Thomas County Georgia Biographies Bio of Rev. Jesse H. Campbell 1807 - 1888 Submitted by Charlene Parker Sep 2002 ****************************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profitor for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. ****************************************************************************************** From "History of Bethel Association Including Centennial Meeting", by Alexander Lee Miller JESSE H. CAMPBELL Dr. J. H. Campbell was born February 10, 1807 in McIntosh County, Georgia. His father, Jesse Campbell, belonged by descent to the Scottish clan of that name. His mother was the daughter of John Dunham, who with his wife, Sara Clancy, came to this country as an emigrant in the same ship with General Oglethorpe. Mr. Campbell was fortunate in being educated until his eighteenth year chiefly at Sunbury, Liberty County, and for a few months attended school at Athens. His attendance was cut short by the death of his father in 1825, which necessitated his return to the old homestead on the coast for the protection and support of his three orphan sisters, he being the only surviving son. Though but eighteen years of age, he administered his father's estate, and occupied for three years the position of head of the family. He was converted when sixteen years of age and baptized at Sunbury, Liberty County, November 1822 by Rev. C. O. Screven. Prior to his conversion he was wild and in the habit of using profane language but immediately discontinued all bad habits and began to conduct family worship and before he reached his seventeenth year he began to exhort and pray in public and in this way became known as "The Boy Preacher" in the coast counties of Georgia. He was ordained at Sunbury in 1830 and became pastor of the church at Macon in 1831 for one year. He then went to Clinton, Jones County and preached in the village and the surrounding country. Under his preaching many were converted. He finally entered the work for an evangelist for the state at large and was eminently successful in this labor. At the beginning of the civil war in 1861 he promptly relinquished his work and entered the army as a volunteer Evangelist, in which capacity he served until the war closed. The five or six years which succeeded the war he spent at Quitman and Thomasville preaching the Gospel. He then took charge of the church at Perry, Houston County, but in 1876 moved to Columbus where he resided with his son, Rev. A. B. Campbell. He was on the first Board of Trustees of Mercer University, and continued on that Board for more than thirty years. He removed to Lumpkin and while residing there originated the Masonic Female College in that place, and the Baptist Female College at Cuthbert. He is the author of the only published history of our denomination in the State up to that time. His influence has been widely felt in the territory composing the Bethel Association. He was a devout preacher and did much towards the upbuilding of the Baptist faith in this state. The writer is unable to give the place and date of his death. following notes added by Debra Crosby Georgia Marriages CAMPBELL, JESSE H. - MOORE, EMILY S. [Mrs] 27 Mar 1873 Houston County Georgia Putnam County Campbell, Jesse H. - Stanley, Frances 24 Jun 1830 1850 Stewart Co. Ga Census Lumpkin page 91 712/720 Jesse H. Campbell 43 m Baptist Clergyman 1000 Ga Frances 49 f GA Martha 18 f Ga Jesse 16 m Ga Sherwood 14 m Ga Cooper 12 m Ga Alva 10 m Ga Charles 8 m Ga Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography page 189 CAMPBELL, JESSE H., clergyman, author, was born Feb. 10, 1807, in Mcintosh county, Ga. He is one of the most laborious and useful preachers in his native state. His chief literary work is Georgia Baptists Historical and Biographical. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume II CAMPBELL, Jesse H., clergyman, was born in McIntosh county, Ga., Feb. 10, 1807, son of Jesse H. Campbell. He was educated at Sunbury under a private tutor, and at the University of Georgia. He began to preach at the age of seventeen, and was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1830. He preached at Macon, Ga., and later at various places throughout the south. For five years he was the agent for foreign missions in Georgia, and afterwards became an evangelist for the state at large. During the civil war he was a voluntary missionary in the army. He was a member of the board of trustees of Mercer university, and was instrumental in establishing colleges for women at Lumpkin and Cuthbert, and the Georgia deaf and dumb institution at Cave Spring. He is the author of Georgia Baptists: Historical and Biographical. He died at Columbus, Ga., April 16, 1888. Campbell, Jesse H 1807-1881 Biographical Dictionary of Southern Authors. Compiled by Lucian Lamar Knight. Atlanta: Martin & Hoyt Co., 1929. Reprint. Detroit: Gale Research, 1978. Originally published as "Library of Southern Literature, Volume 15, Biographical Dictionary of Authors." (BiDSA) A Dictionary of North American Authors Deceased before 1950. Compiled by W. Stewart Wallace. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1951. Reprint. Detroit: Gale Research, 1968. Campbell, Jesse H 1807-1888 Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Six volumes. Edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888-1889. Reprint. Detroit: Gale Research, 1968. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Brief biographies of authors, administrators, clergymen, commanders, editors, engineers, jurists, merchants, officials, philanthropists, scientists, statesmen, and others who are making American history. 10 volumes. Edited by Rossiter Johnson. Boston: The Biographical Society, 1904. Reprint. Detroit: Gale Research, 1968. Campbell, Jesse Harrison 1807-1888 Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists. Two volumes. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1958. Persi Souce Index California State Library Author: Campbell, Jesse H., 1807-1888. Title: Georgia Baptists: historical and biographical / by Jesse H. Campbell. Conway, AR : Oldbuck Press, 1993 Library: California State Library--Sutro Subject: Baptists -- Georgia. Georgia -- Genealogy. Publisher: Edition: Format: 307 p. ; 22 cm. Bibliography: Call Number: CSL Sutro BX6248.G4 C3 1993 Notes: Reprint. Originally published: Macon, Ga. : J.W. Burke & Co., 1874.