(died 19 or 26 Sept. 1872), supracentenarian? (Annie Campbell) An elderly woman who lived on Lot 30 in the 9th Concession of Kenyon Township, she attracted newspaper attention in the 1860s and 1870s because of the belief that she was of extraordinary age. In 1868 the Cornwall Freeholder gave her age as 117 but reported the surname as McLean. The Huntingdon Gleaner in 1869 had her correct name and gave her age as 126 years. According to the Gleaner, the previous summer she often milked 12 cows a day.The Gleaner said that she had been born on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and had been in Canada 41 years. When Annie Campbell died in Sept. 1872 the Montreal Witness, a leading paper of that time, in an obituary partly quoted from the Cornwall Gazette, gave her age as 131 years. The Witness article included recollections of her by Rev. R.F. Burns. Burns found her speaking only Gaelic but lively and clearminded and still able “to set the table in a roar” with her talk. (Burns was the son of the Rev. Robert Burns of this dictionary.) In the registration of her death with the Province of Ontario her age was given as 123 and her occupation as “Dairy Maid” (the Witness article had also mentioned the cow milking). The diarist Angus MacMillan recorded her death and gave her age as 110. The Rev. John King, living barely 10 miles from Ann Campbell’s home, recorded in his journal the death of the 131-year-old Ann Campbell, an “old maid” of Kenyon, but the facts he relates are simply those of the Witness article, and he may have had no other information about her.

     The Glengarrian, of Alexandria, in 1890 reported that her daughter, Mrs K. McLennan, “commonly called Big Jennet” had died on the same Kenyon lot, 30 in the 9th of Kenyon. “The deceased was the daughter of the oldest woman that ever lived in this part of the country, her age being said to be 131 years when she died. The daughter must have been about 100 years old when she died last week.” Presumably Annie Campbell was the old lady mentioned in Charles Sinclair’s story about the wreath his sister made from Sinclair family hair. “One lock was taken from the old lady’s head, who lived to be 128 years. As my sister asked for it she said… take all you want, it will soon grow again.” Annie Campbell or her daughter could have been the old woman in an anecdote preserved by the late Marion MacKinnon (Mrs Forbie MacKinnon) of Dunvegan, daughter of John Norman (John Norman the Pump Maker) MacLeod. While calling at a neighbour’s house, Marion’s father or grandfather met an old lady who complained resentfully that the men were all out hunting, and after requesting that he keep her feat a secret from her folk demonstrated the survival of her old strength by lifting a barrel full of meat. Annie Campbell was all but certainly buried at Dunvegan but there is no tombstone inscription and no burial records were kept at Dunvegan at this time. Elizabeth Blair has suggested that Annie Campbell was buried at Dunvegan in the plot marked by the stone of Kenneth McLennan who died in 1879 aged 77. See also Alexander Campbell, centenarian, and Dr Donald G. McLennan.

MacGillivray & Ross 102-103, 686 on Annie Campbell. These passages include some observations about the relevant census records. No Isle of Skye parish registers survive from before 1800. * Cornwall Freeholder 22 May 1868 * Gleaner 30 April 1869 * Brockville Recorder 18 June 1868 (quoting Cornwall Freeholder) and 17 Oct. 1872 * Witness 9 Dec. 1872 * Glengarrian 21 March 1890 * Glengarry Life 1978, reprint of Witness obituary, with note by Elizabeth Blair * letter 26 Nov. 1978 to the present editor from Elizabeth Blair * cf Whyte, ii, 37 & 239 * Rev. John King, MS journal, Canadian Baptist Archives, McMaster University * anecdote obtained by the present editor from Marion MacKinnon 28 May 1976 * Sinclair 10 * R.F. Burns: see his life in MDict