I entered the preparatory department of Illinois College 
and was placed under the tutorage of George Harlan a 
member of the senior Class and was informed that 
according to the regulations I must overtake the class 
that started the previous Sept or be incorporated with
the class that would start at the next term, thus virtually 
loosing six months in the latter case or gaining six in the
former.  I studied very hard, slept generally not more 
than four or five hours.  Spent one hour each day on the 
play ground.  I boarded myself.  My meals usually 
consisted of a slice of bread and butter and cup of 
coffee for breakfast.  Bread and butter and molasses 
for dinner and supper, Vacation came in harvest, tho 
weak and enervated by confinement and study I did 
my part on the farm through harvest and returned to 
college in Sept.  I started in with zeal and determination.  
I succeeded very well the first half year with my studies 
but my pet object of becoming a speaker became less 
flattering continually towards; the close of the term my 
health began to fail.  I was afflicted with pain in the 
breast and a severe cough.  By advice of the doctors I 
gave up the idea of going though college.  I desired to 
turn what knowledge I had gained of Latin to some 
practical use and determined to study medicine, but 
being opposed in this by my father and having no means 
of my own to prosecute the study I gave it up and spent 
my time on the farm and in teaching school until I was of 
age.  I was married Nov. 30th 1848 to Martha Ann Renfro 
and went onto a small farm of my fathers two miles South 
of Exctes Scott Co. Ills.  We lived there until the fall of 
1850 when we disposed of our crop and surplus property 
and started on the 3 day of Oct for the State of Iowa.  
Brother James accompanying us, We moved in a two 
horse wagon my brother having a horse along also 
Hosia Driesvoic took a part of a load for up and traveled 
in company with us.  We has pleasant weather excepting 
our rainy day.  We camped out during the trip and 
generally enjoyed ourselves well.  We arrived at our 
destination in Mahaska Co. Iowa on the 11th day of Oct. 
1850 and pitched our tent in the woods on the left bank 
of Ballenger Branch in the South west corner of Prairie 
Township.  We occupied our tent for a week while we put 
up a log cabin which we covered with clapboards and and 
daubed the cracks with mud.  Our second Sunday we 
spent in our own house built upon our own land and felt 
and independence that I scarce have ever felt since.  In 
reviewing my past life I fail to call to mind a single 
instance in which I have felt more satisfaction than I 
enjoyed here in my humble cabin with my wife and brother.  
After laying in our winter provision and deed for our three 
horses I engaged to teach school at the Miller school house 
and unpretending building 14 X 16 built of round logs 
clapboard roof and stone chimney with joist so low as to 
forbid the fue use of gad.  I received pay for my services 
in fence rails at $1.12 « per hundred.  My brother hauled 
rails or made rails as the weather favored until my terms 
of school expired when I assisted him until we had forty 
acres inclosed by plowing time.  We exchanged our horses 
for oxen and with them broke out our 40 that we had 
fenced and broke about the same amount for the neighbors 
besides we had put in a few acres of wheat and oats and 
ten acres of corn on land that we had rented. We also 
raised a good crop of ear corn on our own land, Not with 
standing it was a very wet season, we raised an abundance 
for our winters substance.  During the whole summer the 
streams were so full that the water mills could not grind 
and the only steam mill in reach was at Oskabovisa on the 
opposite side of the [skunk] river, but their was neither 
bridge nor boat on which to cross.  The whole settlement 
was most of the time out of bread stuff.  Often I have got 
up a morning and ground corn on a coffee mill to make 
bread for breakfast but our main dependence was Hominy, 
corn hulled by boiling in lye and then boiled in water until 
soft.  After harvest brother Jim returned to Ills often 
selling out his interest in the crop and team to me which 
put me in debt to him and left me feeling more lonely and 
desolate than I had ever felt in my life.  My wife also 
partaking of the same feeling to such and extent as to 
amount to homesickness. Here my first serious trouble 
in life overtook me.  I could not have sold out at any price.  
In debt and what surplus produce as I had for sale it was 
not possible to dispose of for cash.  For a year I do not 
think that I received on dollar in cash except $5.00 that 
father gave me while out on a visit, to pay my taxes and 
to buy some salt.  I managed to feed out a large proportion 
of my crop in wintering my first yoke of oxen I traded two 
hundred Bushels of corn for an old mare so I once more 
was the owner of a horse to ride in getting up my team 
which would often stray miles form home.  Our first child 
born in Iowa (having lost two in infancy before we left Ills.) 
 was Olive L was about eight months old when she and I 
both took the measles from which I came near dying and 
was so delayed with my spring work that I very nearly 
missed a crop. I had promised my wife a visit to Ills. After 
harvest.  I was too poor to think of such a trip only that my 
wife had become so homesick that It was indispensable to 
her happiness that we should go, I traded one yoke of my 
oxen for a pair of 3 year old steers and got ten dollars to 
boot with which to defray our expenses on a trip of over 
200 miles and return.  We started on the 23 day of August 
1852.  The day that Ollie was a year old.  Brother Jim 
having returned to Iowa to see to my affairs during out 
absence furnished me a horse to mate the one I had which 
I drove to a covered market 
wagon kindly furnished me by a neighbor by the name 
of Seary. I took a chill the day before we started but so 
anxious was I to see my old neighborhood, friends and 
relatives, that I lost all Prudence if I even had any, and 
started on the journey.  We had fortunably for us distant 
relatives friends and acquaintances living at intervals all 
along the route so that we could put up with some of our 
acquaintance every night except one on the whole trip. 
I had the agree regularly every day and grew worse from 
day to day until the last day in getting to fathers I lay in 
the bottom of the wagon most of the way.  I took to the; 
bed next morning and father summoned De. Lairs who 
decided that I had Tyfoid fever.  I lingered near deaths 
door for weeks and finally in Oct. Made my way back to 
our cabin in Iowa.  My health continued poor though the 
winter and had not brother Jim stayed with me and 
helped me through the winter I think that should never 
have seen the spring.  Early in the spring of 1853 I was 
surprised by the arrival of Tho Hayby and Tho C. Beach 
only a day or two apart, both old acquaintances and friends 
form Scott Co. Ills.  Looking for homes in Iowa.  We did 
all we could to induce them to settle near us.  Beach 
finally bought near us and returned to Ills. For his wife 
Hayby rented land and raised a crop with me boarding 
with us.  Bro Jim also boarded with us so we felt more at
home than ever since our first winter in Iowa.  Beach 
returned in May having married my cousin Martha 
Campbell daughter of Uncle Joseph Campbell.  We 
enjoyed ourselves finely during the summer in 
interchanging visits and helping each other with our 
crops until after harvest.  Hayby went to Ills for a wife 
and brother Jim went along to bring a cow apiece that 
father gave us in company with a drive that Hayby was 
bringing back with him.  We had begun to make some 
calculations for future operations as there was by this 
time some market for out produce tho at low prices.  
Before my brothers return my wife was taken seriously 
sick and died Oct 17th 1853 after suffering for a number 
of days with inflammation of the bowels.  No pen can 
describe my feelings at this time left as I was with one 
child a little over two years old having buried an infant 
which lived but a short time only a few days previous 
to my wife's death. After some deliberation I concluded 
to sell my personal property and pay up my debts so 
after making a sale at which I realized but little more 
that enough to pay my debts I took Ollie in a one horse 
buggy and took her to my fathers in Scott Co. Ills. And 
after my return to Iowa engaged to teach school during 
the winter at the Miller school house.  In the spring of 
1854 Jim Company with A.P. Kitchm started on 
horseback for Scott Co. Ills where I taught school during 
the summer and the next winter.       

Thomas B. Campbell