. The most recent in our great span of becoming: Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo naledi, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo denisova, and currently Homo sapiens.
Sumerians recorded what they could of this extraterrestrial history in their Enūma Eliš circa 3350 BC. All early human histories agree that gods came from the sky not only to shape the human being but also to share important knowledges including astrology, mathematics, writing and an alphabet, metallurgy, measurement of time, and much more.[1] Typical of our domineering animal brain, we have manipulated these teachings into power structures by which to control each other for our own advantages. Religious dogma commands we must rely on faith in a religion’s particular set of rules which denies us any chance to let our ET emerge.
Yet even without any awareness, that genetic force pushes us beyond norms to do things that defy explanation like creating music that expresses the conflict. Music, as vibration, is the natural medium of our extraterrestrial existence. The dichotomy between our ET and our animal form is unmistakable in songs like “Creep,” by Radiohead. Lyrics author Thom Yorke dismissed the song, remembering his depressed state of mind in the late 1980s while at college. He particularly didn’t like the lines, “What the hell am I doing here / I don’t belong here.” Bandmate Jonny Greenwood contributed the abrasive guitar hits that accompany the chorus where the lyrics break into “I’m a creep. I’m a weirdo.” Yorke said the guitar sound was as if the song was “slashing its wrists. Halfway through the song it suddenly starts killing itself off, which is the whole point of the song really. It’s a real self-destruct song, there’s a real self-destruction ethic in a lot of the things we do onstage.”[2]
Unlike the interpretations including that of Yorke himself, this song is largely not about a young male’s angst over a girl. That’s the surface meaning. Underneath, it’s about how we live with a level of grief over the loss of contact with our ET consciousness and don’t know how to understand that part of ourselves or what to do with it. For millennia, whatever knowledge might be understood innately has been funneled into religion, a terribly destructive force in the world.
The arts and sciences are often the fields pursued by those possessing the greatest amount of ET genes. Nicola Tesla, for example, suffered at the mercy of his inner ET when he pursued his experiments in electricity and many other scientific advances that wouldn’t be fully appreciated in his lifetime. “If you want to find the secrets of the universe,” he once said, “think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” He was ridiculed, shunned, and died penniless. Yet these fields are the very focus of present-day breakthrough research.
In September 2023, a video was produced on the subject of vibration and quantum physics:
“The Law of Vibration and Quantum Physics: A Dance of Energy and Matter” delves into the intrinsic connection between ancient wisdom and modern scientific discoveries. This video explores how everything in the universe, from our thoughts to the farthest star, operates on vibrational frequencies. By weaving insights from quantum physics with practical implications in health, relationships, and everyday life, the piece offers a compelling perspective on our interconnected reality and the profound influence of vibrational energies on our existence.”[3]
Albert Einstein reported that “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.”
Music is vibration.
In my book Chroma: Light Being Human, I made an attempt to imagine the process by which extraterrestrials gradually managed to create a place in our ape brains to receive their energy. I believe we are now in another genetic change period. The signs are here.
What if we knew that what has been called our ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’ is in fact an extraterrestrial presence, that we are an animal creature selectively bred over millennia to host the presence of a vibration that carries a consciousness from beyond this planet?
But then, isn’t that exactly what religion has sidetracked? Worldwide, all the early religions describe beings arriving from the sky, variously described as light or bright, riding in flying carriages that arrive in great noise or in fire-breathing dragons flying through the air and often portrayed with wings. The beings are said to have created us. They have taught us rules to live by, sometimes offering ET teachers who lived among us. Sadly, we’ve been led astray by priests who have misinterpreted everything out of denial, ignorance, or to justify their animal brain’s arrogance and hunger for power.
Our understanding has been complicated and delayed by the slow progress of science, progress which has been fought tooth and nail by religion. How could we have understood the method by which we evolved without understanding genetics? Or the nature of the universe? Our animal brains had no appreciation of machines or science. We saw magic and mysteries wrought by supernatural beings who flew down from ‘heaven.’ We offered sacrifices of our most valued possessions, our food, our wealth, our children, in order to appease these ‘gods.’ We fell in line before the priests who claimed to represent the gods. The history of our destructive religions is all too plain to see.
Now it’s time to grow up into our current times and scientific knowledge, and accept that ET is among us, that we are ET as much as ape.
Smelser, Andrews, Clark, Hall, Massey, and Eubanks
Plus Lovelady and Futrell
in Greene County, Arkansas
Combining generations of family history and up-to-date genealogical information, this collection of ancestry information tracks a group of families which settled in Greene County, Arkansas in the first two decades of statehood. Family trees, deed records, census records, and other official records create a factual framework for personal narratives and vintage photographs, creating a fascinating archive of information for any descendant of these families as well as any fan of local history.
Each marriage between these pioneer families brought certain talents and backgrounds to the next generation. They farmed the rich land of Crowley’s Ridge and other Greene County areas, weathered the storms of poverty and loss, and suffered the losses to sickness and war. Yet they survived, and their great-grandchildren entered the twentieth century determined to continue as they had begun.
Now the 21st century brings us the internet with its vast collection of historical documents, making it finally possible to reflect on their adventures and aspirations. The story of these families is the story of thousands of us descended from them. Includes an extensive ‘vocabulary’ of downhome sayings.
How to Tell Your Story: A Guide for Personal Memoir or Family History
This holiday season, take advantage of family gatherings to save your ancestral history. For the first time in history, you have the opportunity to put your masterpiece ideas into bookstores without a middleman. This revolution in communication comes with a price, however, a steep learning curve about which technology to use and how to use it. That’s where this book comes in handy.
The first part of this book covers the fundamental stages of self-publishing: what software to use and how to use it, step-by-step guidance for working with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, and understanding important elements like genre. You’ll find discussion about getting reviews and marketing as well as useful hints about maintaining those tender creative sensibilities in the face of seemingly overwhelming obstacles.
The second part provides organizational and writing guidelines for the personal memoir as well as family history. How do you transform the bare bones of genealogical research into a compelling narrative? How do you flesh out the story of a transformative period of your life? Take notes when an older relative starts reminiscing. Someday you’ll be glad you did.
Previously, so-called vanity presses charged a stiff fee to take a manuscript and turn it into a book. Now with print-on-demand technology, the self-publishing author doesn’t need to pay a dime to publish a paperback or e-book. That memoir or family history or sure-to-be-a-bestseller novel only needs some basic pointers to go from brainstorm to reality. Start writing!
My mother’s family at St. Paul, Arkansas, early 1920s. Mom is third from left.
Without question, discovering the people from whom you descend is an exhilarating and fascinating endeavor. Idiosyncrasies of your known kinsmen—and yourself—suddenly make a lot of sense, not to mention that red hair or tall stature. It’s remarkably emotional to learn of an ancestor who fought to the death in a war or whose wife–your 3x great grandmother–died in house fire.
Several internet sources for genealogical information are free—simply search “Name” “date of birth” and if you know it, “location” and you’ll discover a group of results with respectable information. Sadly, you’ll also discover a trove of spammers and click bait.
But a word to the wise. The most extensive and useful source, Ancestry.com, also can be less than forthcoming. Here are a few helpful hints.
Using the “Search” “All Collections” option yields the best results especially for a beginner. Once you’ve entered the name and whatever other information you may have on hand, you’ll find results that don’t exactly match up with what you’re looking for.
Refinements could include selecting the gender for your subject, isolating the location to “exact” as shown by the arrow, and narrowing the birth year to within a year or two of the assumed date of birth. Yet in the case of Albert Taylor as shown in the image, the search yields nothing more than the 1860 census where, at age 17, he and his 19-year-old sister Jane reside in the household of Alcie Haton [Heaton] to whom his relationship is not known.
My interest in Albert Taylor is his military record with the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, U.S., where he served in Company L as a private. His death in the regiment records occurred February 22, 1863, as shown on one of the most extensive records of Civil War military personnel, the Edward G. Gerdes Civil War homepage. He is also listed in this regiment at the National Park Service website. But in Ancestry.com, his name does not appear in military records.
One of the most frustrating of Ancestry.com problems is the tendency of many family historians to simply duplicate what someone else has posted to that lineage history without confirming any of the information. In an ideal situation, a search of Family Trees produces a lot of histories. For example, my search for information about Van Buren Covington, who lost his life in 1864 while serving in Co. A, 1st AR Cavalry, led to an Ancestry.com Family Tree record showing only one result, as seen below. The only option from here is to click on the name of his fourteen-year-old bride, which yields her family background, locations of family members, and other possibly useful leads.
But in many cases, Family Tree results show one or two trees with two or three ‘records’ or ‘sources’ and then the rest of the trees, of which there may be dozens, have no records and only one source, if any. Inevitably, these trees perpetuate inaccurate information and are simply not to be trusted. This problem grows exponentially as you track family trees back through generations because researching materials established before modern record keeping involves tedious attention to details often preserved in an arcane manner. So don’t just take the first couple of family trees as gospel; make a thorough investigation of those with the most sources and records, and compare the information before accepting it.
One option with a search result like this one with 0 records and 0 sources is to do another search on the father’s name. Or continue with this search until you find some with multiple records and sources.
Note: If your ancestry leads you to records in another country, you’ll have to pay Ancestry.com an additional subscription fee in order to access those records.
Ancestry.com is very much a user-created database assisted by an extensive organizational effort on the part of the company to provide as many institutional records as possible. But nothing is perfect. Subscribe if you want to search your genealogy, enjoy the nuggets of pure gold that you find, but always remain aware that in order to glean the greatest accuracy, you must not only limit your family tree searches to those with multiple records and sources, but also compare them to information found on other internet sites.
For Van Buren Covington, an internet search beyond Ancestry.com resulted in several discoveries. Geni.com shows his full name was Martin Van Buren Covington, born in 1839, not 1837. It also shows family members. But beware—Geni.com is one of those sites that requires membership before giving out any further info. You may find useful free resources at genealogy.com and many more. Bottom line? HAVE FUN!
John Randolph Campbell, holding a Bible, believed in his late 20s circa 1875-1880
Records of John Randolph’s birth name a birth year of 1853, although various other records show conflicting dates. A church record states that he was born December 24, 1853, in Independence County, Arkansas. In 1873 at age 19, he married Sarah “Sally” Elizabeth Prince at Sulphur Rock, Independence County, Arkansas. She was his second cousin once removed.
Miss Prince was born September 1849 in Tennessee, daughter of William Prince and Martha Lamberson. This Lamberson is related to John’s mother’s family: Melinda was her first cousin once removed. William J. Prince was born 1813 in Georgia, and died during the Civil War in Independence County, Arkansas, as did his wife Martha Lamberson Prince, born 1825 in North Carolina. Sarah Sally’s siblings were William H., b 1842 TN (CSA AR 8th Inf. Co. E, enrolled August 6, 1862 at Sulphur Rock, AR, between Newark and Batesville); Mary A., born 1847 TN (married James Scott); Virginia b 1850 MS; James Ferdinand b 1852 AR; Martha Jane b 1857 AR (married George Hill 1872; David Bruton 1879); John T. b 1858 AR; Tennessee “Babe” b 1860 (raised by Mary, married Riley Whaley).
Birth records for the couple’s sixth child, Benjamin, dated 1888, states that John age 38 was a farmer and preacher, born at Newark Arkansas, and that Sarah age 40 was born in Mississippi.
John Randolph Campbell and his new wife Sally produced the following children:
i. Emma Campbell b. 1874, Newton Co., AR, d. 1888 of rheumatic fever at age fourteen
ii. Mary Molly Campbell b 1876, m. Frank Pratt(s). Children were Mabel m. Fred Albert; Lizzie m. John Hilburn; Beulah; Pierce; Lennox; Urcil “Huck”; Margie; Nettie (died).
iii. John William Campbell, b 1878, m. Mary Jane Ellis. John William is the great-great grandfather of my three Campbell children.
iv. Jack O’Neil, b. Dec 25, 1882 at Newark, Indep. Co, AR, d. Apr 14, 1960, Newport, married July 19, 1903 to Emma Bell Hicks and produced Lennie Mae, Bertha, Commie O’Neal, Rutha Lee, and Opal Christine. Jack then married Donnie Inness and produced another eight children: Edna Irene, Burl Nathaniel, Aubrey Evereett, Almeta Beatrice, Leeaun Utah, J. C., Alvin Newton, and Thelma Joyce.
v. James Campbell b 1880, m. Mary Willis. Children were Dallas, Nanny, and another daughter.
vi. Clu Campbell, died at age 9 – not found in family birth records
vii. Benjamin Harvey Campbell, b June 14, 1888, Pleasant Plains, Indep. Co AR, d. Nov 19, 1966, Newport, Jackson Co, AR. married Willie Hicks, married Ocra Ellen Tibbs, and their children were Eva Jewell and Clemins Alvin. He then married Helen Carmen “Nell” Yancy, and produced Vesta Lola, Virginia Vivian, Mather Carnell, Veda Lee, Milous Harvey, and Benjamin Morris.
The 1880 Newton County Arkansas census for Jackson Township lists John Campbell age 26 with wife Sarah age 25, with children Emma age 6, Mary age 4, John age 2, and James six months. John’s occupation was farming.
John Randolph and Sarah Prince Campbell, circa 1900
The 1900 census for Fairview Township, Newton County (?) lists John R. Campbell age 46 as a mail carrier, land owner with a mortgage, married 27 years to Sarah, age 50, with seven children of which five were living. Jackson, age 17, was a hack driver, and Harvey age 13 was a farm laborer. They housed a lodger named William Hicks. The 1920 census for Jackson County Arkansas, Richwoods Township, finds John R. Campbell age 67 and Sarah A. age 72 living in a rented home, with his occupation described as clergyman and evangelist. The 1930 census for Amagon (Richwoods Twp) lists John R. age 80 and Sarah age 84 living in a rented home without occupation.
John Randolph was about five-nine at 185 pounds, although in older age he became “heavy set.” He worked as an itinerant preacher, following the Church of Christ denomination. “On September 29, 1895, John R. Campbell was authorized to work as an evangelist by the “Disciples of Christ, worshiping at Surrounded Hill Arkansas.” In 1889, he was ordained as a preacher by E. M Kilpatrick, and J. L. Kitridge, Clerk for Tex-Ark & Indian Territory: Credentials, page 32.
This poor quality image shows John Randolph in the process of baptizing a convert, date unknown.
According to one descendant, “John Randolph used to preach near Bradford [Arkansas] at least once a month; Aunt Nell [wife of Benjamin Harvey] remembers hearing him preach in 1914 near Swifton … said his name was Campbell and he was a Campbellite preacher. In 1917 he lived in the Pennington community and preached at different places. He received very little money as payment, mostly fresh vegetables, canned food, and some meats. Aunt Nell said she overheard some older women talking about the time he received a large handkerchief and two week’s board for holding a meeting. He preached some at Amagon and went to church barefoot … services were held in the schoolhouse.”
John Randolph and Sally, date and location unknown
He also rented farms to grow cotton and he traded horses and any other item of value. When his third child John William and family settled in Fayetteville after 1918, John Randolph and Sarah joined them, living first at John William’s store at the corner of Rock and Mill, then on Frisco Street and finally on the south side of Spring Street in the four hundred block before moving back to east Arkansas. His grandson John Carl later recollected that he drove an old Overland Blue Bird.
Overland Blue Bird
One descendant stated that “John R. Campbell was a preacher. He was really a corker. Pulled some pretty good stunts. Think he drank a lot.” It was said by his grandson Zack that there were only two places that John Randolph would drink home brew, and that was “on this side of the Bible and on the other side.” His wife Sally dipped snuff, and sometimes smoked a cob pipe. Sally’s daughter-in-law (Mary Jane Ellis) stated that the Prince women were known to have “woods colts,” a euphemism for illegitimate children. In old age, Sally suffered a “dowager’s hump,” now known as osteoporosis. Sally and John Randolph both died in the Newport Arkansas area.
Mary Molly Campbell
Little is known about William and Melinda Campbell’s second child, Mary Molly. She is not listed in the 1860 census of Howell County Missouri. Later records show her spouse as John Willis Payne. Willis was born in 1854 in Kentucky, with both parents also born in Kentucky.
Willis and Mary Payne are found in the 1880 Newton County, Arkansas census, Jackson Township, at ages 25 and 26, respectively, evidence she was born in 1855 two years after John Randolph. Also in the household is her younger brother James, listed a ‘boarder.’
In a letter dated 1971 from Elizabeth Campbell Farmer, daughter of James “Jim” William Campbell, Elizabeth states: “Mary Payne is my papa’s (Jim Campbell) only sister. We called her Aunt Molly and she was married to Willis Payne.”
After 1880, Willis and Mary vanish from public records.
James William Campbell
James William Campbell with his first wife Nancy Jane Bell on his right and her half-sister and his second wife Eliza Lawson on his left, circa 1888. James holds a pistol in his hand.
At age 24, James married Nancy Jane Bell (age 19), daughter of William Levi and Nancy Busby Bell, September 18, 1882, in Newton County, Arkansas. This was two years after he was named as ‘boarder’ in the household of his sister Mary and brother-in-law Willis Payne. James and Nancy moved to Harrison (Boone County) Arkansas but in 1886 they moved back to Newton County where they settled in the Mt. Judea area (pronounced “Judy” by locals). There James dug wells and cisterns and built chimneys, as well as farming his land with cotton, corn, and small grains. He was a “great hand with a scythe and cradle and would get $1.00 per day for cutting wheat, a good wage for that time and more than most men were paid.” His son, Wesley A. Monroe, said they had “biscuits one to three times each day during the wheat harvest then cornbread three times a day for the rest of the year.”
He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1892 and remained in office for years. About the same time the family moved into a “box” house on land they homesteaded, a cause for celebration since most families lived in rough log cabins. In his capacity as JP, he married many couples and was said to shed tears during the ceremonies. He only went to school two days in his life, according to his descendants, but was a self-educated man. He taught school two summers – “Script” or conscript school. Each family paid one dollar for each child attending.
James and Nancy Jane Bell Campbell 1905, with children Dewey Floyd (between them) and Rosa on right
In the fall of the year, James would go away to pick cotton (probably in the river bottoms) and would take his wife’s handicapped half-sister Eliza Lawson as well as his older children. His wife Nancy Jane stayed home to care for the younger children and the homestead. It is said that James and Eliza lived as husband and wife during the cotton-picking trips. Nancy spun thread and wove most the cloth used for their clothes, including coats. The pants and coats were made of half wool and half cotton, called “linsey-woolsey.”
James also served in some capacity with the Spear Mining Company for their lead and zinc mine near Pendle. He was a school trustee for the board of education and helped to hire teachers. He was a “jack of all trades,” doctoring animals and people by setting broken limbs on splits that he whittled. He farmed and grew everything his family ate, including the livestock.
The eleven children of James and Nancy, as well as his child by Eliza Lawson and children by Nancy Walls, his third wife, are not listed for sake of privacy.
Sarah E. Campbell
The 1860 census, taken July 19, gives Sarah’s age as one month. Thereafter, no record of her is found. Assumed she died in infancy.
A story passed down through William’s great grandson John Carl Campbell is that four Campbell brothers stowed away on a ship leaving Liverpool circa 1760 for passage to the American colonies. Upon landing at the Eastern seaboard, the brothers separated and lost contact with each other. One of the brothers, John Campbell, or his son, made his way to Tennessee or eastern Arkansas by the early 1800s.[1]
As stated earlier and by our relative David Dale Combs, another family historian, “After the war in Scotland of the 1700s, Scots came to America by the thousands. Among them were hundreds of Campbell families, and many of them had numerous children. To make matters worse, some of the most common given names in these Campbell families were William, John, and James. …The search for the parents of our William Campbell is equivalent to looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.”
In researching this history, we have found no proof of the Atlantic crossing story. Known historical facts, however, support Dale’s statement.
William’s First Marriage
William’s name appears in public records in Independence County, Arkansas in 1845 when filed for a divorce from his wife Sarah.
A marriage record of William Campbell to Sarah Graves is found in Campbell County, Tennessee, stating that on April 21, 1842 by J. C. Petree, J.P. joined the couple in matrimony. He would have been 22-24 years old at this time, and Sarah 19.
On Thursday, February 6, 1845: PETITION FOR DIVORCE:[2]
William Campbell, complainant vs Sarah Campbell, defendant
William Campbell vs Sarah Campbell: BILL FOR DIVORCE
As now on this day comes the said complainant by his solicitor, and also comes the said defendant in her own proper person, and waives all process, and the service thereof, and files her answer to the complainant’s bill of complaint whereby she admits the charges in said bill. And it appearing to the satisfaction of the court here that the bond of matrimony here-to-fore entered into and none existing, between the said William Campbell and Sarah Campbell be and the same are hereby dissolved, set aside and held for naught, and the said parties and each of them, are hereby restored to all the rights, privileges and immunities of single and unmarried persons.
And it is further ordered and decreed by the court that the said complainant pay all the costs of this suit. Therefore, it is considered by the court that the said defendant do have and recover of and from said plaintiff all the costs in and about this suit expended.
The record makes clear that William was represented by his solicitor and did not show up in person, while Sarah was present “in her own proper person” and “admits the charges in said bill.” Apparently William and Sarah traveled from TN to AR together and came to Independence Co before February 1845. Divorces were extremely rare in those times, generally filed by only the husband in cases of adultery. The information contained here suggests he originated in Campbell County, TN. No further evidence of his place of origins has been found.
This marriage record linked to a death certificate of a male named Manuel Hickey Campbell born January 31, 1843 at Knox Co., TN, as the son of Sarah Graves and William Campbell.[4]
The 1850 census for Campbell Co., TN finds Sarah Graves age 27 living in the household of Ashley and Elizabeth Miller with their four children not including Sarah’s son Manuel. Elizabeth age 25 was the sister of Sarah.[5] This brings up the possibility that upon the divorce, William took Manuel into his household for some unknown period of time. This would be rare for a single man.
1860 census for Glenwood, Mills, IA finds Sarah Campbell age 31, b TN with personal estate of $200 as head of household with Manuel Campbell age 16 and William Campbell age 8. In this record, Sarah states no livelihood and cannot read or write. This record assigns a birth year for William at 1852.[6]
Military records for Manuel H. Campbell show he filed for a disability in 1906, and that he served in the Louisiana 4th Infantry Regiment, Company A, Confederate States of America.[7] The 4th Louisiana Infantry organized at New Orleans, Louisiana in April, 1861. The 4th was included in the surrender on May 4, 1865.Additional military records show he entered the military on 20 Oct 1861.[8]
1870 census found for Emmanuel Campbell, age 27, born TN, living at Haynie Post office, Lyons, Mills Co., IA where he works at farm labor. He has married to Mary Campbell and cannot read or write.
Manuel H. Campbell
Marriage records for M H Campbell shows marriage to Martha Leeky on Nov 8, 1886, at Roane Co., TN.
The 1900 census for William Campbell is taken at Rock Bluff, Cass Co., NE. He’s marked as single age 44, born Feb 1856. Sarah “Burchard” resides with him, age 75, born Dec 1824, widowed, b. TN, parents b TN.[9]
The 1910 census finds Sarah B. Campbell as head of household, age 86 living with William Campbell age 61, born 1849, at Rock Bluff, Cass Co Nebraska. Sarah is still illiterate.[10]
1920 census at Rock Bluff finds William alone, age 68, same data. Next door to two Campbell families apparently not related. Sarah’s death records have not been found. Clearly William (the son) loses track of his age/birth year. The 1900 census that gives Feb 1856 as his birthdate conflicts with the 1860 census when his mother states he was eight years old, i.e. born in 1852. Either way, either he is not the son of William (the older) or William was slipping out on Melinda (not likely).
Manuel’s Find a Grave records shows a birth day of Jan 31, 1843, at Knoxville, TN. His wife was named Martha Elizabeth and they had 13 children with Campbell sons named Clyde J., William Franklin, Manuel Howard, and James Lafayette. He died Mar 25, 1917 at Johnson City, Wash. Co., TN and is buried at Monte Vista Memorial Park.[11]
Was William actually the child of William? Did Sarah name her second son William out of spite, or because he was actually William’s son? If so, that means he slipped around on his new bride Melinda, an unlikely scenario.
William’s Land
Deed records for Independence County show a December 22, 1848 deed (Book G-625) by John L. Waggoner conveying title to William Campbell, both of the county, for the amount of $100 for land described as SE quarter of SW quarter Section 13, and NE quarter of NW quarter Section 24, both Township 12, Range 6 West. Witnessed by Thomas S. Coiles (?) and E. Morgan.
On November 30, 1849, Independence County Deed Book G-624 shows the transfer of land from John Agnew to William Campbell for $55, described as NW quarter of the NE quarter of Sect 24, Township 24, 12 N of Range 6 W, containing 40 acres. Wit. Wm. S. McGuire, Ringgold.
William’s Second Wife
William’s name appeared in the 1850 Arkansas census for Independence County, where he gave his age as 32, residing in Green Briar Township, working as a stone mason, and having real estate assets of $360. The following spring, on April 10, 1851, William married Melinda “Lennie, Lina” Lamberson at her father’s home in Independence County in services performed by Henry Powell, Minister of the Gospel, Methodist Episcopal Church, South. William was 32 and Lennie was 17.
Miss Lamberson was born February 13, 1832, in Gallatin County, Illinois. Her father, Peter Lamberson, was a farmer born 1799 in Pennsylvania. His wife Elizabeth (Knight), also born in 1799, was from North Carolina. According to the 1850 Arkansas census, their children besides Melinda were Leonard D. b. 1824, William Sira Norris “WSN” b. 1827, Catherine, Elizabeth b. 1831, and Eliza, age fourteen born Illinois. Living at an adjacent property was Peter and Elizabeth’s oldest child, Leonard Lamberson, age 26 and born in Tennessee, his wife Elizabeth age 22 born TN, and three children born in Arkansas: Nancy age four, James K. P. age three, and Thomas J., age one.
His Losses
Unfortunately, in December 1851, William lost a suit filed against him by Thomas E. Hughs [Hughes] for a debt of $19.25. Some time passed, perhaps in negotiation, before the final outcome would be decided. The following is shown in the Independence County Court Record M-170:
On October 29, 1857, Sheriff George W. Daugherty deeded to James B. Kimbro certain lands belonging to William Campbell in satisfaction of a writ Fiera Facias[12] in the name of Thomas E. Hughs presented to the sheriff July 29, 1857,
“that whereas the aforesaid Thomas B. Hughs on the 16th day of December AD 1851 did file in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the County of Independence a certified copy of a certain judgement rendered by Fleming Pate, Esq, a justice of the peace in and for the township of Round Pond, in the said County of Independence whereby it appears that the said Justice of the Peace did on the 15th day of November 1851 render judgment in his favor against William Campbell for nineteen dollars and forty cents”[13] with court costs of one dollar and eighty-five cents. Further, “an execution was issued thereon and the said execution has been returned that the defendant has no goods or chattels whereof to levy the same. And whereas the clerk of said circuit court did at the same time of filing such transcript as aforesaid enter such judgement in the docks of said circuit court for judgements and decrees in the manner and provided by law to the end that the same might have like effect and be carried into execution in the same manner as the judgements of said circuit court. You are therefore commanded that of the goods and chattels lands and tenements of the said William Campbell you cause to be made the debt damages and costs aforesaid together with the sum of – dollars and fifty cents additional cots for entering transcript and have the said debt damages and costs and additional costs before our said circuit court on the 7th day of September AD 1857 and then and there certify how you have executed this writ. And in obedience to the commands of said writ and in order that the same might be executed and satisfied, I did afterwards to wit: on the 30th day of July AD1857 in said county then and there levy upon and seize the following described property as the property of said William Campbell, to wit: The SE ¼ of the SW ¼ of Section 13 and the NE ¼ of the NW ¼ of Section 24 in Town 12 N, of Range 6 West containing in the aggregate 80 acres more or less.”
The record goes on to describe the sale of these lands at the courthouse door on Monday the 7th day of September 1857. The highest bidder was James B. Kimbro for $81.25 and the property was conveyed to Kimbro by the sheriff’s deed.[14]
This was not the first loss of land for William in his hopeful new start in Arkansas. The forty acres purchased in 1849 was sold just four years later on October 4, 1853, to J. H. Ringgold, the same man who had served as witness to the original sale and perhaps a neighbor to William.[15]
Ten years later, according to the 1860 Howell Co. Missouri census, William Campbell, his wife, and three children lived in Spring Creek Township, where he was a stone mason with $200 in assets. His wife Lennie was 28 at the time, John R. was three (this age must be an error because later records give an 1853 birthdate for John), James William was two, and Sarah E. was one month. Their second child, Mary Molly, born 1855, was probably next door at the home of her grandparents, Peter and Elizabeth Lamberson, aged sixty.
Efforts to determine when both families moved to Missouri have been fruitless. Howell County deed records went up in flames when the courthouse burned during the war, and nothing in the deed records of Independence County determine clearly when William moved away. It may be presumed that the 1853 sale of the forty acres was the point at which the family moved, and that the judgement rendered in 1851 against him lingered unattended to be finally decided in 1857 with William absent.
His Family
Determination of birthplaces for the three oldest children has been in question with many census records showing Arkansas as the place of birth. However, given that the 1860 census information was given by the parents rather than based on childhood memories, we accept the Howell County place of birth as the correct one. That would mean that William’s young wife was six months pregnant with their first child when they moved from Arkansas unless he had previously taken her to a new home in Missouri before returning to Arkansas to sell the land.
Arrow points to Pottersville, Missouri
Howell County, Missouri, is situated just north of the Arkansas state line above Fulton County, Arkansas, a distance of about one hundred miles from William’s previous home in Arkansas. The place of Campbell’s Missouri residency, Spring Creek Township, is in the central-western part of the county. The community of Pottersville is located in the center of the township, approximately ten miles west of West Plains and the site of an early village and post office some of which may have been the product of Campbell’s masonry work. Seven miles west of the village, an early water grist mill operated on Spring Creek. The mill and village pre-dated the Civil War. Early settlers arriving in this area by 1832 found plentiful game; cured hides were among items traded at the nearest post at Rolla, about 110 miles away.
Howell County was decimated by guerilla warfare before, during and after the Civil War. Factional gangs roamed the countryside taking what they found and killing anyone who got in their way. A small, wooden courthouse built on the square in West Plains in 1859 was burned in 1862. In the fall of 1863, guerrillas burned all of West Plains, devastating the community; historians state not one person remained. The county was reorganized three years later.
William Campbell enlisted September 25, 1862, in Oregon County, Missouri. He served in Company E, 8th Battalion, Missouri Infantry of the Confederate States of America. According to various histories of the Civil War, the 8th was a re-organized unit originally formed in 1861 by Missouri Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson in a last-ditch effort to keep Missouri neutral in the looming conflict. Placed under the command of former Missouri Governor Sterling Price, the unit fought in the “Bull Run of the West,” the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861. Subsequent battles included Dry Woods Creek. The unit disbanded in the summer of 1862, although several of its members participated in the Battle of Pea Ridge in Northwest Arkansas. The unit reformed as the 8th in late summer 1862, which was the time William joined.
After a four-day march in early fall 1862, the unit arrived at Spring River in Northwest Arkansas. Recruits were pressured to join other units. The commander, Colonel Mitchell, moved his unit to Camp Bragg near Batesville, and then traveled to Little Rock in an effort to improve his troops’ situation. Upon his return, he moved the unit to the camp of Col. William Coleman. Later in the fall, the unit joined with massed Confederate troops under the command of General T. C. Hindman. Among 9,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry, and 22 pieces of artillery, Company E’s men marched from Van Buren north for a major engagement with Union forces in early December 1862. On the morning of December 7th, they broke camp at 4 a.m. and marched fifteen miles to pasture land at Prairie Grove, Arkansas. In the massive conflict that ensued there, the Missouri 8th reported none killed and twenty wounded. After the Battle of Prairie Grove, the 8th was assigned garrison duty at Ft. Pleasant, Arkansas for five months.
Few soldiers enjoyed garrison duty, monotonous in the best of times. Discipline and morale deteriorated with drinking, gambling, and fighting. It was during the garrison duty of the 8th Missouri Infantry that William last appears present in the official military record, April 30, 1863.
What Happened to William?
A story passed down by the descendants of John Randolph is that once the war ended, William was mustered out of the Army with a mule, his bedroll, and a little money. As he approached his house (location not named), he saw his wife standing on the porch with an infant in her arms. Without dismounting, he inquired as to the paternity of the child, to which she replied “Wes Wallace.” (It is not clear whether Mr. Wallace had taken up residence.) After a pause, William nodded his head, spat over the mule’s withers, and rode off. The story is that he went to Texas and was never heard from again.[16]
Another oral tradition regarding his subsequent whereabouts, passed down through the family of William’s son James William, asserted that he deserted his Army post and fled to Scotland, where he married and raised another family.
Neither story is true. According to subsequent research and documentation, it is known that upon abandoning his service in the 8th Missouri, William did in fact go to Texas but not in the circumstance of departure as described in the family story. Whether in some official capacity with the Confederate forces or on his own, after April 30, 1863, he went to Red River County, Texas, where he joined his brother-in-law William Sira Norris “WSN” Lamberson. WSN operated a stagecoach stop for a stage line that ran to Missouri, likely along the old Southwest Trail. WSN was a blacksmith and driver and had enlisted in a Red River Volunteer Unit, the William B. Stout Company, on June 29, 1861, as a private.[17] It is believed that WSN and William “ran guns” for the Confederacy. This may also have included a return trip south with cotton for French blockage runners.[18]
In a letter written late in his life, WSN’s oldest son, Peter Abel Lamberson, states that “Wm. S. N. Lamberson died Jan 13 1864 (in south TX) in the confederate servis [sic] as a teamster.”
There is a historical marker at Clarksville, Red River County, TX which states:
“Across the street from this site and facing the county courthouse which was later (1885) torn down, the
Running from St. Louis to the Red River Valley, the Southwest Trail became a major immigration route in the 1820s. By the 1830s more than 80 percent of the Arkansas territory’s population had entered through the Southwest Trail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Trail
Donoho Hotel and Stage Stand operated during the Civil War. Travel in those years was heavy. Soldiers arriving in Texas from Arkansas, Indian Territory, or elsewhere would catch the stage here for home. Many called by to give news to the Clarksville Standard, one of fewer than 20 Texas papers to be published throughout the war. The Standard’s emphasis on personal news from camps was valued by soldiers’ families… 31 stage lines in Confederate Texas hauled mail, soldiers, civilians. 26 made connections with railroads or steamships, expediting travel.”[19]
Was this location part of WSN’s route? We don’t know. WSN Lamberson’s place of death and burial has not been confirmed, but it is believed that he died within the vast area called Kings Ranch. During the Civil War, this wealthy landowner controlled a large portion of southernmost Texas, an area was known as Kings Ranch. This landowner allowed supplies and guns to flow from Mexico and Gulf ports into the hands of rebel forces. When Union soldiers eventually raided the ranch, they killed most of the men there. It is believed that WSN died in this raid.[20]
William Campbell survived this particular battle and lived until early the next year before suffering injuries somewhere south of Red River County. Injured, William became ill (reportedly measles) and tried to get home. He got as far as WSN’s house, where WSN’s widow Martha Jones Lamberson was dying of “brain fever.”[21] She died February 26, 1865. Within a few days or maybe weeks, William also died.
WSN’s oldest son, Peter Abel Lamberson, was fifteen years old and would have been the one, perhaps assisted by neighbors, responsible for caring for and then burying his mother and uncle. He and the rest of Martha and WSN’s orphaned children were taken by the Jones family, none of whom knew how to get in touch with the Campbell family and so the information of William’s end did not get back to Melinda or their children.[22]
According to Peter Lamberson’s later account, “…Uncal Bill discharged as Confederate soldier on acct bad health. Couldn’t get to his home in Mo, came to our hous in Red R. County and died in 1865.”[23]
It may have been intentional on William’s part that he did not inform his wife Melinda of his whereabouts or military activity. The southern counties of Missouri and the northern counties of Arkansas where Malinda and four young children lived were the site of continuous conflict throughout the Civil War with both armies vying for control and conducting a scorched earth policy. In the region of Arkansas where William and Melinda had married, military activity centered on navigable portions of the White River. Eighteen officially-documented war engagements occurred in Independence County beginning with a skirmish at Batesville May 3, 1862. Two skirmishes occurred at Oil Trough Bottom. Expeditions, skirmishes, scouting, and attacks occurred throughout the area, including an attack at Jacksonport April 20, 1864. Likewise, farms and settlements in Howell County, Missouri were repeatedly burned and raided by both sides. Knowledge of William’s whereabouts would have been a liability for Melinda.
Other family historians disagree that once William went off to war, Lennie and the children were left to their own devices. The likelihood is good that he took time to help her set up an alternative place to reside and periodically visited at the new location with whatever resources he could manage. The idea that WSN’s stage route ventured as far north as the Missouri line lends credence to this idea.
According to family history (through descendants of William’s son James William), Lennie and the children hitchhiked to Newton County, Arkansas after William enlisted or, in some version, after the end of the war. At this point she would have been around 30 years old.
She was now the head of the household and had to make a home and provide for her family … Most of the country had been devastated by the Civil War … carpetbaggers often stole what little the people had left. The price of most things had skyrocketed and Confederate money held no value. She had a two-wheel cart for horse or ox. She had no house and no money with which to buy or build one, so she constructed a lean-to on (under) a cliff near a stream, probably using small logs, stones, and bark.”
Here the family had shelter from the winter’s cold. According to her grandson Dale Comb’s account, “she grew a garden and gathered what she could from the land. She was a good herbalist, knowing every flower, berry, green leaves, that were edible … She also shot squirrels and rabbits, and fished … She was a very resourceful person, not only provided for the physical needs of her children, but also their medical needs. She was a midwife or ‘granny woman.’”[24] Her children would have been important helpers, especially oldest son John Randolph who would have been twelve by 1865.
Following the apparent disappearance of William, Melinda produced a child named Wesley Wallace /Wallis, but the exact date of birth is unknown. The assumption is that she married Wallace since she took that name, as shown in her record of marriage to her third husband John Briggs.
On December 29, 1873, “Lenny” Wallis age 40 married John Briggs age 52 in Independence County, Arkansas, joined by Justice of the Peace W. H. Palmer.[25] In the 1880 census, the family is shown at Ash Grove, Green County, Missouri with John Brigg age 67, occupied as ‘miner,’ Malinda Brigg age 45, and stepson Wesley Wallace age eleven (yielding a birth year of 1869).[26] The household also included two boarders. Briggs died in 1911.
The 1900 census for Independence County Arkansas lists Wes Wallace as age 35, with a birth date of April 1865. He was shown as a day laborer owning his own home, married 14 years, with a current wife of age 25, and with seven children but only three living. Wallace’s birth year has been recorded in various documents as 1862, 1865, and 1869.
Melinda lived later years of her life with her son James William and family in Woodruff County Arkansas, where she died March 3, 1922, age 94. She was buried in Pumpkin Bend Cemetery outside McCrory, Woodruff County, Arkansas in an unmarked grave.
[1]Interview with John Carl Campbell 1988, at his home in Winslow Arkansas
[2]Independence County, AR, Chancery Court Record A, Pgs 100 & 102
[6]Year: 1860; Census Place: Glenwood, Mills, Iowa; Roll: M653_336; Page: 82; Family History Library Film: 803336
[7]The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; NAI Number: T288; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773-2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; Series Number: T288; Roll: 70 The
[12] A fieri facias is a writ of execution after judgment obtained in a legal action for debt or damages for the sheriff to levy on goods of the judgment debtor.
[18] “Texas was the only Confederate state to border a foreign country. Trade with Mexico made more materials available to Texas than to other states. Confederates managed to smuggle 320,000 bales or 144 million pounds of cotton through Mexican ports and past the Union blockade. In return for cotton, Texans received military supplies, medicines, dry goods, food, iron goods, liquor, coffee, and tobacco.” https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/civil-war
[21]Brain fever is generally understood to have been encephalitis.
[22] Information in this paragraph from Judy Benson Nov 13 2003 email
[23]The letter revealing the nature and place of his death was from WSN’s son Peter Abel Lamberson who was fifteen at the time of William’s death. “In 1980, Virgie Campbell Combs was corresponding with Wilma Benson, a descendant of Peter and Elizabeth Lamberson. Their grandson [Peter Abel], and a nephew of Melinda Lamberson Campbell, had written a couple of letters detailing some family history. These were found in an old trunk belonging to Wilma’s aunt.” This material provided by Harriet Brantley Lane, a descendant of William Campbell, in an email to this author dated Jan 13, 2005.
[24]See “The Campbell Clan” by David Dale Combs later in this collection. (not included here)
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