Campbell Cemetery

Duane's take

The way this marker tells it, here's the story of Campbell Cemetery as recorded out in Anderson County. Now, Texas is dotted with small family cemeteries, and this one is about as true to that tradition as they come. The Campbell family came to the Mound Prairie community in 1844, and what they built here went a lot deeper than farmland.

Albert Gallatin Campbell, born in 1808, made the move with his wife Jenny Elvira and their children, John Bartlett, Isadore, and James. They established a farm, and before long the family grew with the addition of another daughter, Jettie, and another son, Alexander. A full house, a working farm, roots going down into Anderson County soil.

Now, that oldest boy, John Bartlett Campbell, born in 1834, he went off and served in the Civil War. When he came home, he didn't rest on whatever he'd seen and done out there. He worked in a hardware store, earned his money, and eventually purchased 270 acres.

Built a large home on it. He and his wife Mary Elizabeth, born in 1853, raised twelve children in that home. Twelve.

So when John Bartlett set aside one acre of his farm for a family burial ground, he was thinking ahead the way people do when they intend to stay put. In 1876, his father, Albert Gallatin Campbell, became the first person laid to rest in that ground. And here's the part that settles quiet over a campfire: Albert's was the only burial in that cemetery for twenty-four years.

One man, one acre, all that silence. Then in 1900, Albert's grandson, young John Bartlett Campbell Jr., just twenty-three years old, died of scarlet fever, and the ground received him too. Mary Elizabeth Campbell lived on until 1927, and John Bartlett himself until 1915.

The cemetery is still in use today by Campbell family descendants. One acre set aside, and it's still doing exactly what it was meant to do.

What the marker says

Typical of a number of small family cemeteries located throughout the state of Texas, this graveyard was established by the Campbell family, who moved to the Mound Prairie community in this area in 1844. Albert Gallatin Campbell (1808 - 1876), his wife Jenny Elvira, and their children John Bartlett, Isadore, and James, established a farm. Soon the family grew with the addition of another daughter, Jettie, and another son, Alexander. John Bartlett Campbell (1834 - 1915) returned home after service in the Civil War and worked in a hardware store to earn money to purchase his own farm. He eventually purchased 270 acres and built a large home, where he and his wife Mary Elizabeth (1853 - 1927) reared their twelve children. John Bartlett Campbell set aside one acre of land on his farm for a family burial ground, and in 1876 his father, Albert Gallatin Campbell, became the first person buried here. Albert's was the only burial in the graveyard for twenty-four years, until his grandson, 23-year-old John Bartlett Campbell, Jr., died in 1900 of scarlet fever. The cemetery is still in use by Campbell family descendants.