(1864-10 May 1946), author, miner. (R.N. Campbell, Robert Campbell, Bob Campbell, “Uncle Bob”) Born at Martintown, GC. Parents: Neil Campbell and his wife Barbara Blackwood. The father Neil Campbell, a gold miner who died at Barkerville, B. C., 4 Sept. 1892, aged 61, is said to have come to the Cariboo with John A. (“Cariboo”) Cameron. Robert Neil came to B.C. from Martintown in 1883 (Cornwall Freeholder 25 Feb. 1926). He lived in the Cariboo district for 63 years and for over half a century at Horsefly, B.C., and was a miner and prospector. Interested and active in politics, he was defeated as a Liberal candidate in the 1928 B.C. provincial election. A prolific author, Robert Neil wrote a series of articles on life 50 years ago in Martintown and on the Cariboo gold fields published under various titles in the Cornwall press at dates ranging from 1926 to 1944 (see notes below for more exact dates.) He also published in the B. C. press and probably elsewhere. The B. C. Archives has two files of MSS of his writings, including poems. Robert Neil died in Williams Lake War Memorial Hospital. He was unmarried. Obituaries noted that Campbell, who had mined in the Barkerville district in his early days, and who was still mining at the age of 80, “prospected the creeks and hills of Cariboo for a fortune in gold,” but “never found it,” and is buried in the cemetery at Horsefly, “on a high hill above the town overlooking the snow-capped mountains in the distance.” At the time of his death his brother Alexander Blackwood Campbell and a sister Mrs Grace Cessford were also living there. Another brother, Jack, had also been a resident of this area.

     Alexander Blackwood Campbell (1870-9 Dec. 1947), the brother already mentioned (Al Campbell), was a placer miner and a general storekeeper in the Cariboo district, and a resident at Horsefly, B.C. Born at Martintown, he came to the Cariboo about 1888 at the invitation of his brother Robert Neil. Alexander Blackwood Campbell died at Williams Lake, B. C. He was married 15 Feb. 1921, aged fifty, to Mrs Alva Viola Walters, a widow with children.

Standard Freeholder 6 June 1946 * private information * B.C. Archives: MSS as noted; three obituaries from B. C. press (QF) * Campbell (1983) 531 * Arnold Hughes, “Martintown Was Colorful Place Back in Horse and Buggy Days,” SFH 4 Sept. 1947, with notice of Campbell * Horsefly: Its Early History 1859-1915, 3rd edn. (1992?) and Harriette Erickson, The Corner House: a Landmark in Horsefly (1982), both pub’d at Horsefly by Horsefly Historical Society (portrait) * F. W. Lindsay, Cariboo Yarns (1962) * Campbell’s Cornwall press articles appeared in Cornwall Freeholder 25 Feb., 8 April, 3 June,1926, 6 & 13 Oct, 24 Nov. 1927, 19 Jan. & 16 Feb. 1928, SFH 16 & 2O Nov. 1943, 4 Jan. 1944 * obituaries of Alexander Blackwood Campbell, SFH 5 Jan. 1948, Glengarry News 9 Jan. 1948