Joseph Randolph Campbell
Joseph Randolph Campbell, son of Dr. John and Esther C. Campbell. was born in Delhi, Ohio, March 12. 1872. His education was commenced in the Home City and Delhi public schools and continued at Washington, D. C. until September 29. 1888. when he entered the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Md., as a Naval Cadet, under appointment by the Secretary of the Navy to fill a vacancy from Wyoming Territory. He graduated from the academy, June, 1892. with honor, and was assigned to the Newark, then about to sail for European waters as the representative of the U. S. Navy in the Spanish and Italian Columbian celebrations. About a year later he was transferred to the San Francisco, and was in the harbor of Rio Janiero during the exciting times of the Brazilian revolt of '93 and '94. In June, 1894, he returned to the Naval Academy for final examination, preceding his commission as Ensign. He came through this ordeal with distinction, standing at the head of the line division of his class, and was duly commissioned as an Ensign to date from July 1, 1894. He was assigned to duty on the New York, then the finest cruiser in the new Navy and ---- to sail as our Nation's representative in the grand marine pageant of the opening of the Kiel Canal. While at Kiel, he commanded the boat of the New York which gained one of the races given by the German Emperor's Yacht Club, and received as the prize two silver cups from Kaiser William. After serving on the New York the usual term, he was transferred to the Alliance, a training ship for Naval apprentices, for two cruises across the Atlantic and through the West Indies. Then followed duty at the War College and Torpedo Station at Newport. R. I., until he was transferred to the Katahdin at the commencement of the recent war with Spain. In April, 1898. while at Hampton Roads, he was attacked by a sickness which later developed into an exceedingly severe typhoid fever. His reluctance to be off his post under the war excitement, until absolutely prostrated, added greatly to the intensity of the disease, and possibly the over taxation of his constitution by the efforts of continued duty, gave the disease its fatal direction. However, after his impaired health had lasted nearly a month under great strain, his ship having reached Boston, he was taken to the Naval Hospital on May 4. and died May 30, 1898. at noon, while a company of marines were decorating the graves of departed heroes in the cemetery in the hospital grounds adjacent.
He came of a military and patriotic family. His great-grandfather. General Daniel Cockerill, was a Lieutenant from Virginia in the War of 1812 and a Major General in the Ohio Militia. His grandfather, Joseph Randolph Cockerill, was Colonel of the 70th Ohio Infantry in the Civil War, and brevetted Brigadier General for bravery on the battlefield. His uncle, A mislead Cockerill, Lieutenant Colonel of the 24th Ohio Infantry in the Civil War, rose to that rank from private by sheer merit.
His classmates in the Naval Academy give unanimous testimony that he was endowed with high and noble qualities of which he made the best use. As an officer, he was admired by his juniors and esteemed by his superiors for his sterling worth. At his final examinations he entered the Naval service as the Senior Ensign of his class. Under circumstances of great provocation, his self-control was admirable, and yet his modesty was his most distinguishing characteristic. By his death, his classmates lost a valued member and the Navy lost one of its brightest and most promising officers.
Ensign Campbell was elected a Companion of the first class by inheritance from his grandfather, Brevet Brigadier General J. R. Cockerill, in the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, on October 7. 1896, the number of his insignia being 11,572. He was pure, high-minded and honorable. During his brief career in the Navy, he had manifested talent and ability of a very high order. The nobility of his character, his amiable qualities, his efficiency and devotion to duty, had made for him friends of all the officers with whom he served. The many letters of condolence from them to his father and mother express their estimate of him and their sense of their personal loss. A few are as follows: Captain Wilde, of the Katahdin. says: "I have seen many young men enter the Navy, but never a better one than your son." Lieutenant Potter writes: "I learned to like him sincerely, and recognized his unusual ability and high standard of professional and personal conduct In his taking away, we are all bereaved, and my best wish for myself would be that when I shall go, my character and my record shall be as stainless as his."
A classmate at Annapolis says: "As time progressed, I learned to like him more and more. He was one of the best men I ever knew or ever care to know."
He was taken for burial to his father's and mother's old home at West Union, Ohio, where the people showed the greatest respect for his memory by their attendance on his obsequies. He rests near his grandfather and uncle (Cockerill), who so distinguished themselves for military valor in the War of 1861.
"Sleep on, brave Son, where grandsire sleeps,
A nation still thy memory keeps,
And all her sons on land or sea.
Shall sacred in her memory be."
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900