The Campbells: A third Campbell brother lived in Glendale

A letter was forwarded to me the other day by my editor at the

News-Press. The writer told me her name was Eileen Heusser, that she

has been reading the saga of Dan Campbell and that she, too, is a

Campbell.

She is the daughter of Matthew Campbell, brother to Dan and

Arthur. This is her story.

Dan and Arthur Campbell left the family farm in Ireland in 1898

and sailed to the Klondike to try their luck in Alaska’s gold rush

(along with another brother, James, who settled in northern

California). They both did well and decided to stay in the United

States, settling in Glendale. Both purchased acreage around what is

now Highland Avenue and Kenneth Road. Another brother, Matthew,

remained in Ireland and went to Dublin to attend the Royal College of

Physicians and Surgeons. When he graduated, he took his first job as

a physician aboard a freighter bound for the Canary Islands with the

mission of collecting animals for the London Zoo. While on this

project, he met and visited with the famous doctor Albert Schweitzer.

Following his adventurous days at sea, Campbell moved to England

and found employment as a surgeon in a Liverpool hospital. After

several years in Liverpool, his brothers encouraged him to immigrate

to America. He arrived in 1908, settling in Glendale and opening a

private practice at the corner of Broadway and Brand Boulevard.

Patients were few in those days and it was a struggle to make ends

meet.

L.C. Brand, a neighbor of Matthew’s brothers, knew of a position

opening up in the hills above Paso Robles. A coal- mining operation

in the Stone Canyon area needed someone to set up a small hospital,

so Campbell established a facility where the mine employees could be

cared for properly.

Campbell had left his sweetheart, Agnes McAfee, back in Ireland.

Once he was established, he brought her to California and they were

married at a small Presbyterian Church in Paso Robles. After several

years, the mining adventure ended and he went to work as a physician

for the Spreckles Sugar Beet Company. Their first daughter, Kathleen,

was born during this time.

Then, he received a letter from a uncle in Belfast who was very

ill, asking him to come back to Ireland to help run the family farm.

They returned and remained there until the uncle passed away, then

moved to London where Eileen was born in 1912.

But Campbell remembered California fondly and brought his family

back, starting a practice in Los Angeles that lasted for 30 years.

When World War I broke out, he served as a captain in the U.S.

Cavalry. While he was away, Agnes and her two daughters went to live

with Arthur and his wife, Nellie, in their little bungalow on

Highland Avenue, so Eileen has many memories of pushing her doll

buggy down Highland Avenue when it was just a dirt road.

Next week: Dan and Margaret pass away within five months of each

other.

* KATHERINE YAMADA’S column runs Saturdays. To contact her, leave

a message at 637-3241. For more information on Glendale’s history,

contact the reference desk at the Central Library at 548-2027 or

visit the Special Collections Room at the library. It is open

Saturdays from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. or by appointment.