The Campbell House Museum and the St. Louis Public
Library are teaming up for an exhibit called The Grand Tour. It will run from
June 11-August 22, 2015. The exhibit features the 11-month Grand Tour the
Campbell’s and their three sons to Europe and Africa.
In anticipation of this joint venture, I decided to
read a book I bought several years ago when the author was visiting St. Louis.
The book gives an overall history of the Campbell
family from the time Robert and his older brother Hugh left Ireland bound for
America in 1822. Hugh stayed behind in
Philadelphia, but Robert went west. Using St. Louis as his home base, he went
further west and became a “mountain man,” a fur trader. Robert was skillful in
the art of negotiation and soon, with his partner William Sublette, established
a trading company and eventually built the Fort Laramie (yes, that one).
After his trapper days were over, Robert returned to
St. Louis where he married Virginia Kyle. He became an increasing influence in
the St. Louis financial and political world. Among the frequent dinner guests
at the couple’s home were Chief Red Cloud and President U. S. Grant.
The
Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and Fortune is filled with
letter from Robert and Hugh to each, to their family back in Ireland, and
between Robert and Sublette. They provide a window into that world.
However, one thing that I was particularly
interested in was Robert’s estate. When he died in 1879, he left (in 2009
terms) $69 million dollars. At that time, it seemed simple to settle. Virginia
was still alive as were three of their thirteen children. The youngest son died
young in 1890; the oldest son died in 1931, and the middle son died in 1938.
However, none of the sons had produced off-spring, legitimate or otherwise. So
began a massive undertaking of locating direct heirs with whom the remaining
$21 million estate (in 1937 dollars) should be divided. However, the middle son
had made a bequest to Yale University. There ensued a fight a fight to
determine how much of the remaining fortune should go to Yale and to the heirs,
if and when they could be determined and found. The law was quite complicated
on how heirs were determined.
The Campbell story is quiet interesting. I was
annoyed by the author’s remarks with the family letters. That why I give The Campbell Quest: A Saga of Family and
Fortune three out of five stars.
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