Child is Speeding from Sea to Sea
Tags: Time, Family, Mystery, Children, History

Sometimes there really are no words. As I do research for other things, publications in a newspaper move me, and I had to create a publication just to keep them separate to the rest of my work.

A Little Long Distance Traveller: Seven Year Old Catherine Campbell who left this city for California yesterday (April 17th, 1905), accompanied only by a tag.(1)

From the Philadelphia Inquirer- April 18th, 1905

Tagged with a label bearing her name and destination, seven-year-old Catherine Campbell boarded a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad train at Twenty -fourth and Chestnut streets yesterday with a through ticket to Los Angeles, California in her pocket. Catheiine is speeding across the country to the home of her grandmother, who has expressed a willingness to take charge of the little girl. Ever since her mother died, four years ago, Catherine has been living with an aunt, Mrs. Joseph Hanley, at 404 Mickle street. Camden, N. J., and when the little girl’s maternal grandmother wrote on that she would like to have Catherine make her home with her it was decided to send her to the land of orange groves and sun-shine. Arrangements were made with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad officials, who willingly agreed to take charge of the little girl as far as Chicago. In Chicago a representative of the railroad will take Catherine to the Rock Iland Station, where she will board the Golden State Limited. She will not leave the train until it pulls into the station at Los Angeles.

Precocious Young Miss

“I wonder if I’ll know grandma when I get off the train,”’ she said thoughtfully while sitting in the station yesterday. “I’ve never seen her before. But I guess she will be waiting for me.” Catherine is a precocious young miss with short hair and bright blue eyes. She was overjoyed at the prospect of the long journey in the trains. “Won’t it” be grand!” he exclaimed, joyously. “I can sit at the window all day and watch the cows and the sheep and the horses go shooting by.” “Express for Wheeling, Columbus and Chicago!” sang out the station porter. “Here’s your train. Catherine,” said her aunt. Mrs. Browning. “No, it ain’t,” she insisted,” “he didn’t say Los Angeles.” It was explained to the little traveler that a change of cars would be made in Chicago. Then she ran up the train steps and sank deep into the cushions of a seat in a Pullman car. She was taken in charge by the Pullman conductor and in a few minutes was interrogating him about the journey, the meals and the sleeper, the latter arousing her amazement and curiosity. Catherine is dressed for her long journey in a long red coat and a small green cap. Pinned to her coat is a label which reads: “Catherine Campbell to Mrs. Kate Guenier. 4470 Wolrath street, Los Angeles. Cal.”

Research Notes

Initially I was unable to find out much about this child’s family or what became of her. There are no articles stating if she made it to her destination, and the information listed about the grandmother has lead to dead ends. The street names and last names have been misspelled, and it should be noted that this was the victorian version of privacy. During the research for this article, intentionall mispellings were noted in many many cases.

Humorously, I found the answer in a mispelled census record from 1910, listing her new family. It would appear, that little Catherine, was named after her grandmother Kate. It would appear that little Catherine’s parents were Harry F. Campbell (b. 1862) and Mary Agnes Herman (b. 1873–1899). Mary Agnes’s parents were Catherine C. Farber (Grandma Kate, b. 1853–1913) and John Herman. After John passed away, Grandma Kate married Gabriel Guesnier (b. 1852–1919) and together they had several children.

The only connection I can find regarding Catherine Campbell and her “aunt” Cecelia Hanley (Mrs. Joseph Hanley) is that Cecelia had a daughter who married a John Campbell III and that they were next door neighbors to Harry F. Campbell. They appear unrelated. The name Campbell was and still is very common, with varying origins, such as the Campell division in Scotland stemming from the McDonald’s and the Irish groups. In the United States alone it makes finding Campbell genealogy somewhat daunting, with 157 Campbell’s buried in one Pittsburgh PA St. Mary’s Cemetary (nearby Philadelphia) alone.

Catherine’s Beloved Grandparents

Below are the faces of the family little Catherine was so anxious to see.