in search of ... William Campbell (1848)
Although church documents show William Campbell as living at Cold Springs and attending the newly formed Congregational Church at this location, even serving as church secretary and Deacon, as early as the 1845/1846 "church year", the 1848 Municipal Census of Hamilton Township is the first secular evidence that he had moved his family to Northumberland County.
No record of William and Sarah Ann Campbell appears in the 1847 Municipal Census of Hamilton Township, although some church records from the Congregational Church at Cold Springs suggest that William and Sarah Ann Campbell were indeed participating in that church community as early as 1845/1846.
The 1848 Municipal Census of Hamilton Township shows William Campbell, a farmer by occupation, with a family unit of three, living on lot 6 on concession 8. This family is assumed to be William Campbell, Sarah Ann (Havens) Campbell and their new son, William Hayden Campbell born in 1848. Their second son, Sylvester Campbell will be born later in 1849. [Worth noting is the fact that William and Sarah Ann Campbell had been resident at Cold Springs long enough to have developed a close personal as well as spiritual relationship with Reverend William Hayden and his family. This is demonstrated by the fact that William and Sarah Ann gave their first born the middle name of "Hayden", something of a tradition in William Campbell's original family in Scotland, as demonstrated when his parents, Sylvester Campbell and Helen Mason, gave William's younger brother Adam the middle name of "Corbet", honouring a local clergyman in their town in Scotland.]
Wayne Wickson
wickson.genealogy@gmail.com