Coming to America

David Campbell, the bellwether of our family, was born in a small village near Ardgay, Roshire in the very north eastern portion of Scotland, on July 26, 1863 to Alexander Campbell and his wife. The area around Ardgay was, then, largely farming and sheep herding.  The land is generally gentle hills of grass with small areas of trees here and there. A map of Scotland shows that the region is just inland and west from the Firth of Dornock. Please note that, being so far north, the winter weather was very cold and the summer months are not excessively hot. But for someone who would spend most of his life in Syracuse, New York, it was a good place in which to start life.

We do not know what Alexander Campbell did for a living but can only assume that he was probably a farmer or a sheep raiser. David Campbell stayed in the Ardgay area until he left for America in the late 1880s. As near as can be determined, he was apprenticed, at about the age of sixteen, to the master gardener at Skibo Castle which was an estate overlooking the Firth of Dornock from the north and is east from the Ardgay area by some seventy miles.

 David Campbell became a landscape gardener and architect. That required learning about the flora (plants and trees and flowers) that were common to the geographical area where the estate was located. One  had to recognize any tree or shrub in any period of the year: spring when the leaves of plants were just budding, the summer months when most  flora were in full bloom,  the fall months when trees and plants leaves  changed color, and in the winter time when trees and plants, for the most part, were dormant and  leaf-less. The only exceptions were most of the evergreen trees which kept their foliage year- round.

As an architect in training, he had to learn which trees and shrubs and flowers went best together to create a pleasing appearance. In the nineteenth century, apprentices learned their trades by working for and under masters in their chosen fields. There were no colleges or universities that provided that sort of training. An apprentice might be in the learning mode for several years.  At one point, it appears that David Campbell went down to England to further pursue landscape training though where and under whom he apprenticed or worked, is not known.

But during his time in England, he became acquainted with the two people that would most influence his life. He meant Annie Renner, an English lady who ultimately became his wife.

Records show that the Renner family, in the 1881's were farming and living in Ellingham, Northumberland, England.  The second person was Major Alexander Davis, an American and Civil War officer and Syracuse resident, who offered him employment in the United States. And so, in the late 1880's, he sailed to New York City on the way to Syracuse, N.Y. where Major Davis owned an estate called Thornden.  David Campbell was to be the master gardener for the estate and that would pave the way for his life across the ocean from his home.

Syracuse, N.Y., in the late nineteenth century, was a bustling city in the center of Central New York. Originally settled by the French in the late seventeenth century, it is located in Onondaga County and at that time was a growing industrial center with a population of just over 125,000 and rising. It was the county seat and a prominent port on the Erie Canal which ran west from Albany to Buffalo. It featured Syracuse University which was gathering prominence as a place of learning.  In short, it was a good place to be.

Thornden was located on the top of a high hill that over-looked the central part of Syracuse and was just east of the Syracuse University campus. As an estate, the main house was the owner's residence, with smaller homes for the master gardener and master farmer. Farming was necessary to maintain cows, sheep and chickens for a food source and horses for transportation. Cars would not become commonplace for at least another fifteen years. But the estate was mainly a show place for the owner and the main interest was in the gardens that abounded the estate.

Over time, Thornden became the property of the City of Syracuse and today is a well kept park now known as Thornden Park.  The rose garden, the design, of which  David Campbell was implicit, is a major attraction today for Syracuse residents and visitors.

Once David Campbell established himself at Thornden, it was time to return to England, marry Annie Renner and bring her to Syracuse. In 1891 with Annie Campbell (nee Renner) came one sister, Lena Renner, with a second sister, Ada, following soon after.  Once established at Thornden, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell embarked on a family. Born in 1893 was Violet Catherine Campbell. Alexander Campbell followed in 1894. David Gladstone Campbell was born in 1898 and the youngest son, Carlyle Renner Campbell, arrived on January 22, 1903. It should be noted that this good family was Presbyterian,

The family lived at Thornden for many years.  At one point, the home that they occupied burned and they lived after that in the main estate house. The children attended the local grammar school and later Central High which was in the downtown area and a long walk down the hill from home.

David Campbell was a very out-going man and fit well into life in Syracuse. In time, he became the Commissioner of Parks for the city. As such, he designed and oversaw completion of all but three of the city's parks. The Commissioner's appointment ended in 1922. However, in 1914 he had purchased a farm in Warners, N.Y. which is twelve miles from downtown Syracuse. Here, he had established a nursery on which were grown trees and shrubs for resale to homeowners and landscape contractors.  

The farm included approximately seventy acres of land to the north of the Warners–Amboy road and on the south side of the road, behind Greenlawn Cemetery, another fifty plus  acres of  woods and grazing land. The farm contained two homes and two barns and was, on the north side of the road, crossed by the New York Central Rail Road, the West Shore Rail Road and a trolley car line. One house was very near the railroad tracks. The second house was situated just off the Warners-Amboy road and several hundred feet from the other house. Near the second house, David Campbell added a greenhouse which was used to start small shrubs and flowers during the winter and spring.

At one time, after David Campbell and his family had purchased the Warners farm, they occupied first, the house located close to the New York Central Railroad. That house burned to the ground after a fire was ignited by a spark from a passing train.  But the second house, which they then used, was a comfortable large farm house with two fireplaces and a spacious living room. Here, Grandpa, as I obviously called him, would sit next to the fireplace on his chaise lounge, read the newspapers and enjoy a cigar.

From here, he operated the David Campbell Nurseries until his retirement in the late nineteen thirties. While in the business, he designed and oversaw the golf course at Onondaga Country Club. Today that course continues to be played and admired.

David Campbell was involved in numerous organizations in the city. He belonged to the Rotary Club, was a charter member of Onondaga Country Club, a member of Clan Douglas which was for people of Scottish descent, as well as several other organizations. He played golf which was a game invented in Scotland. He was also a curler and for a long time, we had the curling irons that he used.

During the time that David Campbell was the Parks Commissioner and still living in Syracuse, Annie Renner Campbell died (1911). Subsequently, he married Clara White whose father was the Methodist minister in Skaneateles, N.Y. As I remember, his second wife was called Aunt Clara by most family members. They had a son, Hugh Cameron Campbell who was born in November of 1918.

In the late 1930s, the writer and his family lived with David and Clara Campbell and son Hugh for one year while the writer's father built a new home on an acre of land purchased from his father. It was good time to get to know one's relatives. And there were times when he and I and the dog would take longs walks around the farm. Being raised in that part of Scotland that had only a train for transportation, one either had a horse or did a lot of walking. So Grandpa walked and always liked to walk.

In 1948, David and Clara's son Hugh took a job that required a move away from Warners so the farm was sold and they lived with us at our home in Syracuse.  Clara continued to work as bookkeeper at the Syracuse University Bookstore. During 1948, David Campbell was ill enough that he was confined to a hospital. He passed away in May of 1949 at the age of 86, thus ending a long and interesting life in Central New York.

His second wife followed him within the following year, dying in March of 1950.

They are buried in Section 59 in Oakwood Cemetery which is very near Thornden Park. Also buried there are Lena Renner who died in May of 1947 and her sister, Ada Renner, who died in January of 1917.

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