Samuel W. Campbell, small businessman, minor Republican politician, and Indian Agent at the La Pointe Reservation in northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, was born 3 June 1843 in Heshbon, Pennsylvania. He spent his early years on a Pennsylvania farm.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Campbell enlisted in the Union Army. For six months in 1862, he served on guard duty in Washington, D.C. He then was assigned as a first sergeant of Company I, 135th Pennsylvania Volunteers at Chancellorsville, and later helped raise a company of volunteers in Pennsylvania which became part of the Second Battalion, Pennsylvania Volunteers. Participating in guerrilla activities in Pennsylvania and in the Cumberland region, Campbell served as a first lieutenant in this company until the group was disbanded. In 1863, following training at the military training school in Philadelphia, Campbell served in Company I, 109th Infantry, a regiment composed of black troops and white officers. Later as a member of Grant's Army of the James, he saw action during the Petersburg campaign and at Fredericksburg.
When the war ended, Campbell was among some 20,000 troops sent to Texas by Secretary of State Seward because of the possibility that trouble might develop with Mexico. In March, 1866, the then Major Campbell was discharged from the service in Louisville, Kentucky, and his regiment disbanded.
The following year, Campbell moved to the St. Croix Valley region first settling at Marine, Minnesota where two of his brothers were living. Next he bought a farm near Farmington Prairie, Wisconsin. A year later Campbell sold the farm and purchased a grist mill in Huntington. He spent several years in the Huntington-Osceola region before moving to Hudson, Wisconsin in the early 1880's.
Campbell was active in state and county politics in Wisconsin. In 1884 he was elected to a two-year term as sheriff of St. Croix County. Later he served a term as under-sheriff. In 1889, President Harrison appointed Campbell to a four-year term as an inspector in the Bureau of Animal Industry of the Department of Agriculture.
During this time deposits of iron ore in the Mesaba Range of northern Minnesota were being discovered and developed. Taking advantage of the region's rapid growth, Campbell and his son, Webb, opened a general store in a mining camp at Eveleth, Minnesota in 1889. They operated Campbell & Son jointly until the senior Campbell returned to Hudson and again became involved in politics. His return was marked by his appointment to the Wisconsin State Board of Control.
With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Indian Agents, who were army officers, were called into active service. Their vacated positions were filled by civilians. It was in this way that Campbell came to be the Indian Agent at the La Pointe Reservation whose headquarters was at Ashland, Wisconsin. John C. Spooner, Senator from Wisconsin, was instrumental in helping him obtain this appointment from President McKinley in 1898. Campbell held this post for fourteen years until his retirement in 1912. However, the end of his career at the reservation was marked by his forced resignation as a result of a controversy surrounding his handling of Indian monies that had resulted from timber sales. Campbell returned to private life although he remained active in Republican Party circles.
In 1868 Campbell married Phoebe Hanscom. They had three sons, Clyde, Webb, and Frank, and one daughter, Daisy (Mrs. Charles Jensch). They maintained their permanent home in Hudson, Wisconsin until Campbell's death on 25 June 1931.
