I'll Get to Scotland Afore Ye

Andrew Campbell & Mary Gemmell Campbell

One of my first blogs on here was about my Campbell ancestors and how I'd been unable to go back any further than my great-great grandfather Andrew Campbell who immigrated to the United States about 1870.

But thanks to a distant cousin, the Scottish census, and some superbly detailed record keeping in Scotland, I've been able to push back two more generations and fill in some interesting details, too.

The journey back begins with my great-great grandfather's baptism record showing his birth date of September 27, 1845 (which I knew from family records and his grave marker in Newcastle, Texas). The baptism certificate gives Andrew's father's name as John (which I had not known) and most importantly lists his mother's maiden name, Helen Ramage, which I had not known at all.

Baptism record of Andrew Campbell (October 19, 1845)

The baptism record also gives Andrew's place of birth as Clackmannan, which is also new information, though Clackmannan is very close to Dunfermline, which is where family stories said we were from. With the names of Andrew's parents, one finds their marriage took place January 13, 1845. And with that it is fairly easy to find the family in the Scotland census, which offers a wealth of information.

In  the 1851 Scotland Census John Camble [sic], age 26, and his wife Helen, age 28, were living at 110 Store Row at Forth Iron Works in Carnock. John was a coal miner. In 1851 they had three children: Andrew, age 5 (my great-great grandfather); Margaret, age 4; and Janet, age 2.

In the 1861 Scotland Census the family is living at 83 Blair Row in Carnock. The children are listed as Andrew, age 15; Margaret, age 13; and several new children: John, age 9; William, age 7; Alexander, age 2; and Thomas, who is two months old.

Birth Record of Alexander Campbell (1858)

You may have noted that the youngest child listed in the 1851 census, Janet, is missing. Alas, she is listed in the death registry for January 1859.  A final child, Catherine Campbell, was born to John and Helen in 1865.

My great-great grandfather Andrew was 22 when he married my great-great grandmother Mary Gemmell in 1867. Both list their residences as Blair Row in Oakley.  The certificate also gives me the names of Mary Gemmell's parents (my 3rd great grandparents), James Gemmell, a labourer, and Jean Stewart.

Marriage record of Andrew Campbell & Mary Gemmell (1867)

Now comes a bit of a surprise. According to the marriage record above, they were married on October 7, 1867. But in Mary Gemmell Campbell's obituary from March 15, 1930, we find a marriage date of October 16, 1866. Regarding the discrepancy between the date of the 7th versus the 16th all I can assume is the child that wrote the obit failed to recall the anniversary correctly. The mistake in the year is more interesting, and I suspect the couple pushed the date back a year as their first child, Jean Campbell [Hardy], was born March 21, 1868 - less than six months after the actual marriage date.

Jean Campbell Hardy was a prominent resident of Newcastle, Texas (where this obituary ran). She had married Samuel Hardy who had in fact named the town and developed and financed several of the coal mines in the area. I am not sure if even Aunt Jean knew she had been conceived three months before her parents wed (I doubt it), but it is more than good reason for a fudging of the dates.

Andrew and Mary had two children in Scotland before they emigrated to the United States in 1870. Jean was the first (born March 21, 1868), and I just found a birth record for their second child, John Campbell, born July 30, 1869, in Carnock. You can read more about the thirteen Campbell children  in this earlier post.

Catherine Campbell, the youngest of John Campbell and Helen Ramage's children, married John Forsyth on December 31, 1886. They went on to have at least seven children. According to the 1891 Scotland census, her father was living with them, age 66. Helen Ramage Campbell seems to have died before 1891 - but I can't find a source thus far.

My great-great-great grandfather John Cambell died of pneumonia a few months after appearing in the above census on November 16, 1891, aged 67. I'm sure his life as a coal miner contributed a bit, too, to his death. He was living in Dunfermline, County of Fife, when he died.

John Campbell Death Record (1891)

His death certificate (above) survives, and thanks to the superb Scottish record keeping, allows me to push back the Campbells one more generation still. The death information includes the names of his parents, (my 4th great grandparents) Andrew Campbell (another coal miner) and Janet Allan. I believe I have found their marriage record, too, showing they married May 13, 1820, in Dunfermline, County Fife, Scotland.

I am deeply indebted to Alex Johnston. He is a first cousin, twice removed of the John Forsyth that married my great-great-great aunt, Catherine Campbell. He supplied me with much of the information above. In exchange I was pleased to give him a good deal of information on what happened to my Campbell ancestors that came to the United States in 1870.

I Love a Piano

Edna Kirkpatrick Mott and my mom.

Today I'd like to explore the professional life of my maternal grandmother, Edna Kirkpatrick Mott (1897-1973). I often like to tell people that she was a Concert Pianist, but she had a more accurate (and funnier) description of her career: she told people she was "a Concert Pianist by profession, but a high-school music teacher by Depression," meaning, of course, that the economic crisis of the 1930s had forced her to shift gears. But I've no doubt that her classical music career was at least partially derailed by the fact that she divorced my grandfather, Robert E. Lee Mott (1890-1973), in 1928, leaving her the single parent of my mom, Mary Lee Mott Maxine (1924-2004), who was then three years old. For the record, my grandfather remained a part of both Edna's and my mom's lives after the divorce - both financially and as a father to my mom - but my grandmother had sole custody and the ultimate responsibility.

My grandmother had been born into a relatively affluent family in Bridgeport, Texas, in 1897. She was the only child of Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick (1873-1951) and Mary Campbell Kirkpatrick (1875-1966). The Kirkpatricks were firm believers in education. My grandmother graduated from Bridgeport High School in 1914 and went on to get a Bachelor of Music degree from Texas Woman's College in 1917 (now Texas Wesleyan University). She continued her study of piano after college. On October 27, 1921, she married Robert E. Lee Mott, my grandfather. The marriage lasted about seven years.

I believe for the first year after the divorce that my grandmother (and mom) may have moved back in with her parents in Bridgeport, though they also spent some time in McAllen, Texas, as well. But in the fall of 1929 my grandmother got a job teaching at the Fort Worth Conservatory of Music. It was a position where she could live at the conservatory with her four-year-old daughter, too. They moved into the Conservatory in the first days of October, 1929. The stock market crashed a few weeks later. She was busy teaching during the school year, but during the summers she took the opportunity to continue her own piano studies, taking Master Classes with famed pianist Edwin Hughes (1884-1965) in the summers of 1931 and 1932.

On March 19, 1933, at the height of the Depression she made her big debut. The Fort Worth Star-Telegraph announced the recital, even including a photo.

E. Clyde Whitlock reviewed the recital a few days later, saying among other things that the Beethoven Andante in F major was "one of the best played items on the program as to clarity of outline, melodic delineation, and rhythmic poise," and that the Chopin "was brought to an impressive climax after capable management of its technical demands, especially by the left hand. The waltz was perhaps the outstanding performance of the program in rhythmic flow and melodic charm." Oh, you might as well read the whole thing!

I'm sure my grandmother was very pleased. She sent her notices to her most important piano teacher, Edwin Hughes, and got the following letter back from him. In the letter Hughes mentions playing double piano concerts with his wife. She was also an accomplished pianist, Jewel Bethany Hughes. My grandmother cherished this letter for the rest of her life.

Letter from concert pianist Edwin Hughes

My grandmother continued to perform when she could. But she primarily taught music for the rest of her life. Around 1939 she accepted a position as music teacher at Highland Park High School in Dallas. This was at least in part because she wanted my mother to be able to go to Highland Park so my mom could meet the generally wealthy young men who attended the upscale high school. My mom had other ideas - but that's for a different blog.

My grandmother also taught privately, and I have programs for many recitals she put together over the years - such as this one from Whittle Recital Hall in Dallas in 1948. In the mid-1950s my grandmother accepted a position teaching high school music in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Music was always an important part of her life. She tried to teach me to play the piano when I was little, but alas, I just didn't have the patience. And I think it may be more difficult to take classes from one's grandmother. You certainly can't fib about practicing when you live with your piano teacher!

In the early 1940s my mom got a home-recording phonograph and she made a small number of records of the family. There are two of my grandmother singing - she had a lovely voice - but it's such a shame that there are no recordings of her playing the piano.

Edna Kirkpatrick Mott playing with two of my Caldwell cousins.

The McNaughtons, Clearing Some Haze

William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914), my great-great-grandfather.

In this previous blog post about my McNaughton ancestors, I said that my earlier McNaughton ancestry was lost in the haze of time. Since then I’ve pierced the haze a little.

On the actual McNaughton line, I still can’t really go beyond Malcolm McNaughton (1790-1870), the great-grandfather of my great-grandmother Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower (1891-1964). It’s possible that his father was named John McNaughton, but that’s not certain. I’d previously thought Malcolm immigrated from Reispole, Scotland, but that was incorrect. Instead he was born in New York State. He married Mary McIntyre (1791-1867), my great-great-great-great-grandmother, and it’s mostly the McIntyre side, not really the McNaughtons, that has allowed me to clear some of the haze away from the distant past.

In the late 1700s many families from the Argyll region of Scotland emigrated to the Mohawk Valley town of Johnstown, New York, forming a Scottish settlement there. They were among the earliest settlers of European origin in the area. It’s likely that Malcolm McNaughton’s parents were among these immigrants—since Malcolm McNaughton was born in the USA in 1790—but I don’t know that for sure.

In 1801 western New York opened up to settlers. When Genesee County, New York, was carved out of Albany County in 1802/03 a number of Scottish-origin families moved there from Johnstown, New York, to found the town of Caledonia. Three of my McIntyre relatives were among the earliest settlers that went from Johnstown to Genesee County.

My five times great-grandparents John Roy McIntyre (abt 1753-1831) and Helen “Ellen” Stewart McIntyre (abt 1765-1834) arrived with their children in Johnstown, New York, from Argyll, Scotland, in 1805. In 1811 three of the McIntyre siblings left Johnstown for Genesee County. They were Allen (b. 1788), about twenty-three years old; Peter (1795-1851), about eighteen years old; and Elizabeth (1797-1890), about fourteen years old. It’s likely that twenty-year-old Mary, my four times great-grandmother, didn’t go with her brothers and sister because she was already married to Malcolm McNaughton.

Peter, Allen, and Elizabeth McIntyre spent fourteen days on the journey by ox cart to Genesee County. They crossed the Genesee River in a scow and settled in the Caledonia area on the south side of Ellicott Pond on lot 43. In 1814 the rest of the McIntyre family joined them. In 1819 the northwestern area of Caledonia they lived in became the town of York and in 1821 their section of Genesee County became Livingston County.

It seems that Malcolm and Mary McNaughton joined Mary's three pioneer siblings in Genesee County before the rest of the McIntyre family arrived in 1914, because their first child, my great-great-great-great-uncle John Malcolm McNaughton (1812-1893) was born there in 1812. The rest of Malcolm and Mary McNaughton’s children were probably born in the same area, but I don’t have firm evidence of that.

Their fifth son Malcolm Duncan McNaughton (1824-1905), my great-great-great-grandfather, was still living with his parents in 1850, but by 1851 he had married his first wife Sarah Jane Mann McNaughton (abt 1830-1907) and they’d moved further west to Galt, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada. There they had two children, William Malcolm McNaughton (1850-1914), my great-great-grandfather (pictured above), and Elizabeth Alvira McNaughton (abt 1851-unknown). Malcolm Duncan’s brothers Joseph (1824-unknown) and Alexander (abt 1828-1919) were also living with them.

By 1860 Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane McNaughton had moved south with their children to Montville, Geauga County, Ohio. I don’t know what became of Malcolm Duncan’s brothers Joseph and Alex. But their eldest brother John Malcolm McNaughton lived next door with his wife Clarissa Almeda Hodges McNaughton (1818-1893) and their four children. The rest of the McNaughton siblings and their parents seem to have remained back in Livingston (formerly Genesee) County, New York. (Except possibly for Peter McNaughton [1815-1874], who seems to have died in Michigan.)

Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane split up before 1873, and each married again. Malcolm Duncan’s second wife was Lydia Annette Clark (1839-1905), and they lived in Brecksville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Sarah Jane’s second husband was the much younger James W. Sweet (1868-1895), and they lived in Claridon, Geauga County, Ohio. Both Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane had children with their second spouses.

Malcolm Duncan and Sarah Jane’s eldest child, my great-great-grandfather William Malcolm McNaughton married Mary Elizabeth Grant (1856-1946). They had eight children, including Edna Marietta McNaughton Shanower, my great-grandmother. That brings me to ground I’ve covered in past blog posts here and here. And I think that clears a lot of the haze surrounding my McNaughton line.

One of the more interesting details about my McIntyre forebears is this: Mary McIntyre McNaughton’s sister Elizabeth McIntyre McKenzie, who pioneered the move to Genesee County, New York, with her two brothers in 1811, maintained until the end of her days that the family was descended from the royal house of Stuart. In the book A Short History of the Campbell Family (1906) author Hugh Campbell writes that Elizabeth “never forgot the trace of royal Stuart blood that was coursing through her veins, and long life, clear complexion and clean skin were all attributed to it, forgetful of the fact that the Stewarts never were noted for their longevity, or for much of anything else that was good.”

King James I of England and VI of Scotland.

I have no idea whether this old family tradition of royal descent is true or not, and I wouldn’t know how to prove it. Elizabeth and Mary McIntyre’s mother was my five times great-grandmother Helen “Ellen” Stewart. There are plenty of Stewarts and Stuarts in the world, especially of Scottish origin. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them claim relationship with the Stuart royals. So I take the story with a grain of salt.

But David is pretty solidly descended from the Stewart family. His estimated fifteen times great-grandmother was Jane Stewart, the six times great-aunt of King James I of England, son of Henry Stuart and Mary Queen of Scots. So if it’s true that I’m descended from the Stewarts, then David and I have another blood connection, in addition to our common Bartlett cousins. However, until DNA testing can be refined more precisely than it currently is, I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.

Diane Finley Parrotta 1960-2012

Diane Finley Parrotta 1960-2012

I'm most sad to report the death of my cousin Diane Jeannette Finley Parotta. She died from cancer on October 25, 2012. She was only fifty-two.  

Diane was born in Fort Worth, Texas, July 1, 1960, to Gayle Caldwell York and Dale Finley. She graduated from Alfred M. Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana, class of 1979. Shortly after the birth of her son, she moved back to Fort Worth where she worked as Chief Financial Officer for Ross and Matthews Law Firm. Diane is survived by her parents, Gayle York and Dale Finley; her sister, Karen Finley; her son, Anthony Parrotta; and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.  

Diane was a lover of dogs, family, friends, and the outdoors. She was a member of the Texas Master Naturalist, the World Wildlife Organization, and the Association of Legal Administrators. Her passion for life is evident through her gardening, photography, and involvement in prairie restoration. Her extensive work and research in genealogy has brought the family closer than ever and will no doubt have a ripple effect throughout the rest of time.

Much of the above is from the fine obituary written by Diane's son, Anthony. It was Diane's work and research in genealogy, which Anthony mentions above, that brought Diane and me together. While this post shares the basic details of Diane's life I want to share how Diane's genealogy work brought us together - reconnecting two once very close branches of the family.

After the death of my mother, Mary Lee Mott Maxine (1924-2004), I felt very alone and isolated. My mom had been an only child and her mother had been an only child. The once huge extended Campbell family had been scattered and spread thin by time, geography, and marriage. I felt I had lost so much when my mom died; I desperately wanted to preserve her family stories, our family history - even if I had no one to share it with. I went out and bought Family Tree Maker. I began entering all the basic family data, and every couple days I'd upload it to the "World Family Tree" part of their website. Almost immediately I got an alert that an "exact match" had been found on another tree uploaded by a certain Diane Finley Parrotta. I had no idea who she was - neither Finley nor Parrotta were family names as far as I knew. I sent Diane an e-mail. She immediately wrote back, and over the next couple days we talked on the phone several times. Diane shared my e-mail with her mom, aunt, and sister. It became clear that two once closely intertwined branches of the family had been reunited. Here's our family connection in a nutshell:

Andrew Campbell and Mary Gemell

Diane and I share the same great-great-grandparents, Andrew Campbell and Mary Gemell (seen at left). She is descended from their daughter Jeannette (Diane's middle name) and I am descended from their daughter Mary.

Jeannette Campbell married Charles Cary Caldwell and they had one child, a son Charles. Sadly both parents died in 1924, leaving eleven-year-old Charles an orphan. He went to live with his aunt and uncle,  Mary Campbell and Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick (my great-grandparents), in Bridgeport, Texas..

Charles became, in effect, my grandmother's little brother and my mother's big brother. Charles was sixteen years younger than my grandmother and eleven years older than my mom. After my own grandparents divorced in 1928 my grandmother and mom spent much time living with Mary and Louis Kirkpatrick and their adopted son Charles. My grandmother was a Dallas/Fort Worth area music teacher, so essentially all holidays and all summer she and Mom lived in Bridgeport.

In the early 1940s Charles married Lois Parish. Sadly, Charles inherited his father's weak heart and he died in 1945 at the age of thirty-two, leaving behind his two young children, Gayle and Carol. Gayle is Diane's mom. The families stayed fairly close for the next decade or so.

Louis & Mary Kirkpatrick with young Gayle Caldwell and her infant sister Carol.

Below is a photo of Diane's mom Gayle playing the violin (center top) and Diane's Aunt Carol (bottom left) sitting beside my grandmother Edna Claire Kirkpatrick Mott (center) at the piano.

Edna Kirkpatrick Mott with Gayle and Carol Caldwell circa mid-1950s.

Diane's mom Gayle even participated in my parents' wedding party in 1958. But then our two families began to drift apart. People got married, they moved, relocated for graduate school, had kids, divorced, married again - names changed, addresses got lost.

That is, until 2004 when Diane and I found each other. We continued to share e-mails and phone calls. My reconnection spread to Dianes's sister, Karen, and especially to Diane's mom, Gayle. In 2009 we all finally met face-to-face. Around Christmas my partner and I spent several days in Fort Worth. We stayed with Gayle and had several good visits with Diane and Karen and their aunt Carol. The years melted away and the sadness and loneliness after my mom's death melted as well. The past didn't feel so lost anymore.

There was a future, too, as we all got to know each other through e-mails and especially Facebook. I deeply regret that the families lost touch for so long. Reconnecting would not have been possible without Diane's interest in the family, in genealogy, and in reaching out to connect with others.

I am so grateful to her for giving me my family back. Luckily she was surrounded by her large loving family at the end. I wish we had had more time to know each other. But she touched many people and many things, and the ripples of her life will radiate outward for a very long time.

Good-bye, Diane. Thank you.

A celebration of life will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday, October 30, at The Unity Church located at 5051 Trail Lake Drive, Fort Worth, Texas 76133. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Diane's memory to the Humane Society of North Texas at 1840 East Lancaster, Fort Worth, Texas 76103. Arrangements have been made by the Major Funeral Home & Chapel, Fort Worth, Texas, telephone 817-568-0440.

The Campbells are Coming!

We've spent a couple posts on my Kirkpatrick ancestors, so today I'm going to introduce some of my Campbell relatives. So far I have had little luck tracing the line back beyond my great-great-grandparents, Andrew Campbell (1845-1919) and his wife Mary Gemell (1847-1930).

Andrew Campbell (1845-1919) and Mary Gemell (1847-1930), circa 1870

Until I scanned this photo - the only photo I have of Andrew and Mary Campbell together - I had not noticed that something seems to have happened to Andrew's left ear. According to his grandson, Jack Denton, Andrew was a Mining Engineer, though several censuses list his occupation as Coal Miner.

My family was rich with Campbell stories. Andrew and Mary were married October 16, 1866. At this time they lived in Oakley, Scotland.  They immigrated to the US around 1869. I've yet to track down their boat, but family stories always told that they traveled in "steerage." They had thirteen children, two born in Scotland - Jean and a first son John, and eleven born in the United States.

Mary Gemell Campbell - Obit

Family stories said they first settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. But now I have an alternate scenario where they spent a year before that in Montana. I hope I can find a way to verify that.

I know that at some point during the early 1870s Andrew made a return trip from the US to Scotland (reason unknown). Mary and the children stayed in the US. Perhaps this voyage home was what prompted the move from Montana to Pennsylvania where I know they had settled by 1874.

They had at least three more children in Pennsylvania: my great-grandmother Mary Campbell (Kirkpatrick), a daughter Ellen - the second of this name, and a son Andrew. The second John and the first Ellen, who both died in infancy, were probably also born in Pennsylvania.

In 1886 they moved to Gordon, Texas. In that same year the eldest daughter, Jean, married Samuel Hardy. The Campbells then moved to Oklahoma for eight years where five more children were born: Robina, Margaret, Katherine, Jeannette, and Thomas. Soon after Thomas's birth they moved to Bridgeport, Texas. In all these places Andrew Campbell was involved in coal mining. I am unsure exactly what he did as a mining engineer. He was almost certainly not working the mines. The family was very comfortable, taking good care of their ten children, all of whom married very well - except possibly for Thomas, whose marital status remains unknown. And the fact that Andrew could afford to travel home to visit Scotland after the immigration indicates some money as well.

In the early 1890s they moved to Bridgeport, Texas, where son-in-law Samuel Hardy was prospecting for coal. Samuel must have done very well and the Campbells likely moved to  Bridgeport to join in the good fortune. In 1908 both the Hardys and Campbells moved to the newly founded city of Newcastle, Texas. Sam Hardy became manager of the Belknap Coal Company. And Andrew immediately built a two-story stone structure called "The Campbell Building." He also built a new family home in Newcastle, where Andrew and Mary remained until their deaths - his in 1919, hers in 1930.

As I mentioned above Andrew and Mary had thirteen children in all. A family story tells that after the kids were all grown one of them asked his mother why she stopped at thirteen. Mother Campbell replied in her thick brogue: "Your father woulda had more -  but I put my foot on it!" The Campbell clan thought this was just hysterical!

The Thirteen Campbell Children

Jean Campbell (1868-1961)

The first born child, Jean was the only child born in Scotland that lived to adulthood. She married Samuel Hardy and lived to be ninety-two.

John Campbell (1869 - ?

Their second child, John, was born July 30, 1869 in Carnock, Scotland. He died in infancy after his parents immigrated to the United States in 1870. Death date unknown. [Updated JAN 22, 2014]

John, and Ellen

After the first John died, they named another son John and he died as well. After the loss of two children named John, they did not try that name again. A daughter, Ellen was born shortly after the couple arrived in the US. She also died in infancy. They tried the name Ellen again for their eighth child (see below). But they always called her "Nel," to avoid the bad luck they had had with the two Johns.

James G. Campbell (1871-1938)

James's death certificate states he was born in Towanda, Montana. This is the only reference in family papers indicating that the Campbells spent time in Montana shortly after they arrived in the USA. Towanda does have mining interest, so since Andrew was in coal mining, it's certainly possible they spent their first year in Montana. James's older sister, Jean, was the informant on his death certificate, so I tend to take her Montana reference as accurate, despite no mention of the Montana adventure in the family lore. James married a woman named Katherine. He died when he was sixty-six.

Mary Elizabeth Campbell (1875-1966)

Mary was my great-grandmother, called Mamie. She married Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick and lived to be ninety-one.

Andrew Campbell (1876-1961)

Andrew married a woman named Nellie Maud Humphrey. He lived until he was eighty-four.

Ellen Campbell (1877-1962)

Ellen, always called "Nel," married Ausburn Black and lived to be eighty-five.

Robina Campbell (1880-1973)

Robina spent most of her adult life in Artesia, New Mexico. She married Herschel Denton and lived to be ninety-three.

Margaret Campbell (1884-1967)

Margaret married J. P. Newell. She eventually moved to Tennessee where she died at the age of eighty-three.

Katherine Campbell (1887-1979)

Kate married John Albert Nelson. She lived most of her life in Fort Worth, Texas. She lived to be ninety-two.

Jeannette Campbell (1888-1924)

Jeannette married C. C. Caldwell. She died of "Brights Disease," a kidney ailment, at the age of thirty-five.

Thomas Campbell (1891- ? )

Tom was the baby of the family. He was also a bit of a black sheep, and at some point the family lost contact with him. My mom remembered him from when she was a child, probably in the 1930s. The last information I can find on him is that in 1940 he turned over a share of property to his eldest sister, Jean. I would love to know what happened to him and if he had a family.

My mom knew and remembered Grandma Campbell, Mary Gemell. She said she was her favorite of her great-grandparents. One of the stories my mom often related was that Grandma Campbell would sit on the porch of her home in Newcastle, Texas, rocking in her rocking chair, staring out at the parched flat land of west Texas. She'd rock and sigh softly, "the sea . . . the sea . . . ," remembering the ocean of her youth.

Mary Gemell Campbell with five of her daughters. L to R: Jeannette, Ellen, Katherine, Mary, & Margaret, circa 1920.

I have a small stash of photos of a Campbell family get-together that occurred in the early 1920s. One appears above, showing Grandma Campbell with five of her daughters. Jeanette Campbell Caldwell died at the age of thirty-five in 1924, so this photo must be before that date. My great-grandmother, Mary, is in the dark dress. As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, I remember my great-grandmother - but I remember Aunt Kate (standing center back) really well. She lived until 1979.

While I have not been able to trace the Campbell line in Scotland, I recently got a copy of Mary Gemmel's death certificate and found her father's name listed as James Gemell. Her mother's maiden name was listed as "Hill," but with a cryptic additional note "Maiden name unknown."

I have a few mementoes from my Campbell great-great-grandparents, but I'll talk about them in future blog posts.Clearly, researching people named Andrew Campbell from Scotland is a rather daunting task. Perhaps one of my clansmen will read this blog and say hello!

Mamie and the Chicken

Mary E. Campbell Kirkpatrick circa late 1950s

I have some memories of my great-grandmother Mary Elizabeth Campbell Kirkpatrick (1875-1966). She died when I was three, shortly before my family moved to Albuquerque. 

The photo at left was taken before I was born, but it is much the way I remember her. Everyone in the immediate family called her Mamie. She conducted the church choir most of her adult life, and my mom said that Mamie had a voice that could have made her an opera star. 

You will certainly learn more about her in future blogs, but today I will share one of the funnier Mamie stories.

Mary E. Campbell Kirkpatrick - early 1910s

Back in the earliest days of the 20th century, when my grandmother, Edna Claire Kirkpatrick (1897-1973), was a little girl, she witnessed the events that led to this blog post, the events that led to this favorite family story of the infamous day when my great-grandmother tried to choke her chicken.

I had best explain. Mamie and her husband, Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick (1873-1951), lived with their daughter in Bridgeport, Texas. They owned a large house on fourteen acres of land. They had pecans, various fruit trees, and they kept chickens. If the dinner-time meal was to be chicken, Mamie would ask Louis to please go get her a chicken, and he'd go out to the yard and select a tasty looking bird. He would hold it by the head and, with a quick spin of his wrist, the chicken's head would come off, and he'd take the chicken to my great grandmother for cleaning and cooking.

Louis Dillard Kirkpatrick and the chickens in Bridgeport, Texas.

But one day she forgot to ask Louis to get her a chicken. She had witnessed the deed on many, many occasions. And she thus thought, "Oh foot! I can kill a chicken! I've seen Louis do it a hundred times!" So she went out into the yard, snuck up on the feathered dinner-on-legs, and grabbed it by the head. It squawked and flapped its wings, and she took a deep breath and started to spin the chicken around. And she continued to spin the chicken.

The chicken was not amused. It still squawked and flapped its wings. But Mamie kept on spinning the chicken. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, around the chicken went! All the other chickens looked on in wonder! Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, around the chicken went!

Eventually, my great-grandmother let the chicken go. With a sigh, she went into the house to find something else to make for dinner.

According to family legend, that chicken eventually died of old age - with its head permanently wrenched, turned backwards looking over its shoulder. When my great-grandmother would see the chicken out in the yard she would look at it with remorse and sigh . . . "Oh, Louis, oh . . . oh . . ."