James Campbell : Short Biography

Not more than 6-7 miles east of Glenties, James Campbell was born approximately 1817 in the Township of Mully, Inishkeel Parish, Donegal. His father and mother, James Sr. and Margaret, lived on their 13 acre farm in Mully since their marriage in approximately 1804.  Baby James was the 4th son behind Henry, Robert and John.  Three more siblings, Hugh, Ann and Mary would come in the future.  James, Jr. attended a "hedge school" and after leaving school, hired himself out for money to help the family get by.  In the mid-1820s, his mother died.  By the early 1830's, the James Campbell family decided to emigrate to the United States.  At first only James, Jr. and his older brother, John, were chosen to cross the Atlantic becaue of the cost of passage was too much for the entire family.  They were charged to raise money in America to bring the rest of the family later.    In the spring of 1836, James and John said their good-bys and set off for Londonderry, and sailed to on the ship "Brig Mary's" arriving in Philadelphia harbor on June 2, 1836.  Initially, they worked in the coal fields of northeast Pennstlvania, then on a public works project in Maysville, Kentucky.  After accumulating enough money, John returned to Ireland to bring the rest of the family.  James bought land near Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio, for the family to settle into when they arrived.  In 1841, James became a citizen of the U.S and on Jan 10, 1843, married Margaret Call at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Somerset, Ohio.  They set up housekeeping on the farm in Brown County.  John and the rest of the Campbell family (with the exception of Ann) sailed from Ireland in 1846.  They arrived in New York harbor on the ship "Patrick Henry" on May 23, 1843.  Ann had married Cornelius McNelis in Ireland and planned to stay.  However, they too emigrated in the eary days of the "great hunger" in 1847.  James, Jr. and his young wife, Margaret, would have twelve children, seven would die before they reached their 25th birthday.  James, Sr., died in 1850.  During his life, James, Jr. was a successful farmer, accumulated more lands (in Brown County as well as in Knox County, Missouri), educated two daughters at the Ursuline Convent in nearby St. Martin, Ohio, was elected as a Justice of the Peace (aka "Squire" Cambell) and a Brown County Commissioner for two terms and was insrumental in obtaining a charter for the Cincinnati and Fayetteville Railroad.  James "Squire" Campbell died Jan 17, 1896, and is buried in St. Patrick Cemetary in Fayetteville.