Father, 1902-1941 born Carolyn May 9, 1941 My Father, John Gary Campbell (known as Gary) was from a prominent North Carolina family. His parents and grandparents were descended from Southern Aristocracy. The Civil War destroyed much of the Souths infrastructure, the once-rich South became poor for a century and the Campbell family, like many other Southern families, migrated to Washington D.C., the capital of the USA. Garys Father, Andrew Joyner Campbell worked as an Editor at a North Carolina newspaper owned by Joseph Daniels. (Joseph Daniels was a newspaper editor and publisher from North Carolina. An influential editor and journalist, he promoted progressive concepts such as better public schools, womens suffrage and railroad regulation; who was appointed by United States President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War.) When the paper folded Daniels got Andrew a job with GPO (US Government Printing Office) in Washington, D.C. Grandparents Campbell (Andrew and Lucy), and four children who had been born in North Carolina, moved to Washington, DC. (One of their children, Lucy, died as a child.) Grandparents moved with the children to “Swampoodle” neighborhood, Washington, DC. Crime and lawlessness grew terribly, and a man had to fight, whenever he went into the neighborhood. It gained a reputation for being a lawless shantytown, where crime, prostitution and drunkenness were rife. My Father, Gary was born after they were in D.C., in 1902. My Father was tall, so he, in order to stand up to the bully boys and protect his two short brothers, would fight. When my Father was twelve years old he needed to earn money for family. The family had no other source of money. [His older brother Joyner age 21-year had already left home, Frank was 10 years old, and Bill age 14 was a target for bullies; grandfather 55 years old – was apparently sick or else this happened earlier when Taft was President and my Democratic Grandfather who was a political appointee would have been laid off under a Republican President ] My Father was selling newspapers, starting at four o’clock in the morning, when he slipped and fell on a snowy sidewalk was laying in his wagon. His leg was deeply cut. A gentle Black person noticed him, and,fearing he had “died going frozen,” took him to the nearest hospital - which was Blacks Only. Although the Black doctor could have been arrested for treating a White, my Fathers leg was treated. He had a scar for the rest of his life. My Grandmothers second cousin Walter McKenzie Clark, was Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. He found Gary a job in the United States House of Representatives as a page, and provided him an education in 1916-17. He then became a Messenger Boy for the Treasury, Register’s Office, 1917-1918. My Father then joined his troop was in France. Germany had surrendered and my Father went to France on a battleship via the “U.S Shipping Board, Emergency Fleet Corporation.” “John G. Campbell” went 1918, AEF (American Expeditionary Forces). The response of American manhood to that declaration was underwhelming. Weeks afterward, only 73,000 men out of a pool of 10 million had volunteered for the army. Part of the problem may have been that Congress and the American public in general were led by the government to believe that even though the country was now at war, it would never have to send an army of its own people to fight that war! Despite the rebuff from Congress, Wilson decided to arm American merchant ships by executive order, claiming that an old anti-piracy law gave him the authority to do so. By July 1918, French forces often were assigned to support AEF operations. General John Joseph Black Jack Pershing was designated the supreme commander of the American army in France, and the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were created. Treasury 9/15/1918 - 12/31/1918 – “John G. Campbell.” Gary Campbell for court legal, was Gary in U.S. Army 6-11-19 – 6-10-22, where he served in the United States Cavalry (horsemen). Father worked in France from July, 1919 to December, 1919, with the France Military Service. He then returned to the U.S. to El Paso,Texas to teach the Cavalry. With the permission of Prinpical, Mr. Smith, El Paso High School, El Paso, Texas, he was able to study selected subjects and finish high school. After leaving the Army, Father went to work for the General Accounting Office as a clerk (8-8-1922 grade 3, $1000) where he worked for many years. He became Chief of Division (11-1-1943 grade 14, $6500). He studied Accounting at Pace & Pace Institute Benjamin Franklin University 1922 – 1924, and Law at Washington College of Law American University (1935 – 1938). [On 10/21/1945 he was promoted to grade 15 $8750] My Father was married twice. He married his first wife, Bessie Virginia Grimes, on 4/10/1926. She died in June 1933. He married his second wife who was my Mother, Jewell Rochelle Hill, on 6/13/1934. After they had two Sons, John Gary Campbell, Jr. 6/5/1935 – 2/3/2004, Donald Hill Campbell, 4/2/1937. Gary and Jewell bought a four acre property in Potomac, MD, to build a home and also had a Buick, and a collie, Laddie – very prosperous for the South right after the depression. His pay at that time was $5600 a year, magnificient for 1940! In 1941 Gary and Jewell had a daughter, Carolyn.
Posted on: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 17:54:00 +0000
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