DIED
On the evening of the 6th inst, at his residence, Hartley street, Dunstan, Mr Donald Kesson Campbell, aged 36 years, native of Glasgow, Scotland, and of the firm of D. K. Campbell and Co, late of Maryborough, Victoria, deeply regretted by all who knew him. -Otago Daily Times, 11/12/1863.
THE DUNSTAN.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Dunstan, December 9.
This week has teen one of mourning for the Dunstan; the grave has closed over one of its earliest and most respected inhabitants. No one was better known or held in higher estimation by the mining community than Mr Donald Kesson Campbell of the firm of D. K. Campbell and Co, both on the goldfields of Otago and Victoria. On every rush since the opening of the far-famed Eaglehawk Gully, Bendigo, that has taken place either in the north-western or western districts of Victoria, there has been an establishment of that well-known firm. Wherever the majority of the miners have betaken themselves, thither has followed Mr Campbell, let the distance have been ever so great or small; and when the superior attractions of the New Zealand goldfields caused such an exodus to this island, no sooner was their permanency an established fact, than our now deceased friend was quickly on the field. No man now living has spent such large sums (which must have been a fortune in itself) in shifting extensive buildings and stocks of goods, from rush to rush within the last ten years as has been done by Mr Campbell; and scarcely anybody whose acquaintance dates for so long a period with the mining community, has won for himself such universal respect. In every town in which he had lived (and he had seen the rise and fall of many) it has always been his study to promote the welfare of its inhabitants, and as a contributor to all charitable institutions he was ever foremost. In him the miners lose a great friend: many has been the party, who when toiling on under difficulties have been sought his aid, and have never sought in vain: no one ever entered the store of D. K. Campbell and Co, seeking assistance, and departed empty handed. No better proof of the estimation and good feeling in which he was held by all classes of the community, could have manifested than at the funeral which took place yesterday morning. Business establishments of every description were close shut till some time after the ceremony, many the entire day, and everything testified the deep grief which his fellow-townsmen felt at his loss. The cortege left the residence of the deceased for the cemetery, which lies at the foot of the Terraces about two miles to the eastward of the town, at 10 a.m. The body was conveyed in a hearse (improvised for the occasion) drawn by four splendid black horses, after which followed over 200 of the inhabitants, all clad in suitable habiliments, or wearing some badge expressive of their sorrow. The impressive burial service of the Church of England was read by Mr Stratford, lay reader to the Episcopal Church, and at the momentous words "earth to earth, ashes to ashes," when the dull sound of the falling earth rattling on the coffin met the ear, many were the tears shed over the last resting place of the departed. In losing Mr Campbell it is not only the individual we miss, but we feel as if one of our institutions had departed with him, never more to return. So familiar was the deceased to those who have followed the great rushes for the last ten years, that the absence of the well-known name and the well-known familiar form leaves a void that time will not fill up or cause easily to be forgotten. He leaves a wife and young child. Requiescat in pace. -Otago Daily Times, 12/12/1863.
The most enlarged and most progressive mind that Clyde ever could boast of was Mr D. K Campbell, the merchant, whose remains, I am sorry to say, are now in a mucid shroud beneath the sward in the Clyde Cemetery. Four years past, he almost at every public meeting pressed on the mind of the assemblage the necessity of having what he designated "a grand broad road for our waggons to travel between Clyde and Queenstown," as that would be the only thing to make the districts truly prosperous. Whenever any of the then public men of Clyde attempted to draw public attention to matters of toy, Mr Campbell would at once "snub" him by saying, "Mind the grand road to the Lakes." Were Queenstown, Clyde and Cromwell possessed of such men at the present time the Road Engineer and the Government would not be allowed to neglect forming this "grand road" without finding themselves more harrassed than the Government of England with the turbulent Fenians. -Lake Wakatip Mail, 9/4/1868.
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