Muhlenberg County Kentucky
Local History: C
Patrick Henry's sister lived in Greenville
Newspaper reporting in Muhlenberg County 50 years ago was pretty soft compared with the job today. I have here an article written in January 1912 in which the writer makes this bold assertion: “1911 is gone and with it went its trials as well as its joys. A great number of our citizens, 31 to be exact, were consigned to the land of silence, the forgetfulness of the grave during the last 12 months. They will be with us no more.
“Prominent among them were Mrs. R.M. Dexter, Mrs. John Coombs, W.G.S. Anderson, Jesse H. Wallace, Claude Baker, L.C. Chatham, the Rev. G.P. Jefferies, W.H. DeWitt, Mrs. Margaret E. Wickliffe and the infant son of the Rev. O.A. Barbee.”
A publisher would be hard pressed to find space to make an annual report of this type today.
Took Up Wild Land
Other things have changed also. Decade followed decade in the county's history with nominal changes in land titles outside of the family. The land recieved through a military grant or vacant land which had been taken up by a pioneer ancestor was a cherished possession. Battle, in his history of 1885, speaks of the pioneers “taking up wild land&rdquol and so it must have been, when Muhlenberg County was formed.
One of the busiest places in the county today is the records room in the basement of the Courthouse where surveyors, attorneys, real estate people, representatives of the coal, gas and oil industries, the TVA, the DAR and a few like myself,, who are just interested in the early history of the county, and the people who had the courage to open up this “wild new land,” are busy studying the old records.
Campbells prominent
No family had more to do with the early history of the county than the Campbell family of which there were several branches. Otto Rothert in his “History of Muhlenberg County” says:
“Caney Station, the forerunner of Greenville, was established by Col. and Mrs. William Campbell about 1795. They, with William Bradley and a few others and a number of slaves, came from Lexington for the purpose of opening a settlement on the military land grants of Gen. William Russell and Col. William Campbell.
“Gen. William Russell was an officer in Gen. Muhlenberg's brigade and was present at the surrender of Yorktown. He was born in 1735 and died in 1793. His first wife was Tabitha Adams. His second wife was Elizabeth Henry Campbell, widow of Gen. William Campbell, and a sister of Patrick Henry. Gen. Russell was the father of 16 children, many of whom came to Kentucky after the Revoluation. His second son was Col. William Russell, after whom Russell County was named. Three of General Russell's children by his first wife, after a short stay in Fayette County, located in Muhlenberg: John C., Samuel, and, their sister Tabitha.
War Hero
“Tabitha Adams Russell Campbell was the wife of Col. William Campbell, who was a son of Patrick Campbell and a cousin of Gen. William Campbell. Gen. William Campbell was the hero of Kings Mountain, where he defeated the British on Oct. 7, 1780 and fought what proved to be the “turning in the tide of success that terminated the Revoluation.
“In the autumn of 1800 shortly after Greenville's first court house was completed and the new town started, Col. William Campbell borke his leg and was obligated to ride in a saddle to Lexington for medical treatment. There in the home of his friend, Col. Robert Patterson, he died on Nov. 19, 1800, aged 41 years. Distance and transportation facilities were such that the body could not be brought from Fayette County and for that reason the “Father of Greenville” is not buried in Muhlenberg County.
“After Col. Campbell's death his family continued to live in Greenville. His widow, being a woman of education and means, was in a position to give their five children many advantages. She died in Greenville in July 1806. Their only son, Samuel Campbell married Cynthia Campbell but they had no children. Their daughter Elizabeth became the first wife of Elder Barton W. Stone, and up to the time of her death in 1810, traveled with her husband who was beginning his great evangelizing work in western Kentucky. The other three daughters became the wives of some of Muhlenberg's most prominent men: Tabitha married Judge Alney McLean, Anna S. married Charles Fox Wing and Mary married Ephraim Brank.”
There were several Campbell homes in the county. One was on Mill Street in Greenville, one was out the Country Club Road and R.T. Martin writes of another one west of Greenville. Mr. Martin's grandmother was Jane Campbell Martin. Writing in 1911 after a trip he made with Mr. Rothert he says:
House Built in 1800
“Some days ago Otto Rothert and myself traveling west of Greenville making some observations, passed a house that was built by one David Campbell in 1800. It has stood for more than a century and looks like it might last for a good many more years. This house is now (1911) occupied by one Charles Carneal, who cherishes it as a comfortable home. In this house many persons have lived and died. Its founder, David Campbell, died in another state. The Campbell family that was among the early settlers of the county have disappeared long ago. We do not think that there is one of the name of those families extant in the county.
“The Campbells that were among the first settlers of the county, their ancestors were orginally from the highlands of Scotland and can be traced back to the first part of the seventeenth century to one Alexander Campbell, who lived at Inderrary, Argylshire, Scotland; his son William Campbell with his family came to America and settled in Virginia. William Campbell's son, David Campbell, who was born 1710, was known as Black David Campbell, because of his dark hair, eyes and complexion, and to distinguish him from White David Campbell, his cousin, who had light hair and blue eyes. Black David was the father of William Campbell, who married Mary Allison; this William was a captain in the regular army, fought in the French and Indian War, also in the Revoluation in 1776; he was a general in the militia. He, with his family, came to kentucky, where he died. His family consisted of David, Charles, William, Jane, Mary, Martha, Betsey. Mary married Chalen Guard. Martha married Timothy Guard.. Betty married a Hayes. This part of the General Campbell family located at Equality, Ill.
“David Campbell married Nancy Oates, a daughter of Jesse Oates, and located in Hopkins County, where he lived and died. David Campbell married Mary Campbell, located about four and a half miles west of Greenville in 1800 and built the new house we have referred to. Jane Campbell married William Martin (grandfather of R.T. Martin). They located five miles west of Greenville where they lived and died in 1851. Annie Campbell, a daughter of Gen. Campbell, married Maj. William Campvell, a first cousin of her father. He first located at Greenville and built a house where the LaMeade Hotel now stands, but he sold out and moved to Nashville in 1820. His daughter Cynthia married Samuel Campbell, a distant relative, and a son of Col. William Campbell, who also located near Greenville,and was the father-in-law of Judge Alney McLean, Charles Fox Wing and Ephraim Brank.
“Turning now to David Campbell, who built the house in question, his family consisted of William, John, Charles, Robert and Thomas, Mary and Betsey. Mary married a Douglas, Betsye married a Givens. They both settled in Missouri. William, Charles and Thomas went to California in 1849. Robert located in the western part of Kentucky. William Campvell married a daughter of Benjamin Hancock in Muhlenberg. He was the father of Ben Campbell, who became a prominent man in California. John Campbell remained in Muhlenberg County and died in 1875 in his 80th year. His family consisted of John, David, Land, James and Lewis, Viola and Margret. They have all died and disappeared from the county. The two daughters perhaps survive in another county of the state. The families of Gen. William Campbell have no representative name in the county that I am aware of, but the house by David Campbell in 1800 still stands, a monument of a lost family. The Campbell families of this county were more or less connected by ancestral lineage.”
Campbells Still Here
There are Campbells living in Muhlenberg now (1960) who trace their lineage back to the above listed families and it would be interesting to continue the family history. Miss Mallie Campbell of Central City says that the old home formerly owned by John Hudson, now by Walker belonged to her grandfather Campbell who left it never to return after the death of his wife. The W.T. Campbell family and others are of this line, also. It is unavoidable when one's home burns and valuable papers are destroyed, but it is unforgiveable when we, in this day of enlightenment, fail to leave a family record for thos who are to carry on our name.
The Jane Campbell who married William Martin was a daughter of Mary Allison and William Campbell and the granddaughter of “Black David” Campbell. This was the William Campbell who was captain in the French and Indian War and later was general of the militia. The brothers and sisters of Jane Campbell Martin were: David, Charles, William, Annie, Mary, Martha and Betsy.
The children of Jane Campbell and William Martin were: Thomas L., William C., Dabney A., Charles C., Ellington, Eliza Ann and Susannah. Charles C., the fourth son, married Nancy Y. Reynolds. He was born in 1811 and she in 1820. She was the daughter of Joseph C. Reynolds. Charles C. and Nancy were the parents of John E., Joseph R., William A., Charles Y., Dabney T., Susan, Betty and Ann Y.
Charles Young Martin, son of Charles C. and Nancy R. Martin, in 1876 married Sue Mary Rice, daughter of Moses Rice. They were the parents of Arthur Martin, who lived in Paducah; William M. Martin and Mrs. Ned Yost, both of Greenville.
In an old Greenville newspaper dated April 30, 1908, is the following obituary: Charles Fletcher Campbell, 56, died at his home near Mercer Station Wednesday after an illness of six months. He was born in 1852. In 1872 he married Miss Lucy Compton, who with two daughters and one son, survive him. His father, John Campbell, was one of the early settlers and pioneer merchants of Greenville. His grandfather, David Campbell, moved to this county about 1800. Interment was in the Old Cemetery among many of his ancestors.
Source: Harralson, Agnes. “Patrick Henry's sister lived in Greenville.” Messenger Magazine, Times-Argus [Central City, KY], 9 Oct 1969.
Contributed by Joe Taylor
Updated July 14, 2022