James Edwin Campbell was born on July 7, 1843, in Middletown, Ohio, to Andrew Campbell and Laura Reynolds. His father was a physician who owned $12,000 of real estate in 1850, and he died around 1851. Campbell grew up and attended school in Fairfield, Ohio, before attending Miami University. He enlisted in the Union navy on November 29, 1863, and he spent the next year as a master’s mate on the U.S.S. Elk and the U.S.S. Naiad. His health deteriorated in the summer of 1864, and he was discharged on September 17, 1864. He returned to Ohio after leaving the navy, and he was admitted to the bar in 1865.

 

Campbell married Maud E. Owens on January 10, 1870, and they had six children, including: Charles, born around 1870; Jessie, born around 1878; and James, born around 1885. They lived in Hamilton, Ohio, and Campbell worked as a lawyer. By 1870, he owned $5,500 of real estate and $500 of personal property. He supported the Republican Party in the 1860s, and he voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1868.

 

In 1872, however, he joined the Democratic Party. He served as a prosecutor in Butler County, Ohio, from 1876 until 1880, and he was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1884. He served until 1889, when voters elected him governor of Ohio. He ran for reelection in 1891 but lost to future president William McKinley.

 

Campbell returned to his legal practice after leaving office, but he remained active in state politics. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1892, 1920, and 1924. He also served as a trustee of the Ohio State University from 1895 until 1896. He ran for Congress in 1906 and ran for a seat in the United States Senate in 1908, but he lost both elections. His wife Mau died in 1913, and he passed away of myocarditis in Columbus, Ohio, on December 18, 1924.

 

Image: James Edwin Campbell (courtesy Wikicommons)

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