Christopher Campbell

Bronston and, later, Kalamazoo in the 1830s was a boomtown. Plotted by Titus Bronson in 1831, Bronson soon became a hub for people and families looking to make homes for themselves. Old Territorial Road welcomed many travelers along its path, carrying people from the East to West side of Michigan. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 helped see a wave of people migrating from New York, people like one Christopher Campbell. His story represents a common but important narrative of early Kalamazoo. People like Campbell built these communities by taking chances, moving westward, starting businesses, and leaving what they could to their children.[1]

Christopher Campbell's origins reflected those of many other Kalamazoo settlers. Born in New York about 1785 and a mason by trade, Campbell defended his country in the War of 1812 from Ontario County, New York. After the war, he married Elizabeth Huston in August 1815. The family remained average by comparison to many of their neighbors. The parents and several children journeyed over the Erie Canal and across Lake Erie in the 1830s. The family lived in Ann Arbor when their grandchild, Sophia, was born in 1842.[2]

The Campbells acquired some land and settled in the village of Kalamazoo. The household participated in construction and commerce. Jacob Campbell, the youngest son in the household, worked as a blacksmith. John H. Campbell may not have been well enough to work, but he was a freemason. The fraternal order, with notable members including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, represented a widespread desire to spread values of self-improvement and the Enlightenment. When John Campbell died of an unspecified "chronic disease" at age 33 that wore the man down over "many years," the Kalamazoo Gazette offered a rare glimpse of a funeral held on West Street. "The funeral was attended by a very large concourse of citizens," the newspaper reported, "his brethren of the Masonic order acting as carriers and pall-bearers, who, with his family and friends will mourn the loss of a husband, parent, and brother."[3]

By the time of the masonic funeral, the  elder Christopher Campbell and another son, William J., had gone into business as "C. Campbell & Co." In 1850, his general store inventory and bank notes made out to the firm amounted to nearly $1,400. They sold a little bit of everything: stoneware, jars, tobacco, paper wrappers, crackers, maple sugar, coffee, tea, almonds, lead, wrapping twine, saltpetre, pipes, clothes pins, ink bottles, matches, and cigars. Their inventory also included a sizable amount of liquor and wine: 56 gallons of brandy, 127 gallons of whiskey and 178 gallons of "old whisky" as well as port wine and gin. They extended credit to residents ranging from $0.19 to $72.00 and totaling $712.95. Yet their own commercial ties left them in debt to people in Kalamazoo as well as Rochester, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Battle Creek, Centreville to the amount of nearly $1,100.  In total, his estate distributed among his wife and children amounted to $1,884.71.[4]

Notes

[1]. Willis Dunbar, Kalamazoo and How it Grew (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1959), passim.

[2]. 850 U.S Census, Kalamazoo County, Kalamazoo, Page 34, Dwelling Number 255, Family Number 267, Christopher Campell; digital image, ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3081703:8054?tid=&pid=&qu eryid=57b7c96b-0b6d-483b-b395-a0c782d07b18&_phsrc=eaX21&_phstart=succ essSource : Accessed 10 October 2024); Ancestry.com. U.S., War of 1812 Pension Application Files Index, 1812-1815 [database on-line]. Christopher Campbell Accessed 10/19/2024 .https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/38511:1133

[3]. 1860-1918 U.S Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, Page 54, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1873. J Campbell, Ancestry.com. Accessed 10/25/2024 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2474360:1127?tid=&pid=&qu eryid=9978ee36-93e5-4709-9499-b8e50a06; "Died," Kalamazoo Gazette, May 4, 1839.

[4]. Christopher Campbell, Probate Journal, Vol. 37, A-285 Kalamazoo County Probate Court, RG 94-309, Zhang Legacy Collections Center, Western Michigan University.