Ohio County, West Virginia    Biography of Alexander R. CAMPBELL

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Submitted by Suzie Crump <suzie@goodnet.com> , April 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II,
pg. 257

ALEXANDER R. CAMPBELL, of Wheeling, has long represented a benignant force
in connection with the civic and business affairs of this section of the
state and has served in various offices of public trust, including that of
deputy collector of internal revenue for this district.  He is a scion of a
family that was founded in Virginia in the Colonial era of our national
history, and his lineage on both paternal and maternal sides traces back to
fine Scotch origin.  The Campbell family gained pioneer honors in that
section of the Old Dominion that now constitutes West Virginia.


Alexander R. Campbell was born at Des Moines, Iowa, August 29, 1848, a son
of John R. and Margaret (Cassady) Campbell, the former of whom was born at
Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1813, and the latter of whom was
born at Winchester, Virginia, in 1826.  John R. Campbell removed with his
family to Iowa about 1844, and became a pioneer merchant at Des Moines, that
state, but about 1850 returned with his family to Wheeling, where his death
occurred in 1864 and where his widow died in 1875, she having been
prominently identified with the founding of the Children’s Home at Wheeling.
Upon the death of his father Alexander R. Campbell became the chief support
of his widowed mother and the other members of the family.  For five years
he was salesman in a wholesale drug establishment at Wheeling, and in 1873
he was admitted to partnership in the business, that of Laughlin Brothers.
A number of years later he sold his interest in the business and removed to
Ravenswood, Jackson County, and after a time he became the West Virginia
general state agent for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company of
Milwaukee, for which he developed a large and profitable business in his
jurisdiction, in the meantime the family home having been maintained at
Ravenswood.  Mr. Campbell served as chairman of the Republican Committee of
Jackson County, and in 1888 was elected to the State Senate, as
representative of this district comprising Jackson, Roane and Mason
counties.  In 1889 he returned with his family to Wheeling, and in 1892 he
was elected from Ohio County to the House of Delegates of the State
Legislature, in 1896 he was in clerical service in connection with the State
Senate, and he served also as a member of the City Council of Wheeling, as a
representative of the Third Ward.  He made a record as one of the most
effective campaign speakers of his part in the state, and his political
influence was widely and worthily extended.  In July, 1897, he was appointed
deputy United States collector of internal revenue and in this service he
continued under the McKinley and Roosevelt administrations.  Mr. Campbell
became prominently concerned in banking enterprise and in other lines of
business, and was long an honored member of leading fraternal and social
organizations at Wheeling.


December 20, 1876, recorded the marriage of Mr. Campbell and Miss Mary H.
Rearick, who was born at Hagerstown, Maryland, a daughter of John Rearick.
Of the children of this union Clinton R. is now serving as assistant
prosecuting attorney of Ohio County, and is one of the prominent members of
the Wheeling bar; Alexander R., Jr., is identified with mercantile
enterprise in this city; Chandler is a lieutenant-colonel in the United
States Marine Corps and was in command of the Tenth Regiment in the World
war period; Harold W., the youngest son, is individually mentioned in
following sketch; and the only daughter, Julia McClure, is the wife of
Daniel Denney, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy.