The Story of Campbell (Chapter 1)

This story of Campbell's life is written by his daughter Nancy. I have no notes, just dates that I have jotted down. All of the facts are from memory of the countless stories and anecdotes that he told me and my siblings during our growing up years. As children reared in the 1920's, we did not have the distractions of video games and television, so we relied on father for all our stories and history. We fought for a place on his lap, and one of my treasured memories is sitting on his lap, my head against his chest, listening to his Scottish brogue as he told us stories of growing up in the highlands of Perthshire.

Campbell Stewart was born on May 15, 1887, in the mains, Airlywight House in Bankfort, Perth, in Perthshire, Scotland. He was the second child born to James Stewart and Annie Campbell Stewart. Their first child was a girl Anne (Nan) born two years earlier. Campbell's birth was followed in rapid succession by the births of two more children, Helen and James.

Campbell's parents were the direct descendents of two of the most prominent clans in Scotland, the Stewarts and the Campbells. His father, James Stewart, was a vigorous young farmer who loved horses and farming, but who was also a good businessman and an elder in the Kirk. His mother, Annie Campbell, was the daughter of one of Perth's most prominent citizens, Peter Campbell, the founder and sole owner of the Perth Dye works, the huge mill that he built in the city of Perth. The Mill put Perth on the map as the center of the textile industry in Scotland in the 1880's. Peter Campbell also owned Lignwood, a stately mansion in the village of Scone, a short distance from Perth.

Unfortunately, Campbell's father's love for his horses cost him his life. His favorite riding horse that he rode all about the village and farm became ill with a kind of equine pneumonia. James made a steam solution and held a blanket over the horse's head, getting under the blanket with the horse to hold it in place so the horse could inhale the solution. Unfortunately, James contracted the illness himself and died within a few days. Campbell was eight and a half years old. It was a tragedy for the young family.