Arba Zeri Campbell and the Telephone

One thing I like about families — the one(s) I’m in, at any rate — are the legacies.

In my dialect of English a “legacy” is generally money or property handed down from one generation to another.

Legacies of that sort matter. My wife and I are in the process of updating our will, I suppose it’ll be wills, and that’s another topic.

But the legacies I’m thinking of aren’t worth much, in terms of taxable assets.

Although each of us is a unique individual, we also inherit whatever’s in the genes of our biological parents: along with the experiences, attitudes, habits, values, and stories of the folks who raised us.

I figure our oldest daughter suggested that I start sharing ‘family stories’ here because she sees some sort of value in them.

Anyway, that gets me to an ancestor — my father’s mother’s father — Arba Zeri Campbell.

He was, apparently, a lot like me. He liked high-tech stuff. But, being born 99 years before I was — in 1852 — our high-tech options were a trifle different.

Arba Zeri Campbell may have had, relatively speaking, more disposable income than this household ever did. Or maybe he and I shared interests that put getting new tech near the top of our non-essential priorities.

Either way, he was the first person in his part of the world — northeastern Illinois — with a telephone connection. The first.

That’s an accomplishment. But it also meant that he had to wait a long time before he got any calls on his telephone.

Families: Barker, Hulse, and Campbell

I did a little checking before writing this, and found “Arba Zeri Campbell” mentioned twice in my first search results: as one of the children of Erixna Barker, who married David Samuel Campbell; and as the husband of Eliza Carlina Hulse.¹

That may connect with my habit of referring to couples I know as “[woman’s name] and [man’s name]”. Then again, maybe not.

I also learned that Erixna and David had at least six children, one of them dying young:

• Adelaide Louisa Campbell 1841-1844
• Zeno Adelbert Campbell 1843-1891
• Adaline Alice Campbell 1847-1918
• Arba Zeri Campbell 1852-1937
• Lois Isabelle Campbell 1857-1923
• Earl D Campbell 1861-1861

Again, like me and my wife: we’ve had six kids, and four of them are still alive.

Being a Catholic Family: Just the Basics

All this family and genealogy stuff reminded me that I haven’t talked about how family, marriage, and all that fits into what I believe. Not recently.

I’m — obviously, I suppose — a Catholic. So I think that family is important.

“The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2207) [emphasis mine]

Any and all ideas there can be warped: ‘authority’, ‘stability’, ‘security’, even ‘freedom’.

I could, for example, act as if my ‘authority’ as a husband and father means I can do whatever I want. It didn’t, it doesn’t, and acting that way would be a very bad idea.

Basically, in a family, children have responsibilities. Parents have responsibilities. (Catechism, 2214-2220, 2221-2231)

Those responsibilities do not include telling my kids who they should marry. Or whether they should get married. Or what sort of profession they get into. That’s just one aspect of being part of a family. The Catechism devotes more than two thousand words to discussing what a family is, and how families should work: which I see as a good introduction. (Catechism, 2201-2233)

Again, ‘family’ is very important to Catholics, or should be.

Another important point: my kids are people, not property. The same goes for my wife. And, for that matter, me. (Catechism, 2360-2379)

The ‘how to be a family’ thing boils down to what Jesus said about ‘the whole law and the prophets’. I should love God, love my neighbor, and see everybody as my neighbor. (Matthew 5:43–44, 22:36–40; Mark 12:28–31; Luke 6:31, 10:25–37; Catechism, 1789)

Which, as I keep saying, is simple: and very, very hard to do.

I’ve looked at why ‘family’ matters and how it’s done before. But, like I said, not recently:

• “COVID-19, Mass and Marriage: It’s Not All About Me”
  (March 16, 2021)
• “A Family Visit is Still in Progress: Kids and Adoption”
  (February 1, 2021)
• “Weather: But Mostly Desks and Principles”
  (January 30, 2021)
• “Where Have All the People Gone?”
  (November 23, 2018)
• “Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Hope”
  (October 9, 2016)

¹ Folks in the family tree, and me:

• Family Search
  • Erixna Barker 10 February 1823-31 October 1891
  • Eliza Carlina Hulse 1 April 1856-10 November 1923
  • Arba Zeri Campbell 27 November 1852-9 May 1937
  • Floss Adeline Campbell 25 March 1885–16 December 1966
  • Bernard Gill 16 May 1921–25 September 2009
• Me: Brian H. Gill 1951 and still around