Ne Obliviscaris

52 Ancestors: Week 1, Joel and Eunice (_____) Campbell

Orginal post: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

(Some edits have been made to the formatting to make it consistent with later posts.)

For week 1, I will discussing my 6th great-grandparents, Joel and Eunice (_____) Campbell. They were early settlers of what is now Bradford County, Pennsylvania. Eunice was apparently a devout Baptist, though her descendants would go on to join the Ladder-day Saints. As mentioned in my introductory post, I began writing several of these sketches on WikiTree at the end of the year - this is one of them. Much of the documentation presented here was initially discovered by Jay Campbell and published in his excellent biography of Joel's father, Joel Campbell Sr.1

Eunice is frequently claimed to be Eunice Holcomb, daughter of John and Eunice (Marshall) Holcomb, who was born in Simsbury, Hartford County, Connecticut 25 August 1770.2 A family group sheet and pedigree published in the Kinship Book of North Ogden in 1939 cite an old letter and temple record owned by Bessie Hawkins as the source for Eunice's surname Hocum (or Holcombe).3 Further evidence is needed to determine whether this was in fact Eunice's surname, and if so, that she is the same Eunice Holcombe of Simsbury.

Genealogical Summary

Joel Campbell, son of Joel Campbell, was born in Essex County, New Jersey about 1755-17654 and died in Tioga Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania (now Ridgebury Township, Bradford County) about 1809. He married about 1786, Eunice _____.5 She was born say 1765 and died in Ridgebury Township 29 January 1818.6 She married second about 1816, James Dewey. He died in Ridgebury Township 6 April 1829.7

Joel and Eunice Campbell were living in Mamakating, Ulster County, New York (now Sullivan County) with their 2 children in 1790.8 They were still there in 1800.9 The following year, Joel's real estate was valued at $160, and he was taxed 29.8 cents.10

Craft's History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania states that Joel Campbell Sr. and Isaac Fuller were the first settlers of what is now Ridgebury Township about 1805 or 1806.11 Though it is more likely they arrived in 1804 as on 4 August 1804, the Chemung Baptist Church at Wellsburg, Chemung County, New York "Rec[eive]d Sister Unice Cambell into full felowship of this Church by a letter of Dismistion from the Church at Brookfield [in Orange County, New York]."12 Chemung County bordered what would become Bradford County, Pennsylvania to the north. Eunice would remain a member of the church until her death. A list at the end of the church records names Eunice Campbell alongside James Dewey, but it is unclear what the list was recording.13

Joel Campbell Jr. appears in the 1808 tax assessment for Tioga Township, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania which included present day Bradford County.14 By 1812, Eunice Campbell takes Joel Campbell Jr.'s place in the tax list.15 As Joel does not appear in the 1810 census, Jay Campbell suggests that he died about 1809, and Eunice Campbell and her children family were living another family at the time of the census. Eunice Campbell appears again on the assessments for 1814 and 1815.16,17 She likely married James Dewey around this time.

  1. Jay A. Campbell, Yeoman of the Revolution: The Untold Story of Joel Campbell, 1735-1828 (n.p.: Lulu Press, Inc., 2016); digital images, Google Books. No longer appears available on Google Books.↩

  2. Simsbury, Connecticut Births, Marriages, and Deaths: Transcribed from the Town Records (Hartford, Connecticut: Albert C. Bates, 1898), 197; digital images, HathiTrust.↩

  3. Iola H. B. Embry, Kinship Book of North Ogden (North Ogden, Utah: [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], 1939), pedigree no. 55, family group sheet for Benejeh Campbell-Eunice Button; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 7831078 > images 247, 375.↩

  4. His birth is traditionally recorded as 6 October 1755 in LDS pedigrees. He is aged 26-44 in the 1800 census, so he was probably born between about 1755 and 1765.↩

  5. Their marriage is traditionally recorded as 5 April 1786 in LDS pedigrees, but these are of dubious accuracy. They had 2 children by 1790, so the year is reasonable at the very least.↩

  6. Chemung Baptist Church (Wellsburg, New York), Records 1:112, death of Unice Dewey, 29 January 1818; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 7901307 > image 385.↩

  7. Chemung Baptist Church (Wellsburg, New York), Records 1:142, death of James Dewey, 6 April 1829; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 7901307 > image 400.↩

  8. 1790 U.S. census, Ulster County, New York, population schedule, p. 17, Mama Kating, family 30; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 5157138 > image 459.↩

  9. 1800 U.S. census, Ulster County, New York, population schedule, p. 186, Mama Kating, family 7430; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 4955939 > image 192.↩

  10. "New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal Estates, 1799-1804," digital images, Ancestry, Ulster > 1801 > Mamakating > image 3.↩

  11. David Craft, History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1878), 345-346; digital images, Internet Archive.↩

  12. Chemung Baptist Church (Wellsburg, New York), Records 1:78; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 7901307 > image 369.↩

  13. Chemung Baptist Church (Wellsburg, New York), Records 1:167; digital images, FamilySearch, DGS 7901307 > image 412.↩

  14. Louise Welles Murray, A History of Old Tioga Point and Early Athens, Pennsylvania (Athens, Pennsylvania: n.p., 1908), 635; digital images, Internet Archive.↩

  15. Clement F. Heverly, Pioneer and Patriot Families of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, 1770-1826, 2 vols. (Towanda, Pennsylvania: Bradford Star Print, 1913, 1915), 2:198; digital images, FamilySearch.↩

  16. "1814 Wells Township Tax Assessment," transcribed by J. Kelsey Jones; online typescript published by Joyce M. Tice; citing Bradford County Historical Society.↩

  17. "1815 Wells Township Tax Assessment," transcribed by J. Kelsey Jones; online typescript published by Joyce M. Tice; citing Bradford County Historical Society.↩