John R. Campbell    

JOHN R. CAMPBELL. —The subject of this sketch is a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, his father, Alexander H. Campbell, being from Newburyport, and his mother, Abby T. Russell, from the first named place. The family removed to Philadelphia in 1839. After receiving the practical education usually enjoyed by the youth of his day, young Campbell graduated in 1847 at the celebrated school of Reverend Samuel Aaron, at Norristown, Pennsylvania. To the teaching and example of that noble apostle of temperance and anti-slavery is, no doubt, due his ardent Republicanism in mature years. Refusing a collegiate course he entered the locomotive works of M. W. Baldwin, in Philadelphia, and during five years of apprenticeship obtained a practical knowledge of mechanics. At the death of his father, in 1852, who had been actively engaged in a general commission business in Philadelphia, he took charge of and closed up the affairs of the estate. His first business venture was in Philadelphia, in the manufacture of printing inks, in partnership with William L. and Charles H. Lay, both now residents of Oil City. After a few years he was compelled to relinquish this on account of failing health, and in 1859 went to western Texas to recuperate. He returned to Philadelphia in 1860 and entered into the general commission business there in 1861. He was married to Emma Ford, of Philadelphia, May 12, 1863. In March, 1865, Mr. Campbell visited the oil country in the interest of some oil companies in which he held stock, and in August of the same year removed to Oil City, where he has since been a resident. For the first four years of his residence here, in addition to attending to his oil interests, he filled acceptably other positions, being successively publisher of the Oil City Register, notary public, and treasurer for the receiver of the Oil City and Pithole Railroad Company. In 1867 he became book-keeper for Vandergrift & Lay, oil shippers, and afterward held the same position with J. J. Vandergrift, and still later with the firm of Vandergrift & Forman. In 1868 he was appointed treasurer of the several pipe lines owned and controlled by this last named firm, and so remained until the incorporation of these into the United Pipe Lines in 1877, when he was elected treasurer of that corporation. When the United Pipe Lines Company was merged in the National Transit Company he was elected treasurer of its United Pipe Lines division, which position he still holds.

With the pipe lines of Vandergrift & Forman began the system of oil transportation that at the present day stands unequaled in magnitude and efficiency. To Mr. Campbell is largely due the completion and perfection of the accurate and comprehensive system of pipe line accounts and methods now universally adopted. Enjoying from the beginning to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of his business employers and associates, none have been more ready than they to give cheerful evidence of his characteristic talents as an organizer, and to-day he is the trusted treasurer of more than a “baker’s dozen” of corporations. Having an abiding faith in the permanency of Oil City from the first years of his residence here, Mr. Campbell has ever been prominently identified with its best interests, the advancement and perfection of which he has most materially encouraged. In fact, they largely owe their success to the aid he has liberally given, and to his practical business management and counsel. When the disaster occurred soon after the beginning of the building of the first bridge projected over the Allegheny at Oil City by the Oil City and Petroleum Bridge Company in 1865, he was elected the secretary and treasurer of the same. He reorganized the company, obtained new subscriptions, and assisted in the completion of that structure, placed it in a sound financial condition, and served in the official capacity mentioned for some years. He was also a charter member, and secretary and treasurer of the Venango Bridge Company from November 10, 1874, until April 13, 1886. Mr. Campbell has been for a number of years vestryman and treasurer of Christ Episcopal church of Oil City, and aided in building the present beautiful church edifice. He was a charter member of the Ivy Club, one of the finest social organizations in this part of the state, and is now serving his third term as its president. His means and counsel have always been freely given to every enterprise. Mr. Campbell is in the prime of his business usefulness, and no eulogy could add to the high estimation in which he is held wherever known.

History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including its aboriginal history, the French and British occupation of the country, its early settlement and subsequent growth, a description of its historic and interesting localities, its rich oil deposits and their development, sketches of its cities, boroughs, townships, and villages, neighborhood and family history, portraits and biographies of pioneers and representative citizens, statistics, etc., etc.
Chicago, Ill.: Brown, Runk & Co., 1890, pages 844-847  Read this book on line - Free Trial Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.