The Campbell and Miller Family Mysteries
Because of misinformation
given when I started researching the Campbell family more than thirty years
ago, this family has been a hard one to trace. I was told that the parents
of Charles Melford Campbell were Thomas Campbell and Victoria Creighton and
that they were from Baileys Mills, Ohio. Charles had married Jeanetta Anna
Miller and their first child was a son named Fred. Only part of this is true.
Years were spent trying to fit the pieces of information together and nothing
would quite work. Now that I have the proper information I can tell the story
of the Campbell family.
This story begins
about 1974 when I was first interested in tracing my family history. My grandmother,
Dorothy (Campbell) Fosnaugh, was still living and I asked her about her parents
and siblings. Grandma told me that her father was Charles Melford Campbell
and his parents were Thomas Campbell and Victoria Creighton. They were from
Baileys Mills, Ohio. Charles had married Jeanetta Anna Miller, from Barnesville,
Ohio, and their first child was grandma's brother Fred. Grandma said that
Fred had lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he had died in 1917, not in Fort Wayne
but in the county. Since the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne has
one of the best genealogy collections in the country, I thought I would have
no problems finding information about Fred. Was I ever wrong. A search of
death records, obituaries, cemetery records, and funeral home records showed
nothing for a Fred or Frederick Campbell. I was puzzled, something was not
right, but until different information was found, there was nothing further
I could do.
I found Fred Campbell
in the 1900 census, page 217A, Warren Twp., Belmont Co., OH, living with his
mother's parents, William S. and Eliza Miller. In the same household was Fred's
sister, Lillian. I have a Bible that belonged to Fred. It has an inscription
written on the flyleaf: "Presented to Fred Campbell by his mother and
Father as a gift of love for his Birthday, Dec 5, 1903". I knew grandma
did have a brother named Fred, but where was he?
It was in 1997
that my first break came in this mystery of "Where was Fred?" This
was the first year I made a trip to do family research in the Family History
Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. It had long been a dream of mine to go to
Salt Lake City for family research and this dream had come true. I had been
trying to find information on Jeanetta (Miller) Campbell's parents, William
Silas and Eliza Miller. They had lived in Belmont Co., OH and I was looking
into wills and probate court records for that county. Nothing was being found.
So I tried birth records to see if I could find births recorded for the Miller
daughters. Birth records in Ohio were recorded starting in 1867 and Jeanetta
was born in 1868. I was also watching for Campbell families. Much to my surprise
I found a birth record where the parents were Charles Campbell and Jeanetta
Miller. The birth date was the same as Fred's, but the name given was William
A.
So why was William
A. Campbell called Fred??? I thought perhaps it was the same family custom
that had called my mom's younger brother Pete. He was always Uncle Pete and
I was a teenager when I discovered that Uncle Pete's name was really Harold!
With the new name of William A. Campbell I immediately rechecked Allen County,
IN records. The death records showed a William A. Campbell, died 6 Sept 1918,
not 1917 as told to me by my grandmother. But then grandma would have been
a young girl at the time of Fred's death.
William Campbell
is not that uncommon a name, so I had to find a second source that told me
I had the correct person. Again I checked obituaries, cemetery and funeral
home records and found nothing. I looked at the Fort Wayne newspapers on microfilm
and discovered that for about a two to three month period around September
1918 there were no newspapers available. That explained why there was no obituary.
But, why wasn't Fred buried in Prairie Grove Cemetery where his mother,some
siblings, and now my grandmother, are buried? Again I was hitting that brick
wall.
Then it occured
to me that the death certificate of William A. Campbell might reveal the information
I was looking for. Since I no longer live in Fort Wayne, my mom very kindly
went to the Department of Health in downtown Fort Wayne and obtained a death
certificate. The death certificate proved that I had the correct William A.
Campbell and showed me why I was not finding him buried in Fort Wayne, IN.
Fred had been buried in Old Fort, OH. This made sense to me because I knew
that Fred had spent most of his childhood in the home of his grandparents,
along with his aunt, Susan Miller. Susan Miller had married late in her life
and had resided in Old Fort, OH.
Now I turned to
cemetery records for Seneca Co., OH, where Old Fort is located. The cemetery
records for Seneca Co. were recorded in an unusual manner. The records were
done in alphabetical order by cemetery. Usually when someone is recording
a cemetery for publication, they just walk up and down the rows of headstones
making note of the information on the stone. This way the genealogist knows
who is buried together because they are frequently family members buried side
by side. In the Seneca Co. cemetery records, this valuable information is
lost, so the compiler of the records noted the section and grave number.
It was in the Seneca
Co. cemetery records that I finally learned the source of William A.'s nickname
of Fred. His middle name was ALFRED! Fred and his aunt, Susan (Miller) Miller,
are buried in the Pleasant Union Cemetery. Fred is in Section 8, grave 13,
while Susan and her husband, Luther, are in Section 8, grave 12.
I had the mystery
of Fred/William Alfred Campbell solved, but where were William Silas and Eliza
Miller and why wasn't I finding any information about them in Belmont Co.,
OH? According to the 1900 census, William was a grocer. He would have been
a man of business and probably owned property. Land ownership means probate
court records to show the distribution of the estate after death. But there
was nothing in Belmont Co. to show this. I knew that William and Eliza Miller
were still living in Belmont Co., OH in 1910 because they appear in the census
with daughter Susan, still not married, and granddaughter Lillian Campbell.
So how and where
did Susan Miller meet and marry Luther Miller? How did she get across the
state of Ohio from Belmont Co. to Seneca Co.? There had to be what I call
"common ground". That is a place that both people in a marriage
have in common, where they meet each other, and marry. Where was that for
Susan and Luther? Did they meet in Belmont or Seneca Counties? If they were
married in Seneca Co., perhaps William and Eliza Miller had moved there. Here
I had some luck. Because Susan Miller had the same married name as her maiden
name, the Seneca Co. cemetery records were by alphabetical order, and families
usually are buried together, I had all the Miller names for Pleasant Union
Cemetery. Eliza and Silas W. Miller were buried in Pleasant Union Cemetery,
in Section 8, grave site 12, the same as their grandson William Campbell.
Both had died in 1913. Although his name is given as Silas William, not William
Silas, I knew I had the correct people.
The Ohio Historical
Society has the Ohio death certificate index on-line. A check of this gave
me a full death date for Silas W. Miller. A search for Eliza Miller was not
successful. The index gave me a death certificate number so I sent for the
certificate. It wasn't until the 2003 trip to Salt Lake City that a death
certificate for Eliza Miller was found. She died in Huron Co., OH at the home
of her granddaughter, Lillian (Campbell) Smith. Her name on the certificate
is given as "Ella Miller".
On any death certificate
the only information that can be trusted without question is the date of death.
The death certificates of William S. and Eliza Miller give the names of their
parents. But these names have to be proven with other sources. I have other
death certificates where I have proven that the parents' names were incorrect.
On William's death certificate, for his mother's name, written first was Jeanette
with Elizabeth written over that. The last name is Vibber. So was she Jeanette
or Elizabeth Vibber? Jeanette made more sense because William had named his
older daughter Jeanetta. What about the name of Vibber, a very uncommon name?
Research showed
a Russell Vibber, originally from Connecticut, lived in Guernsey Co., OH in
the early 1820's. I knew that William S. Miller was born 11 May 1845 probably
in the Guernsey/Belmont/Muskingum Counties area, so the location was correct.
Russell Vibber had married about 1824, wife's name unknown. They had a daughter
named Jeanette, and the wife died shortly after the daughter was born. Russell
had then moved to Crawford Co., OH, married again and had another family.
Nothing further was known about the daughter, Jeanette Vibber. In Muskingum
Co., OH I had found a marriage for a Michael Miller to Jeanette Vibbler, 29
Aug 1842. The date and place of marriage were still correct for them to be
William's parents.
I needed to find
William S. Miller in the 1850 census with his parents. If his mother's name
was Jeanette then I would know that I had found the correct marriage and that
she was the daughter of Russell Vibber. William's death certificate said his
father's name was George Miller. So I tried all George or Michael Millers
in the three county area of Muskingum, Guernsey, and Belmont. To this day
I have still not found William S. Miller and his parents in the 1850 census.
During my 2001
trip to Salt Lake City I found the big connection to Russell Vibber and the
Bay family. I had found a new 1860 census index for the state of Ohio, made
a copy of all the Michael and George Millers, and was going to attempt to
find the parents of William again. Just above the listing for a Geo. Miller,
was a Gennette Miller, residing in Millwood Twp., Guernsey Co. Millwood Township
is where Baileys Mills is located. There in the 1860 census, page 27, Millwood
Twp., Guernsey Co., OH was William Miller with his mother Jeanette and sister
Rebecca. Finally I had made that vital connection. William's mother was Jeanette
Vibber, daughter of Russell. The marriage license in Muskingum Co. was the
correct one. But the name of William's father still has to be proven.
By the time the
1860 census was taken, Jeanette (Vibber) Miller was a widow. But who is she
living with? Andrew, William, and Susan Bay were close in age and probably
siblings. Jeanette is not listed as a servant in the census, is she a relative?
The Bay family was a well-to-do household. They have real estate and personal
property listed in the thousands of dollars. For 1860 this was a lot of money.
It was my hope that Andrew Bay, the eldest, left a will. When I checked the
Guernsey Co. will records I found that he did leave a will and what a gold
mine it would turn out to be.
I was correct in
thinking that Andrew, William, and Susan Bay were siblings. They were the
unmarried children of Nathan Bay. Because Andrew did not marry, he left his
estate to his siblings and he names them all in his will. For me the key sentence
read: "the two grandchildren of my deceased sister Elizabeth Vibber to
wit, Silas W. Miller and Rebecca Jane Head". This told me that Russell
Vibber's first wife was Elizabeth Bay. No marriage record has ever been found
for Russell and Elizabeth. The will also proves, with no doubt, that Jeanette
Vibber was the daughter of this marriage. Nathan Bay had moved to Guernsey
Co., OH from Harford Co., MD by 1818. After Elizabeth (Bay) Vibber had died,
Nathan and his wife, Jeanette Holmes, took in their granddaughter. The 1830
and 1840 censuses show a young female living in the household and this would
be Jeanette Vibber. Later research in Maryland has found two court records
from Baltimore Co., MD that give a list of heirs for John Bay, unmarried adult
son of Nathan Bay. Jeanette Vibber is given as one of the heirs.
I had made a giant
step with William S. Miller's family, although his father is still a dead
end. Now it was time to try William's wife Eliza. There was some confusion
about her maiden name. The death certificate found in 2003 cleared that up
somewhat when it names her father as Benjamin Muller and her mother as Anna
Goodwin. In every census that she appears in, Eliza always states she was
from Maryland and the family story is that she was from around Catonsville,
MD, which is in Baltimore Co. A check of an 1850 census index for Maryland
showed only one Benjamin Miller in Baltimore Co. There, after years of research,
was Eliza Miller with her parents and siblings. Later research has shown that
her maiden name was Mellor and that her mother was not Anna Goodwin, but Sarah
Ann Shaw. The family was from England. The earlier censuses show the family
name as Miller, so this has led to some confusion about the correct surname.
The last of the
Campbell family mysteries had to do with the Campbell family themselves. Despite
years of trying I had not been able to find Charles Melford Campbell with
his parents in the 1870 or 1880 censuses. He was born 29 Dec 1863 so he should
be there in the censuses. I could not find a marriage of a Thomas Campbell
to a Victoria Creighton. There is a Creighton family in the Guernsey and Belmont
Cos. area but no daughter named Victoria. Some cemetery records are available
but nothing there either. Nothing in probate court in either county. What
was wrong? Then, in 2003 on a trip to Salt Lake City, I finally made the connection.
I had just arrived that morning in Utah, checked into the hotel,
had lunch, and headed over to the library for some research. Since
by then it was early afternoon, I knew that most of the microfilm
readers would be taken, so I decided to try the floor where the
books for the United States are located. I thought I would try
Guernsey and Belmont Cos., for the umpteenth time, looking for
Campbells. Also on my mind was a small item I had come across
the year before about a Deborah Campbell who had died in Baileys
Mills, OH, 1895, and was born in Noble Co., OH. I had been in
the library for about two hours when I picked up a book I have
seen many times before. Cemetery records for Belmont Co. are poor,
not all the cemeteries have been published. This book is one of
the few available for Belmont Co. cemeteries. I turned to the
section for Warren Township since this was the place of interest.
The words "Campbell, Deborah, 1836-1895" and "MOTHER"
leaped from the page. This was the same Deborah Campbell who had
died in Baileys Mills and was born in Noble Co., OH. Buried next
to her was my great-grandfather's only brother, Emerson and Emerson's
wife, Emma Keadle. Deborah Campbell had to be their mother! I
had seen this book many times, why hadn't this registered before???
Since I knew that
Deborah had been born in Noble Co., OH a check of the marriage records found
that Deborah Fry had married Thomas Campbell, 16 March 1858. Ever since 1974
when I had first talked to my grandmother I had been searching for Thomas
Campbell and there he was. But who was Victoria Creighton? Further research
that week revealed that Deborah (Fry) Campbell had a sister, Victoria, who
had married Christopher Creighton. So Victoria Creighton was not Charles'
mother but his aunt. The 1860 census, page 512, Beaver Twp., Noble Co., OH
showed Thomas, Deborah, and son Isaac W. Campbell, living with her parents,
Isaac and Isaphenia Fry. The son Isaac W. was not known and he died before
the next census. Thomas does not appear with Deborah in the 1870 census. She
is still living with her parents and now has sons Emerson and Charles. At
last I had found Charles M. Campbell as a child in the census. The 1880 census
gave up it's secret as to why I had been unable to find Charles Campbell.
Deborah and her sons always lived with her parents and that is where they
were in 1880. But the census taker had given Deborah, Emerson, and Charles
the last name of "Camel". Sometimes for the census a genealogist
has to be creative with the spellings of last names, but I never would have
thought of Camel for Campbell.
The 1870 census
showed Deborah and her sons, but where is Thomas Campbell? I thought he must
have died in between censuses. Cemetery records showed nothing. But then there
are no published cemetery records for Beaver Twp. The Civil War had occured.
Maybe Thomas had died as a soldier and not in the state of Ohio. I knew that
Thomas Campbell was the son of William and Ellen Campbell. I had found him
with his parents in the 1850 census. In 1860 William Campbell and family are
living close to Isaac Fry. But, William Campbell and family disappear from
Beaver Twp., Noble Co. in 1870 and research would show that they were not
even in the state of Ohio. So where were they?
Thomas Campbell
and parents had one more surprise in store for me. In 2004, when I was researching
again in Salt Lake City, I tried to find William and Ellen Campbell. An extensive
search of probate court records and deeds in Noble and Belmont Cos. found
nothing. I had two days left in Utah. At this time the LDS Church (Mormons)
had developed their 1880 census index and it was available on-line. I thought
I would give that index a try. There were too many William Campbells to research
everyone, it is too common a name. I find that sometimes it is easier to trace
a family if there is a child with an unusual first name. William and Ellen
Campbell had named one of their sons, Griffith, after William's older brother.
So I placed the name Griffith Campbell, born in Ohio, in the index and pressed
enter. Much to my surprise, on the screen, there was a Griffith Campbell,
born in Ohio, who lived in Henry Co., Missouri!! I immediately checked this
out.
Not only was Griffith
Campbell there, but living next door to him are his parents. What were they
doing in Missouri? Usually when a family makes a big move like this to another
state far away from their home state, someone known to them, such as another
family member, already lives in the new location. Who else was in Henry Co.,
MO? I found my answer the next day, my last in Utah, and what a stunning suprise
it would be.
The next day I
spent looking at books. Henry Co., MO was not revealing much. Shawnee Twp.,
where the Campbells resided in 1880, is on the county line with Johnson Co.
the next one to the north. Experience has shown that when a family lives close
to the county line, check out the next county. Sometimes the family would
cross the county line for business. Johnson Co. did not have too many sources
of published records. There were two very small books with cemetery records,
so I had little hope of finding anything. But, incredibly, there in Chilhowee
Cemetery, Chilhowee Twp., Johnson Co., MO was Ellen Campbell, wife of William,
and who is buried next to her?! Thomas Campbell, died 28 Oct 1880, age 41
yrs. Who is this Thomas?? Is he Ellen's son who is supposed to be dead in
Ohio?? The age of Thomas was correct if he is Ellen's son. It is very common
to find family members buried next to each other, so it was very likely that
this Thomas Campbell was related in some way to Ellen.
I had to prove
that Thomas Campbell was a son of William and Ellen Campbell. A search of
the 1870 census showed that Thomas, William and Ellen were living in Johnson
Co., MO. Thomas has a 3 year old daughter named Dollie May, born in Ohio,
but no wife. Johnson Co., MO deed records provided the proof needed. In January
1871 Thomas and Griffith Campbell are jointly purchasing land. In February
1872 this same piece of land is being sold by Griffith Campbell, Thomas Campbell
and his wife Sarah F. Thomas has married and Sarah F. is his wife in the 1880
census. Again the odd name of Griffith came to my rescue. Thomas and Griffith
were brothers, sons of William and Ellen Campbell.
The speculation
on my part is that Thomas and Deborah must have seperated after the 1860 census.
Divorce was not very common in the 1860's but it did take place. For Noble
Co., OH, divorce records are available for the years 1852 to 1938 from the
Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT. A search of these records did
not locate a divorce for Thomas and Deborah Campbell. However, the farm of
Isaac Fry, where Thomas and Deborah resided, is located in the extreme northeast
corner of Noble Co. Close to the north is Guernsey Co. and the eastern property
line is Belmont Co. Thomas and Deborah could have easily gone to either county.
The Family History Library has Common Pleas Court records, where divorces
would have been granted, up to 1853 for Guernsey Co. and to 1854 for Belmont
Co. Neither county has available court records that cover the 1860's.
The presence of
Thomas' daughter, Mary in 1880, Dollie May in 1870, born about 1867, in Ohio,
was puzzling. Was she Deborah's daughter? But why would a mother allow her
daughter to be taken west and the sons left behind? I believe, but cannot
prove, that Thomas Campbell is the same Thomas Campbell who married Christina
E. McNabb, 28 Oct 1865 in Morgan Co., OH, the daughter of William McNabb and
Sarah Combs. In the 1860 census the McNabb family is found on pages 345-346,
Manchester Twp., Morgan Co., OH. Thomas Campbell's aunt and uncle, Jesse and
Elizabeth (Campbell) Foster, are found on page 349, in Manchester Twp. I researched
Dollie May Campbell in Missouri. She married George R. Vanwinkle, 10 July
1882 in Henry Co., MO. The Missouri State Archives has the Missouri death
certificates on-line. I found death certificates for George Vanwinkle and
some of his children. Unfortunately there was no death certificate for Dollie.
The death certificate of one son says that his mother, Dollie May Campbell,
was born in Marion Co., OH. If all of the above is correct then Thomas and
Deborah Campbell were divorced between 1860 and 1865. Thomas remarried and
that wife died between 1867 and 1870, place unknown, but possibly in Marion
Co., OH. No record has been found for Thomas' third marriage to Sarah F. That
took place between 1870 and 1872. After his death, Sarah F. Campbell and her
children disappear and I have not been able to locate them.
My 2005 trip to
the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT provided another large piece
of the Campbell puzzle: Who were the parents of William Campbell? William
Campbell had married "Ellener" Foster, 3 Sept 1837, in Guernsey
Co., OH. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Ann Foster. From a quit claim
deed, dated 1857, found in Noble Co., OH, I knew that William had an older
brother named Griffith who resided in Belmont Co., OH. The quit claim deed
was for property purchased in 1816 by a William Campbell. Since William, who
married Ellen Foster, was born about 1813, I knew the purchaser could not
be him. It was on the 2005 trip that I located a will for the senior William
Campbell in Guernsey Co., OH. The will confirmed that William and his wife,
Margaret, had children: Griffith Campbell, James Campbell, William Campbell;
Mary, wife of William Moore; Sarah, wife of Israel Barnes; and Elizabeth,
wife of Jesse Foster.
The International
Genealogical Index (IGI) responded to an entry for a marriage between a William
Campbell and Margaret with a marriage from Loudoun Co., VA. William "Camble"
married Margaret Reed, 24 March 1798, in Loudoun Co., VA. Many families in
the southeastern corner of Ohio originated from Loudoun and Frederick Counties
in Virginia. I have yet to discover the parents of William Campbell in Loudoun
Co. Margaret Reed is the daughter of James and Mary Reed. A family history
submitted to Ancestry.com says that James Reed is the son of Jacob Reed and
Rebecca Claypoole. I believe this to be incorrect. A Claypoole family history
says that James, son of Jacob Reed and Rebecca Claypoole, married Sibyll Furr
and eventually moved to Fleming Co., KY. Through tax and deed records I have
established that there were two James Reeds in Loudoun Co., VA. One James
Reed always appears in the tax records as living next to Jacob Reed. A deed
record identifies him as the son of Jacob and states that his wife's name
is "Sibby". The second James Reed lives in another part of Loudoun
Co. and two tax records from the late 1790's show that this James had Campbell
neighbors.
Further research
is needed in Loudoun Co., VA. There is a large Campbell family living in the
county and many of them moved to the Guernsey and Belmont Cos. area of Ohio.
More research is needed in Missouri to establish when William Campbell died.
It has taken me thirty years to get this far and I will not give up yet.
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