from The News-Leader, Springfield, Washington County, Kentucky

March 22, 1906

Circuit Court Clerk and a Useful and Benevolent Citizen Gone to His Reward

Last Thursday evening the 15th inst., 11:40 o’clock, Mr. Francis M. Campbell passed away, surrounded by all the members of the family, after about two weeks of intense suffering.  The immediate cause of his death was blood poison resulting from hemorrhoids.

Francis M. Campbell, the fourth child of George P. and Lucy Martin Campbell, was born December 31, 1836.  His paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Campbell, a native of Virginia and of Scotch descent, came to Kentucky in 1812, settling near Shelbyville.  In 1819 he came to this county and died three years later.  At his death, George P. Campbell, father of Francis M., being the oldest of a family of eight children, assumed the support of his mother and the family, following the vocation of farming.

Francis M. Campbell received a good English education and at the age of twenty began teaching school in this county and continued teaching thirteen years.

February 18, 1865, he married Miss Fannie Campbell, and to that union were born ten children, of whom seven survive:  Arthur B., Idella, Lula B., Myrtle, Theodore, Bessie and Pearl.  Robert died about four years ago.  The other two died in infancy.  Death deprived Mr. Campbell of his wife and the mother of his children fifteen years ago and he has since kept the family together and been a kind, generous and indulgent parent, withholding nothing within his ability and power to gratify and give pleasure to his children.

Early in youth, or in 1854, Mr. Campbell united with the Beech Grove Baptist Church and his life was one of “Charity for all and malice toward none” loving his fellow men with the openhearted, open-handed generosity of his nature.  It has often been said of him that he was generous to a fault, but he had a keen insight and understanding of human nature that discriminated between the worthy needy and the imposter and seldom was he the victim of the dishonest recipient of his benefactions.

In 1884 Mr. Campbell was elected sheriff of the county by the Democratic party, to which political belief he always subscribed, being at all times a loyal partisan upholding the tenets of that party as a worth standard bearer for his county and state.  He was elected to the office for the second time and served the term out.  In 1892 Mr. Campbell was elected to the office of Circuit Court Clerk and again in 1897 was elected to the same office without opposition.  He was nominated and elected again as clerk in 1903 and was consequently serving his third term at the time of his death.

Mr. Campbell was a director in the First National Bank, a director in the Washington County Fair Association and identified in various other ways with public enterprises of the town and county.  He was a member of the firm of Jarboe and Campbell, millers, and up until a few years ago owned and operated a farm.

In the death of Mr. Campbell the town has lost one of its best residents, the county an honorable citizen and office holder, the church a faithful member, and his children a kind, indulgent parent.

The funeral services were held in the Presbyterian Church, Sabbath at 11 o’clock, Rev. W. H. Williams, his pastor, preached the sermon, his subject being “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  Rev. R. L. Purdom made a few appropriate remarks reminiscent of Mr. Campbell’s life as he had known him.  The remains were interred in Cemetery Hill.