| The Rev. John Poage Campbell, M.D. (1767 - Nov. 4, 1814) The Rev. Dr. John Poage Campbell was born in Augusta County, Va., in 1767 and moved with his father, Mr. Robert Campbell, to Kentucky when he was fourteen years old. His father was an elder in Smyrna Church and lived in Mason County. He was graduated at Hampden-Sydney in 1780, studied theology with Mr. Graham and with Dr. Moses Hoge of Shepherdstown, Va., and was licensed to preach the gospel in 1792. In July 1793 he was installed collegiate pastor with Mr. Graham, his preceptor, in the congregations of Oxford, New Monmouth, Lexington and Timber Ridge, Va. In 1795 he came to Kentucky and preached first to the churches of Smyrna and Flemingsburgh. He afterwards preached in various places, among which were Danville, Nicholasville, Cherry Spring, Versailles, and Lexington. He had also studied medicine and was successful in its practice, but only engaged in this because his salary as a preacher was not sufficient to support him. In April 1801 he resigned a call that he had accepted from Union. He attended the first meeting of the Synod of Kentucky in 1802. He was dismissed to the Presbytery of Transylvania in 1804 and moved to Danville. In 1805-6, by direction of the General Assembly, he traveled through Northern Kentucky, with a view to regulate disorders and revive the spirits of desponding flocks and prevent so far as possible the people from accepting the errors pressed upon them by the New Light preachers. In April 1814 he was received into the Presbytery of Washington/Chillicothe, on a certificate from the Presbytery of West Lexington. In the autumn of 1813 he had moved to Chillicothe and was engaged in the preparation of a work to be called "Western Antiquities," but died, November 4, 1814. Davidson says that "Nassau Hall [ed. Note: the College of New Jersey, lateer Princeton] was about to confer upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, when death prevented the intended honor." He published a number of articles, mostly controversial. (From the Rev. R.C. Galbraith's History of the Chillicothe Presbytery 1799-1889, Chillicothe: 1889) |