My Genealogy Hound

Maj. W. P. Campbell, the well-known clerk of the Arkansas Supreme Court, has been a resident of Arkansas for thirty-one years, and was born in Muhlenberg County, Ky., on August 23, 1838. He was a son of Alexander and Sarah W. (Kincheloe) Campbell, natives of Ireland and the State of Kentucky, respectively. The father, though born in the Emerald Isle, was of Scotch descent, and a farmer by occupation. He left his native country and came to America about the year 1808, settling in Kentucky, where he resided the remainder of his days, dying in 1846 at the age of forty-six years. The mother continued in Kentucky after his death until 1875, when she came to Arkansas to take up her abode with her sons, and died in that State at the age of seventy-six years. W. P. Campbell was reared on a farm in Kentucky until his fifteenth year, receiving a fair English education at the public schools of his native place, after which he was employed as clerk in a business house at Nebo, Ky. One year later he went with his brother-in-law, J. M. Percival, to Arkansas, locating at Powhatan, and was there engaged in the drug business. He remained at Powhatan one year and a half, when, becoming settled at Augusta, Woodruff County, he embarked in the same business and continued until September, 1860, when he commenced the study of law with James H. Patterson. The following year he enlisted in what was known as the First Arkansas Mounted Riflemen, with the rank of third lieutenant, and was afterward promoted successively to the intervening ranks until commissioned major of his regiment at Murfreesboro. On December 31, 1862, he was wounded in the left leg by a minie ball, which fractured the bone and caused amputation, and three days later he was captured and held prisoner of war for about four months. After being released he returned home and remained until the following fall, when he rejoined his command and was made commissary, remaining in service until February, 1865. Reaching home he farmed for a year, and in 1866 was elected clerk of Woodruff County, serving as such until July, 1868, when, as he remarks, “I was reconstructed out of office.” Maj. Campbell gave his attention to mercantile life until 1874, when he was re-elected clerk of the county, discharging his official duties until 1882, but declining a re-nomination. In the summer of 1882 he received the nomination of the Democratic State convention as commissioner of State lands, and was elected that fall, serving until March, 1884, when he resigned and once more entered into business. In 1886 he was appointed clerk of the supreme court by that body. In secret societies Maj. Campbell is a member of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor and Knights of Pythias fraternities, and in religious belief he is an Old School Presbyterian and belongs to the First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock, in which he is also an elder. He was married in October, 1863, to Miss Virginia C. Davies, of South Carolina, and their union has given them four daughters and five sons. Mrs. Campbell and her five oldest children are also members of the same church.