Quincy Campbell's livelihood

Thanks to Laura for getting this information and typing it up!


Quincy Routillous Campbell owned a prosperous construction company in Charlotte that did so well that he could afford to send his daughter Grace to college (Mary Baldwin College). 

When he was an older man, the depression hit. Although the pressure was immense, he refused to foreclose on any homes, which eventually led him to declare bankruptcy.

When people asked why he would do this, he simply answered that he couldn’t turn people out of their homes. He deliberately gave up his status as a wealthy business owner to make sure he watched over his neighbor! What an example of selflessness and Southern Gentlemanly kindness.

Grandma Grace's favorite hymns

Grandma Grace loved to sing. Grandma Izzy said,

"She prays, sings the old-timey hymns with hope and joy and faith “Jesus Savior, Pilot Me,” “In the Garden,” “Love Lifted Me,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I Know,” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” “Bless Be the Tie that Binds.” (See Journal (1996), p 165)

and

"We both enjoyed singing and often sang or hummed hymns or songs such as “My Old Kentucky Home,” “There’s No Place Like Home,” “Way Down Upon the Swanee River,” “America,” “My Country ‘Tis of Thee,” “Battle Hymn of the Republic” tho’ it was years before I learned those titles or to carry the tunes. Hymns she loved were “In the Garden,” “Jesus Savior, Pilot Me,” “Love Lifted Me,” “Bless Be the Tie that Binds,” “Let the Lower Lights Be Burning,” “Sweetest Name I Know,” “Rock of Ages,” “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Nearer My God to Thee.” I learned the words from her and still remember at least one verse even to this day." (Journal (1996), p 169)

I've made a YouTube playlist of the songs that she loved. Enjoy!

Grace Viola Campbell: A daughter's tribute to her mother

I found this beautiful tribute to Grace Campbell in the journal that Grandma Izzy wrote up for Uncle Stirling's family.


My mother was a beautiful woman about 5 feet 1 in tall, with lots of freckles, a happy smile, a beautiful high soprano singing voice. She had red, curly hair, brown eyes with green centers which would go gray at time of grief or sadness. She loved to laugh. She could sew like a professional, could cut her own patterns, make men’s clothes and even sew and mend furs. She was honest, fun-loving, competent, intelligent, and hard-working. She loved to cook and raise a garden. She delighted in children and had a real skill in dealing patiently with them. However, if you got sassy, you could expect immediate discipline. She was washing dishes in a pan in the kitchen and asked me to go out and carry in wood for our cookstove so she could start supper. I whined, “It’s not my turn…” That hard hand came out of the dishwater and caught me across the mouth as she said, “It’s your turn to wash dishes—now go get the wood if you expect to eat tonight.” I got the wood and came back and finished the dishes. She was absolutely fearless in about every area, but she was terrified of going in the water and of thunder and lightening storms.

Mama was the heart of our home. Daddy depended on her and all of us did, too. She had to move many times during her married life with him working as a carpenter and farming on the side. She had 9 children at home! She cooked, cleaned, washed in a tin tub on a scrub board all her life, ironed with a smoothing iron (or flat iron). There was no electricity in any home until 1946. There was no running water or bathroom in her home even when I was a senior in college. She never had an electric stove—either cooked on a woodstove or kerosene stove. Our family never owned a car.

But Mama was a lady, educated, and charming in her humble way. Every one of us adored her. We also knew Daddy loved her. They endured raising up a family during the depression years and through World War II. They raised a family of men and women not afraid to work, community minded, and God-fearing and loving. What a magnificent woman she was!

Stories of J.O. Thompson and Grace Campbell

Laura got some stories from Grandma Izzy about J O and Grace Thompson, and here are some of her notes!
____________

Grace was engaged to a wealthy man in town for 3 years, and JO was a humble farmer. And they got married - to each other. How did this all get started?

J.O. had married his sweetheart at 17 in Newnan, Georgia. He had his farm, his sweetheart, and two beautiful children - his happily ever after was coming true.

Then, a measles epidemic came, taking his two children and his wife.

The devastated young lover took residence with his uncle John on a neighboring farm. One day, JO said to John - I can't bear this place and its memories any more. John, I need to go - far away.

So JO hopped on the train in GA and rode the rails for – who knows where?

When he got to southern Virginia, he got off; found a job farming growing food for Mary Baldwin College (they grew all their own food at that time).

Unlike most men of the day, Grace's father believed women should be educated, and he paid her tuition for Mary Baldwin’s sewing college (located in southern Virginia).

She worked in a little sewing shop for high end alterations; furs, evening gowns, suits. etc. she'd been engaged for 3 years to a man in NC.

Just a few short months after leaving Newnan, JO decided to put his grief behind him.

He took notice of Grace Campbell, working in the office.

‘You have no ring. Do you have a fella?’

‘Yes, we’ve been engaged for three years.’

‘Three years! I don't know your fella at all, but I don’t think he loves you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve been engaged for three years, and he hasn’t married you. I'll marry you right now!'

And so, they courted, fell in love, and had 9 kids together! (She got married at 27).

Including my grandma Izzy.

J.O. and Grace Thompson: A Complementary Pair

Here's a little blurb that my sister Rachel sent me:

"Grandma was telling us about us about her daddy (J.O. Thompson). She told us that if he ever got in a fight with the devil, he would win. She told him that if he ever got in a fight with the devil... And he said I already have many times. And you know where he told him to go? To go to hell. Where he belongs. "Get the hell out of my house!"

"Grandma also told us about her mother (Grace Campbell). Her mother was a very humble, compassionate, quiet person. She was also an excellent seamstress. When she was in college she learned about furs and of those sorts. In her community, in the Charlotte area, she was asked to help alter and make clothing for businesses in southern Charlotte. One of the things that her mother did that she was most proud of was when she helped a black couple that lost their baby. They didn't have enough money for a coffin. Grandma's mother decided to help for no money. They brought her a box and she used some of the scraps of blue silk from a woman's slip she was making for the lining of the coffin. Grandma said you had to keep from crying because the couple was so humble and so thankful."

Thanks for those tidbits, Rachel! It's fun to learn more about the personalities of our grandparents.

J.O. Thompson and Grace Campbell's courtship

After J.O. Thompson's first wife and both of their children passed away from a measles epidemic, J.O. couldn't stand to be in Georgia any longer, so he bought a train ticket and rode until he ran out of money in Charlotte, NC. Once there, he got a job as the manager of a hospital's farm.

While he was working there, he met the beautiful and lovely Grace Campbell. At the time, she was engaged to another man. The two had been engaged for 3 years when J.O. came into the picture. After he assessed the situation, he told Grace, "That man is a fool," meaning, of course, that her fiance was a fool for being engaged to her for 3 years but not marrying her.

Grace saw his point, and broke off her engagement with the other man. She and J.O. were later married and had 9 children.

Grace and J.O. after a lifetime together

Source: Grandma Izzy

J.O. Thompson--Record Count: 3

When I made my initial search for J.O. Thompson, I only found one record for him. I ran into similar scarcity of records for his wife, Grace Campbell. In the process of looking for J.O.'s father (James Henry Thompson), I found two more records for J.O, and one record for Grace. This brings the record count up to 3 for J.O. and 2 for Grace (I found a record for each when I was researching them earlier)

One of the records was in the 1940 US census. You can see the image and the link at the bottom of this post. It's neat to see a record with so many people that I've actually met--Aunt Margaret, Aunt Sugie, Aunt Ruby, Uncle Foy, and of course Grandma Izzy.

The other record was a WWI draft registration card that contained his physical description and his date of birth. J.O was described as a man of medium height and weight with gray eyes and light hair, not bald (he was only 25). At the time of registration, he was already living in Charlotte, NC. J.O. claimed exemption from the draft because he was deaf in one ear (you can see that at the bottom of the first page). Also interesting is J.O.'s signature at the bottom of the card.

This record is about 2 years after J.O.'s first wife and children passed away. I can imagine the heartbreak he felt--but didn't show--as the registrar asked if he had a wife or children solely dependent on him for support and J.O. had to reply, "No." At this time, he may or may not have met his second wife Grace yet. They married about a year after J.O. registered for the draft. Here's the card:

WWI draft registration, circa 1917

The other record I found was for J.O. and Grace in the 1940 Census.

1940 Census, Charlotte, Mecklenburg, North Carolina

What's in a name: Foy

Up until a few weeks ago when I started this blog, I thought I only had two Uncle Foys. Well, it turns out that I have three!

Here they are:

Uncle Foy, my mother's brother.
Great-Uncle Foy (b. mid 1920's), my maternal grandmother's brother.
Great-Great-Uncle Foy (b. 1903), my maternal great-grandmother's brother (brother to Grace Viola Campbell).

I didn't find any other Foys, but I only looked at Great-Great-Uncle Foy's aunts and uncles.

Searching for "Foy definition" on Google gave me some neat results.

From the Merriam-Webster website:
foy chiefly Scottish: a farewell feast or gift

From dictionary.com:
foy
1. chiefly Scot. a farewell gift, feast, or drink.
2. faith

The Scottish origin makes sense, since I'm pretty sure that both the Campbells and the Dunns (the parents of the first Foy) originated from Scotland. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, I like to check name popularity on a parenting website called babycenter.com. It shows popularity of a name through time, and it's really fun to play with. Here's the graph for Foy:

Before finding this graph, I thought we were the only family that used the name Foy. It's fun to see that there were other people that used the name! I think it's funny that the graph ends in 1938. I guess the name didn't catch on, which I think is too bad. I've always thought the name Foy was really cool.

Grace Campbell

Grace Viola Campbell, mother of Grandma Izzy and 9 other children.

This is what I know about her as a person:

• She was a seamstress
• Her husband was not as well off as her family was
• She was 23 when she married and 24 when her first child was born

Birth date: September 4, 1894

Marriage: July 30, 1918 to James Oren Thompson, Sr.

Death date: March 18, 1960

Records of Grace Viola Campbell:

In the 1920 census, as Grace Thompson

Information about her on a web page dedicated to descendants of David Atticus Nolan

Birth and death dates on FindAGrave.com

Marriage information at Mecklenburg County register of deeds and on FamilySearch.