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By 1866, I had resumed my legal profession, in partnership with Judge Totten, (my mentor), Henry McCorry, John L. Brown, and Howell Jackson, the brother of former Confederate General William Jackson, and later a justice of the United States Supreme Court. I might add with some satisfaction that with their help, I became one of the leading attorneys in the city of Jackson, although I was well known for being more than willing to spend my fortune freely. At the same time, I kept my interest in politics,and was for many years a leading member of the Democratic Party in the state, and did once run for Congress. Although I was defeated, I tried my best to live by my own personal motto: "Be honest, do your duty, and let the consequences take care of themselves." My efforts were apparently appreciated by my fellow citizens, as I was asked to serve in a number of positions of public trust over the next several years. From 1866 until 1881, I was president of the Bank of Madison, chartered soon after the war's end. In 1868, I became director of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, a post I held until 1873. I was delegated to the Democratic National Convention in both 1868 and 1876, and also represented Madison County as a delegate to the state Constituational Convention of 1870.
In 1874, my father died, leaving me his 1300 acre estate. Father left a widow, his second wife, my step mother. Oddly enough, she was also my mother-in-law, the widowed mother of my wife, whom my father had married only 3 months after my marriage to Anne in 1852. My father's loss was greatly lamented by the citizens, especially the membership of the First Presbyterian Church, where he had served for 34 years as a ruling elder, and had made a gift of a magnificent pulpit to the congregation for the use of their pastor, Dr. Alexander A. Campbell. The fact that this Dr. Campbell shared much the same name as I, proved confusing on more than one occasion. However, he followed the ministerial and medical profession, while I followed law and politics, and today his family also rests at Riverside Cemetery. By the way, even though my father was a life long staunch Presbyterian, I attended St. Luke's Episciopal Church, and my family was very faithful there. I tried to raise my family will in the church, and did all I could to live by example.
I mentioned earlier that I had attended the Jackson Male Academy and West Tennessee College as a youth. For many years, I was associated with these fine institutions, and my father was among the first trustees of the Madison Male Academy. In 1843, it's name was changed to the West Tennessee College, and at that time the school exchanged the property where they had been located for 46 acres on Hays Avenue. The school was able to survive the War with very little damage, though Union troops were camped on the grounds, and one of it's buildings used as a hospital. After the war, I served along with my father on the Board of Trustees of the school. Then in 1873, a cholera epidemic in Murfreesboro forced the Baptist church to consider moving the university they had there. So their Union University moved to Jackson, merged with West Tn. College, and became Southwestern Baptist University. I felt privileged to serve on the faculity of this fine school, which in 1907 had it's name changed to Union University.
I spend my entire adult life as a citizen of Jackson, and felt proud to call it my home. Anne and I raised our 6 children here, and my family was honored that several of the town's streets were named for my family. Campbell, Scott, Sterling and Woodruff, the last 3 of these being in the neighborhood of my father's estate. At my death on June 13, 1893, I was laid to rest here at Riverside Cemetery, near my parents and my grandfather, in the Campbell family plot.
