CAMPBELL, Alexander 1851-1936

CAMPBELL, ALLEN

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 11/9/2016 at 14:08:16

Alec Campbell Is Dead; Came To Co. 72 Yrs. Ago

Grew Up On Grundy Farm When Farms Were Mostly Grass; Gave Many Years To Mail Service

Alec Campbell, who came to Grundy county in 1864, a year before the close of the Civil War, died at his home in Grundy Center Friday following an illness of a few months from dropsy and other complications. He would have been 85 years old had he lived until next September. Up to the past few months of his life he carried his age well and he got about on foot or in his car as easily as the average man ten or fifteen years younger.

When Alec Campbell came to make his home on a Grundy county farm with his parents he was 12 years old. A farm in Grundy county at that time was a big patch of prairie. He saw here during his lifetime a vast prairie dotted with a few shacks used for farm houses, converted into a county of the best improved and the best developed farms in the country. He and his sister were the only two people still living in Grundy county who made their home here in 1864.

Services were held at the Coffman funeral home Monday afternoon at two o'clock. They were conducted by Rev. J. B. Bird, pastor of the Grundy Methodist church. Burial was in the Grundy Center cemetery.

Was Native of New York
Alexander Campbell was born in Jasper, Steuben co., New York 84 years ago on Sept. 11 last. He was the only son and eldest child of William and Margaret Campbell. The sisters were Mary, who survives him, Martha Ann Heitman and Estella Helen Backus, who passed away many years ago. Mr. Campbell's family came to Iowa, settling first in Clinton county, when he was a small child. When he was about 12 years of age they came to Grundy county, settling on the Campbell homestead which was known as the George and James Campbell farm. After about 7 years they moved to Steamboat Rock, where his young manhood was spent. After several years, he again took up farming on the same farm.

On May 19, 1892, he was married to Rosa B. Allen of New York. To this union were born two children, Helen Castilla and William. William passed away at the age of three months. Helen grew to young womanhood, dying at the age of 23 years.

Spent Several Years in West and the North
In 1897 he and his family moved to Grundy Center. On Jan. 7, 1898, the wife and mother passed away and in a couple of years Mr. Campbell journeyed to the West, where he traveled through Old Mexico and north to Alaska.

In Mail Service 22 Years
After a few years he again returned to Grundy Center and in 1908 became a rural mail carrier on Route One out of Grundy Center. He served in this capacity 22 years, retiring in 1930. The remaining years of his life were spent at the home and among his many friends about town. During his last sickness he was confined to his bed for nearly seven weeks with heart and kidney trouble, passing away Friday evening, April 3, at 9:30 o'clock.

His immediate surviving family is his sister, Mary Campbell, a niece, Maud Heitman Miller, Grundy Center; a nephew, E. Burdette Backus of Des Moines; and two grandnephews, Vernon and Hollis Miller.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 9 April 1936, pg 1