A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF
CAMPBELL LONGLEY
When the subject of this sketch
was about 12 years of age his father moved to Jackson's Purchase,
McMinn Co., Tenn. [1828] About a year later his father died,
leaving his mother and 8 children.
Campbell was the eldest of the
children. They remained there on their farm until the Spring
of 1836 when, in answer to General Houston's call for volunteers
to reinforce his Texas army, he enlisted under Capt. Augustis
Parker of Georgia with a company of about 100 men besides officers.
Georgia and Tennessee furnished
them with arms and ammunition, and they equipped themselves with
horses and wagons. On arriving at Nashville Tennessee they were
met by Joe Clay who secured lodging for them in the barracks.
While there Mr. Clay gave them and about 1,000 others a grand
barbecue. On their departure he accompanied them to the steamer,
and paid their fare, about $250.00, to Nacotosh, La. When only
a short distance from shore young Longley said to Capt. Parker:
"Joe Clay is the best friend we've met since we started.
He has a heart as a pumpkin." The Capt. replied, "Joe
Clay is a partner with Sterling C. Robinson, and owns forty leagues
of land in Robinson's Colony, and he knows if Texas goes down
he goes down with her, but if Texas goes up he is immensely rich."
As the great battle of San Jacinto was pending when they started,
that was their intended destination.
But, on arriving at San Augustine
Ben Smith informed them that the battle would be fought before
they could possibly get there, and he directed them to go to
Colette, DeWitt County. They crossed the Trinity river at Nat.
Robin's ferry; thence to the old town of Washington; thence to
Tuskasota on the Colorado River, thence to Victoria and across
the Guadalupe, thence to Colette. Next they marched to Goliad,
where, with a large assembly of volunteers and citizens, they
participated in gathering up and burying the remains of the immortal
braves -- Col. Fannin and his men, with impressive ceremony,
all under the directions of General Rusk.
On their return to Collette, they
were ordered to Dimmitt's Point via Victoria, where they were
detained a few days by sickness of several of the company. At
Dimmit's Point Mr. Longley cast his first vote, and that was
for Gen. Sam Houston for President of the Texas Republic. On
Sept. 13, 1836, they were honorably discharged, while A. Sidney
Johnson was in command. On being discharged the company presented
their horses and wagons to the Texas Republic.
When discharged Mr. Longley had only one suit of clothes, and
they were like his shoes, all ragged and worn, tattered and torn.
In order to buy some clothes he was forced to sell his discharge
at a great sacrifice. If he could have kept the discharge and
located the land to which it entitled him he might have realized
some compensation for the many and very trying privation, and
hardships he endured, among which was a shipwreck as they were
home-bound; this she [sic] being lost, but he and his fellow
soldiers were rescued by another ship and taken to Matagorda,
all nearly starved to death. From Matagorda Mr. Longley went
to Austin County, where he married Miss Sarah Ann Henry, in 1838,
and settled on a farm. To this union ten children were born,
nine of whom lived to be grown, but only four are now living,
including these four with grandchildren and great, and great-great-
grand-children, there are now living 183.
Living and dead, Mr. Longley's
children and their descendants are about as follows:
Mary Catherine, married to C.
M. Tyler. Number of children, 13; grand-children, 69; great 25;
great-great-grand 16.
Martha Jane, married to Wm. Carnes. Number of children 4, grand-children,
9.
Frances C. married L.J. Lawrence. Number of children, 2; grand-children,
9; great 2.
Alex. C. 1st, killed in C.S. army.
Geo. W. married to Mrs. Mattie Baker. Number of children 5; grand
4.
Wm. P.
Elizabeth, married to M. N. Walton. Number of children, 4?, grand
12.
Joseph.
James S. married to Elvira Draper. Number of children, 7, grand,
1.
Alex C. 2nd, married to Mattie E. Reisinger. Number of children
1.
Campbell Longley and Sarah Longley.
Number of living children: 4; grand, 24; great-grand 121; great-great-grand
27. Total 183.
Mr. Longley was in the expedition
against the notorious Mexican marauders, Woll and Vasquez, in
the spring and fall of 1842; also against the Indians that burnt
Linnville, besides many others too numerous to mention in this
brief sketch, from 1836 until they ceased their depredations.
In Austin County he served for
six consecutive years as Justice of the Peace. In Washington
County he served as County Commissioner from 1857 until the Civil
war. He also served as school Trustee for many years, in all
of which positions he discharged his official duties conscientiously
and to the best of his ability.
During the Civil war he served
as special detail in caring for the war widows and children.
He tanned leather, made and mended their shoes, and taught some
of them to read, spin, warp, weave, etc. and made brooms and
other needed implements.
In the fall of 1830 he confessed
his faith in the Christ and was buried with him in Baptism by
Elder Isaac Mulkey. In 1842 he assisted in setting in order the
first Church of Christ west of the Brazos river in Austin county.
Prominent in this Congregation were one Collins families and
two Bush families, lately from Kentucky; also one J. W. Cox,
formerly a Baptist preacher, who preached for this congregation
for two or three years. The next Lord's Day another congregation
was set in order at Independence, Washington county, by S. B.
Giles, who came from Tennessee. Soon afterward, some members
of these two congregations found Bro. James Stephens and wife
and daughter, lately from Kentucky. These disciples were in Austin's
Colony on Clear Creek in Fayette county. Dr. Payne, a very wealthy
man of this community, married Miss Stephens and soon afterward
became a member of the church.
Dr. Payne was a very liberal Christian
and, mainly through his instrumentality, a church house was soon
erected, and in about a year this congregation numbered 120.
During his declining years this aged disciple often remarked
that it after led him great pleasure to know that he was instrumental
in establishing these three congregations, which were among the
first churches established in the great state of Texas, to stand
identified with the Restoration movement of the 19th century,
inaugurated by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, and
others, who in those days numbered only a few thousand and were
snearingly called Heretics, Schis-matics, new light, Campbellites,
etc.; and that he was glad he lived to see the day, when, by
the help of God and the ______ ________ for the restoration of
New Testament Christianity, they have forged their way until
they number about one million and a half, and stand 3rd in the
order of numerical strength among Protestants. Nearly one-third
of his Christian career of over three-quarters of a century,
he served as an elder in the church. CampbellLongley was an intimate,
personal friend of Gen. Sam Houston, Gen. Ed Burleson, and Judge
R. M. Williamson and many others of the great and noble heroes
and pioneers of Texas.
April 14, 1890, the death angel
came and took his bosom companion to the Christian's eternal
home for which she was so well prepared. From the death of his
wife until his own death he made his home with his youngest child,
A. C. Longley near Lometa Texas.
Campbell Longley was a brave soldier,
a good citizen, a true friend, a fond husband and affectionate
father, a bright Mason, and a faithful Christian. He entered
the straight and narrow way at the age of 14, and endeavored
during his long journey to walk faithfully _________ until he
finally died in the triumphs of a living faith and the bright
hope of an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of
his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, into that celestial lodge
where the weary are for ever at rest.
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