Out of Place

My Campbell relatives have been very instrumental in helping to found this country. I am very proud to say that they are part of my family. But there is always that one person in a family that makes the rest of us look bad.  This week I am going to write about an ancestor that I found in a place in which I never expected. Prison. 

His name was John Richard Campbell (1891-1939). When John was twenty-six years old in 1917 he enlisted in the military and was discharged in 1918 during WWI. According to the census he had various occupations from working in a coal mine to carpentry work. 

In 1922 my great great uncle married Mary Bearden, a widow and lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mary passed away in 1926 and that is when John's life started going downhill. 

By 1929, John was "peddling dope" (morphine) on the streets and tried to sell the drugs to a police officer. Whoops! Needless to say, he served time for this crime. 

I guess John didn't learn his lesson. In 1934, he was again in jail for pick pocketing a man. John stole a bank book containing 55.25 in cash and three blank checks. With one of the checks my great great uncle tried to buy a suit. This time John was sentenced for larceny and taken to a workhouse called Silverdale. He was sentenced for eleven months and twenty nine days. 

This man must have had a cement head because John just didn't learn his lesson from being in prison twice before. I guess three times is a charm. This time John was arrested for attempted burglary in April 1938. Again, John was sent to Silverdale workhouse and sentenced again for eleven months and twenty nine days. 

However, there was no getting out of the workhouse this time. On January 17, 1939 John, 47, was hit in the head with a shovel by Noah Moore, who was only nineteen at the time. The two men had a fight in the county gravel pit in East Chattanooga. John passed away on the 28th from cranial injuries. 

I wish that I knew more of my great great uncles back story. It would be interesting to know why he chose his life of crime after Mary passed away. 

Favorite Photo

If I could choose a favorite photograph of one of my ancestors it would be of my grandfather Daniel Smith with his wife Myrtle. He is wearing pants that are so large that suspenders are needed to keep them on with a hat while holding a pistol which he pointed at my grandmother who is wearing a suit jacket and tie that is a bit small. Maybe they were pretending to be Bonnie and Clyde. I never knew that Grandpa could be funny. 

I think that this picture was taken in the 1930's in Tennessee. 

What Ancestor would I want to meet if I could?

 I have joined a group that wants us to talk about our ancestors every week.  This weeks assignment is to ask ourselves which ancestor would we want to meet. Of all of the people in my family tree, I would have to say that it would be either my grandmother Azzie Lee Bolden or Myrtle Bauldwin.  I am envious of those people who have enjoyed the presence of a grandmother in their lives. 

Myrtle Bauldwin 

Azzie Lee Bolden

                                                                 

Both of them passed away long before I ever got here on this plane. My parents suffered the loss of their mothers before they reached their teenage years. The longing for a mother's love followed my parents throughout their lives, especially for my mother.  

John Campbell and Azzie Lee Bolden Campbell

I've often wondered what kind of women they were.  What kind of personality did they have? Did they laugh? Were they good women? Were they kind? Were they women of faith?  I will never know. 

Myrtle Bauldwin Smith

I have asked relatives what kind of character these women had, but no one can tell me about them. Those relatives who knew my grandmothers are long gone.

If I could talk to either of them I would say: " I love you, even if I didn't ever get to feel your touch or see your smile and hear the sound of your voice. I still love you. I miss your presence that I could have had in my life."