David Wilson Campbell

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm passing it along to you. David Wilson Campbell. Born May 4, 1812, in Georgia.

And if you're keeping track, that's a man who had a long road ahead of him before he ever set foot in Texas. He made that move in 1835, and the timing, well, it was not quiet timing. The following year he was serving in the Texas army during the Texas War for Independence.

Not a spectator. A soldier. Let that sit a moment.

Then, when the smoke cleared and Texas became a different kind of place, Campbell settled in Navarro County and took up farming. A pioneer farmer, the marker calls him, and out here on this road you get a feel for what that word pioneer actually cost a person. In 1845, Campbell gave ten acres of land to the Harmony Methodist Church.

Gave it. Ten acres. Part of that land became a cemetery, and if you look around you, many of the people buried here carry the Campbell name.

Descendants. Generation after generation, in the ground he donated. Campbell was married three times and had children from each marriage.

The marker doesn't editorialize on that, and neither will I. It's just a life, full and complicated and long, right up until April 4, 1879. A man from Georgia who came to Texas in 1835, fought for it, farmed it, and gave a piece of it away so there'd be someplace to rest.

That piece is still here.

What the marker says

(May 4, 1812 - April 4, 1879) A native of Georgia, David Wilson Campbell migrated to Texas in 1835. He served in the Texas army the following year during the Texas War for Independence. A pioneer farmer in Navarro County, he gave ten acres of land to the Harmony Methodist Church in 1845. Part of that acreage was used for this cemetery where many Campbell descendants are buried. Campbell was married three times and had children from each marriage. Recorded - 1978