Family History Collection  -   Index


Campbell, George   

By Emeline Campbell Miller

George Campbell was born in Bruce County, Ontario, 1866, and was educated in Ontario.  He came of a large family and was of Scotch descent.  He came to Manitoba in the eighties, to Killarney, by train.  When he landed, he had only one dollar and twenty cents.  He told this story many times.

He went north of Killarney and worked for John Clark in Bellafield district for a short time.  Then he went out to the west coast, near Seattle, and worked in a logging camp, but only stayed there about a year.  He returned to Manitoba, went back to work for Mr. John Cark and for John Hannah.

In 1893 he married Mary Jane Russell.  He moved south of Killarney, buying land from the Rollins brothers, N.E. quarter 14-2-17.  Later he bought land from T. O. Foster, S.E. quarter 13-2-17.  This he farmed for a few years, then he bought the William Fielding farm, East half 23-2-17.

He had four children:  one daughter, Mrs. Andrew Miller, living in Killarney; three sons, Russell Campbell who lives on the Joe Johnston farm, S.W. quarter 14-2-17 and S.E. quarter 15-2-17, Dr. Wilfred Campbell, M.D., who lives in Medicine Hat, and Guy Campbell who lives in Killarney.

In early life, George Campbell and John Hannah worked as partners in a threshing machine.  It was not the modern kind.  They threshed together for a few years and they had the only threshing machine about for a few years.  In his early days of farming, Dad would go back to Turtle Mountain and haul out logs which he would sell to buy a few things.

His religion was Presbyterian, and he was an elder in the church for a number of years.  In politics, he was a staunch Liberal.  He was always interested in the work and progress of the community.

He was one of the men who first started the Killarney Southern Manitoba Fair.  Also, he was a member of the Highview school board for many years.

A number of years later, he sold shares for the Grain Growers’ Elevator.  He drove many miles to do this, and he would often have one of the men on the board with him.  This was the beginning of what it is today.

In later years, also, he helped and was a leader in forming the Manitoba Pool Elevator.  He was a director of the Killarney Association for a good many years.

The plight of the farmer in growing and selling grain and livestock was always his foremost thought.  In later years, he was a drover of shipping cattle and hogs.

He passed away in October 19946, at the age of seventy-nine.

Russell Campbell, on 14-2-17, bought by his father, Geo. Campbell after 1893.    Concerning this, Eldon Hannah says that John Hannah bought 14-2-17 from the CPR and then sold it to George Campbell.  John Hannah was not the original owner.  Rollins and T. O. Foster were.  John Hannah bought N.E.  15-2-17.