Washington County Mississippi Biographies and Biographical Sketches

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CAMPBELL, Hon. Robert Bond Biography

One of the able lawyers of Greenville, Miss., is Hon. Robert Bond Campbell, a native of this state, his birth occurring in Kosciusko. Attala county, on the 20th of September, 1853. He was second in order of birth of eight children born to Josiah A. P. and Elizabeth (Nash) Campbell, the father a native of South Carolina and the mother of Alabama. At the age of seventeen, or in 1847, the father began practicing law, and in 1876 he was appointed a member of the supreme court, in which capacity he is still serving (see sketch). Robert B. Campbell was educated at Roanoke college, Ya. , and in the University of Mississippi at Oxford. After reading law with his father he was admitted to the bar on the 29th of September, 1874, after which he immediately began practicing at Canton, Miss. In 1880 he came to Greenville, and on the 8th of March, 1887, he formed the present partnership of Campbell & Starling. Though never an aspirant for political acknowledgement he wras a member of the state legislature in 1888, aud was a delegate to the state constitutional conventiou in 1890. He was appointed by the governor under the recent constitution as one of three commissioners to codify the laws of Mississippi, and his father had codified the laws of Mississippi twice previously. He was elected to the above mentioned positions without solicitation, and filled the same with credit to himself and his constituents. He is a rising young attorney, and has had a thorough preparatory training, both literary and professional. Mr. Campbell was married on the 1st of May, 1876, to Miss Lucy Dancy of Canton, daughter of William E. Dancy, and to this union were born five children: Eugenia Maggie (deceased), Edwin, Patterson, Lucy (died in 1885), and Robert B. (died in 18S6). The family are members of the Baptist church. [Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Chicago, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891.]

Carson Family Biography

In early colonial days the Carsons were among the French Huguenots who, on account of religious persecution, formed an asylum in Ireland, and then came to America, and located in Pennsylvania and Virginia. Most individuals of that name now residing in the United States are descendants of those pioneers, from whom have sprung some of the best men and women of this or any other country. Andrew Carson, father of Andrew B. Carson, planter, of Greenville, Miss., left his home when a young man, and started out to seek his fortune in the great and then almost unknown and half-civilized portion of the country known as the Mississippi valley. This was about, the year 1818. He then located in Chicot county, Ark., but a few years later settled on a tract of land three miles above the present site of Greenville, Miss., where he cleared a plantation, and there made a permanent home. Soon after locating on his Mississippi possessions, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth J. Ross, a native of Tennessee. The Rosses were pioneer settlers of Middle Tennessee from South Carolina, and her parents were among the early settlers of Warren county, Miss. To Mr. and Mrs. Carson were born the following children: Samuel B. , Andrew B., Mary L. and Eliza J. , and of these Andrew B. is the only one now living. The parents were both members of the church, and noted for their hospitality, kindness of heart and noble and generous acts and thoughts. Mr. Carson was an old line whig, and an active partisan during the palmy days of that well-known political party. Andrew B. Carson was born March 1, 1830, in Washington, county, Miss., and his life was comparatively uneventful until the Civil war. He received instruction from private tutors at home, and subsequently attended educational institutions in his native state and Kentucky. In 1850 he graduated from a business college at Cincinnati, Ohio, and soon after this returned home, where he was appointed deputy sheriff of Washington county. Miss., on August 3, 1857, holding this position for three years. At the end of that time, his superior capability, his sterling honor and his courage and firmness as an officer became so apparent, that he was elected sheriff over six opponents, with a large majority of all votes cast, and although the bond required for that office at that time was little short of half a million dollars, it was given without the least trouble, he being popular, and his constituents having full confidence in his ability and integrity. He filled that position, in all, about eight years, until he was forcibly ejected from ofiice by military rule in 1808, and during the war, when the county seat was destroyed by the Fedorals, he carried away and preserved the sheriff records. When the war closed, he carried the records to the Federal commander at Vicksburg, wishing to turn them over, make settlement, and have his bondsmen released. The officer in command, Gen. Morgan Smith, United States army, when he found the records had been preserved during the war by the careful foresight of Mr. Carson, refused to accept them, saying tersely, but firmly: “You took good care of them during the trying times of the last four years of war, and you are the best custodian for them.” In this, as in other duties, he never betrayed a trust reposed in him, and no man in Washington county stands higher in the estimation of the people for integrity and honor than does Mr. Carson. During the war he acted as scout, and did his duty as a private soldier in the service of the Confederacy. Mr. Carson was married to Mrs. Mary Bell (Johnson) Blackburn, daughter of Capt. Henry Johnson, who was the youngest brother of the noted Col. Dick Johnson, slayer of Tecumseh, and vice president of the United States. Her father was one of the earliest settlers on Lake Washington, Miss. Mrs. Carson had three daughters by her first marriage: Julia, Lou and Prue, and one son, Henry Johnson Blackburn, all of whom are living. By her marriage to Mr. Carson there was one son, Matthew F. (deceased). Mrs. Carson’s first husband, Capt. George T. Blackburn, was a near relative of Joe and Luke Blackburn, of Kentucky, and a native of that state. Mr. Carson is a large cotton planter in the Mississippi delta, cultivating annually about two thou sand acres, and he has been a true and life-long democrat. He and wife are cultured, refined, courteous and hospitable, occupying a high position in society and in the hearts and affections of all who know them. [Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Mississippi, Chicago, The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1891.]