San Joaquin County
Biographies
COLUMBUS AUSTIN CAMPBELL
C. A. CAMPBELL, the popular
incumbent of the City Clerk’s office of Stockton, is a native of Indiana, born
twenty miles from Logansport, March 13, 1838, his parents being George and
Rachel (Bilderbeck) Campbell. When he was but an
infant the family removed to Grant County, Wisconsin, settling near Potosi.
They afterward removed to Shullsburg, Lafayette
County, and there the subject of this sketch made his first start in life,
clerking in a store. In 1858 he joined the rush being made in that year for
California, and made the trip via Panama, on the steamers Star of the West and
Golden Gate, which carried respectively 700 and 1,200 passengers. He arrived at
San Francisco November 15, 1858, and two days later was in Stockton, where he
met his brother, John A. Campbell, who lived on the sand plains twelve miles
from Stockton, where he had located in 1851 and where he was farming in
partnership with P. G. Sharp. Our subject went to work for them, and when their
partnership was dissolved he continued in the employ of Mr. Sharp. After
remaining with him six years, farming, threshing, and teaming over the
mountains, he took up a place on the Mariposa road sixteen miles from Stockton,
where he resided until 1872, when he moved into town. He was then book-keeper
for Sperry & Co. until 1882, and next entered into partnership with L. H.
Lang in the operation of the Hunter street barley mills; that partnership was
dissolved in 1885, and from May, that year, until the next January he was in
Tulare County. He then returned to Stockton. At the election held on the first
Monday in May, 1886, he was elected City Clerk, and has twice been re-elected;
his present term holds until May, 1891.
Mr. Campbell was married in this county, November 27, 1867, to Miss Sarah E. Awalt, a native of Iowa. They have nine children, viz: Frederick, Clara, May, Thomas, Lottie, Sadie, Chester, Kittie, Ralph and Roy.
Mr. Campbell has passed the chairs of Stockton Lodge, No. 11, I. O. O. F., and of Parker Encampment, No. 3, and he and his wife are members of the Rebekah Degree Lodge. He has been Recorder of Stockton Lodge, No. 23, A. O U. W., since 1886, and for the same length of time has been Chief of Records of Iroquois Tribe, No. 35, I. O. R. M. He is also a member of Centennial Lodge, No. 38, K. of P.
Mr. Campbell is a careful, painstaking and obliging officer, and enjoys a high degree of popularity both in city and county.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 396-397. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Genealogy Databases