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Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Archibald W. Campbell (1839-1899), Newspaperman, Papers, A&M 0014, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Biographical / Historical

Archibald W. Campbell (April 4, 1833-February 13, 1899) was editor and part owner of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer newspaper and a leader in the West Virginia statehood movement. He was the nephew of Alexander Campbell, founder and first president of Bethany College and a founder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Archibald Campbell was born in Steubenville, Ohio. He spent most of his childhood in Bethany, West Virginia, and attended Bethany College, graduating in 1852. He then attended Hamilton College Law School in Clinton, New York, graduating in 1855. He moved to Wheeling in spring 1856 to take a job at the Daily Intelligencer . In the fall of 1856, he and John F. McDermot purchased the paper and Campbell became editor.

Campbell was a member of the fledgling Republican Party, and editorials in his paper favored Republican causes, especially the abolition of slavery and preservation of the Union. The Intelligencer was the only Republican daily paper in Virginia and the only paper in the state to endorse Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860. Campbell strongly opposed Virginia's secession from the United States. He supported the creation of the Reorganized Government of Virginia, and he worked hard, through his editorials and behind the scenes, for the formation of the new state of West Virginia. President Lincoln appointed Campbell postmaster of the Wheeling Post Office in 1861. According to Campbell's daughter, Jessie Campbell Nave, it was he who wrote the text of the telegram (sent by Governor Pierpont) that reputedly convinced President Lincoln to sign the West Virginia statehood bill.

In Campbell's later years, he retired from the newspaper and traveled extensively. He died of a stroke at the home of a sister in Webster Groves, Missouri.

This historical note is based on an article in the West Virginia Encyclopedia .

Scope and Contents

Papers of Archibald W. Campbell (1839-1899), editor of the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer . A strong unionist and Republican Party member, he worked hard through his editorials and behind the scenes in order to support the formation of the new state of West Virginia. The collection includes correspondence, clippings, ephemera, and scrapbooks dealing with the Civil War and political affairs in West Virginia's early statehood period. Some of the correspondence asks Campbell to publish specific accounts of events or rebuttals of others, showing the importance of the newspapers in shaping public perception. Correspondents include family members, Jacob B. Blair, Cassius M. Clay, Sherrard Clemens, B.F. Kelley, Francis H. Pierpont, John C. Underwood, and others.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Blair, Jacob B., 1821-1901
• Blair, Montgomery, 1813-1883
• Boreman, Arthur Inghram, 1823-1896
• Campbell, Archibald W., 1833-1899.
• Clay, Cassius Marcellus, 1810-1903
• Clemens, Sherrard, 1826-1881
• Colfax, Schuyler, 1823-1885
• Davis, Rebecca Harding, 1831-1910
• Everett, Edward, 1794-1865
• Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872
• Kelley, Benjamin F., 1807-1891
• McClellan, George B. (George Brinton), 1826-1885
• Medill, Joseph, 1823-1899
• Newspapers.
• Pierpont, Francis Harrison, 1814-1899
• Politics and government.
• Seward, William H. (William Henry), 1801-1872
• Sigel, Franz, 1824-1902
• Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• Van Winkle, P. G. (Peter Godwin), 1808-1872
• Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• Virginia -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
• West Virginia - Politics and government - 1861-1865.
• West Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
• Wheeling Intelligencer (Wheeling, W. Va.)