My Genealogy Hound

CAMPBELL, JAMES, farmer; Sec. 21; P. O. Clayton; son of David M. and Jane Campbell, of Kentucky; was born in Muhlenburg county, Ky., June 16, 1826. The family came to Adams county, Ill., in 1830, with all their effects in a cart drawn by a yoke of three-year-old cattle; settled on a farm two miles northwest from Clayton. His father erected the log cabin, 16x16, which was to be the future residence, and served as a hotel five years, in which many of the prominent men of Adams and adjoining counties were entertained by the hospitable Mrs. Campbell. In this house, during four weeks, while her husband was absent in Kentucky, in the fall of 1832, she made money enough to buy forty acres of land. They kept hotel in Clayton for five years, soon after it was laid out, and then returned to the farm. Mr. C.’s opportunities for procuring an education in those pioneer days were very meager. The first district school he attended was in Brown county, to which he and his brother walked, five miles and back, each day. Married Elizabeth Bradney, Jan. 18, 1849. She was born in Ohio . Oct. 26, 1829. Eleven children; ten living: John S., Thomas A., Julia A., Allen D., Barbara E., Henry B., James E., Minnie J., and Charles O. Mr. C.’s father was the second man who settled in Clayton township. He is the oldest settler now living in it. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. Both he and wife are members of the M. E. church, of Clayton. Owns 230 acres (220 well improved) in Clayton township, worth $50 per acre; also 160 acres in Brown county. Mr. C. and brother went across the plains to California in 1850; remained two years; while there he ran the first threshing machine in the San Jose valley, and laid brick on the walls of the first M. E. church erected in the valley.