Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-07-05
GEN. WILLIAM CAMPBELL.
The Hero of Kings Mountain and His
Early Life.

fore Nathaniel Greene chapter ID. A.
R., as reproduced in Columbia
State.)
His hair was red and his eyes were
blue
And He was Irish through and
through"
So might have sung the gamins on
the streets of staid old Philadelphia
town one bright spring day in the
year of 1926, as up from the ship
yard and through those same streets
stern, solemn, wide-eyed and proud.
there stalked an Irish immigrant,
leading his large and f1ourishing fam
ily of about a dozen grown sons and
daughters in the new country OF the
Young America" And should they
have so sung these youthful jokers
would have been but qualifying for
the position they doubtless since have
filled-as progenitors Of the present
day "Ananias club"-because, while
sturdy John Campbell and his sturdi-
er brood had just come off an Irish
vessel, straight from the Emerald
Isle" after years Of habitation there,
vet they were not Irish through and
through" for "Caledonia's Isle had
heard their voice" and "Scotia's dar-
ling seat" had felt the football Of this
clan, and since in their veins there
pulsed as we'll the blood Of the Bon
ME Argyle"-"The Campbell's. are
coming" had been a more appropriate
song to beat the rhythm Of their tread.
On they marched, this stalwart fam
lily, out through the farm lands to
Lancaster county, made brief So
journ there, and, leaving some behind,
moved on into the alluring lands that
lie along the Shenendoan, and there
they planted their own vine and fig
tree, and were married and given In
marriage, and so inhabited the land
until, when some ten or fifteen years
later, that part Of the far-reaching
county of Orange was cut Off and CIV
en- a new government, and the new
name of Augusta, we find them high
in official capacity, men Of rank al
ready, but already finding the country
settling up too fast for their free spir-
it, and 80 when a party Of pioneers
started out to locate new lands on the
western borders, many Of these sons
and grandsons were Of the party, and
we find them taking up small tracts.
in thousand-acre lots, with lavish
hand. from the head waters Of the
James, along the New river. and out to
the Virginia borders.
William CampbeIl's People.
One grandson, Charles, true to all
the Scotchman In him, would marry
mae strange body" and by good for
tune found and loved a neighbor lass
Scotch like himself-Margaret Buch-
anan, and they two raised up fam
ily Of four fine daughters and one
Draw son-that William of whom !
am to speak today.
That they lived in comparative COM
fort and even luxury Is attested by the
list of personality given in at court,
and it is natural to suppose that as an
only son every care and attention was
lavished on this William. Certain 1t
is from his writing, his manner and
his conduct that he was given liber-
al education in books, in gallantry
and in the ways Of life, until in 1857
he stood a man well proportioned.
somewhat above six feet tail, "a veri-
table Scot" grave, manly, stern, we'll
learned in literature. in histories and
in the thematics-ardently enthu-
siastic and well trained in military af-
fairs, already an officer and a leader
of men, and a strong support and
comfort to his bereaved mother in the
loss of her noble husband.
His fathers will left him unencum-
bered by the financial support Of his
mother and in possession of 1000
broad acres on the waters Of the Hols-
ton, and his sisters were each left
large tracts in the same neighborhood.
One sister had married a cousin, Ar
thur Campbell, and these families to-
gether set out for this new country to
take up their own. Quickly this young
man took his place in the world to
which he had come. 1t is but scant
five years later that he is one Of those
impetuous spirits who at called
meeting of the freeholders Of Fincas-
tie county Gas that part Of the coun-
try was then called) wrote and signed
what is undoubtedly the first declara-
tion of independence, dated January
20, 1775, thus antedating the famous
Augusta declaration one month, the
much boasted Mecklenburg declara-
tion by more than a year, and the
Fourth of July declaration by eigh-
teen months. That same year he was
made captain of militia. and, having
helped to build a fort near his home
and procured a garrison for 1t, he left
his mother and sisters to the care Of
neighbors and slaves and went to join
Patrick Henry, who was withstanding
the atrocious behavior of Gov. Duns-
more in the eastern part of the state.
Interesting Letters.
The letters he wrote his home peo-
pie on this campaign are most enter
tanning; his accounts of the difference
in customs, his trials as a shy back
woodsman, when he attempts to make
himself pleasant, liked and respected
among strange troops. and at the
same time assume the dignity and
control necessary to the maintenance
of proper discipline. Very amusing,
too, is the stilted style Of these let
ters, those to his mother beginning
"Honored madam" and closing Your
obedient and dutiful son." Another
letter tells of his success in his work,
the kindness of his superior officers,
and gives a graphic account Of Duns-
more's firing on Norfolk and Hamp-
ton. But there was a something the
shy William did not tell his mother,
lest perhaps she think him not strict
in his duties. In September of that
year, when the leaves had turned to
gold, and Duke of Gloucester street