If a documented source is not listed please do not take the information as fact but as a place to start to find the truth.

** This family is a side branch of my Chrisman  ancestor's. I am not directly related to any of them. But I was hoping the information I had may help someone else. Thank you for visiting. 

My information says that his two eldest children, Chrisman Flanary and Mary Jane were both born in Virginia. Mary Jane was born in 1839, so it must have been after her birth that they moved to Missouri. Other members of the Chrisman family may have moved to Missouri during the 1830's, I have no information about that.  I have 1840 as the date that Campbell Ewing Chrisman moved from Virginia to Jefferson County, Missouri. That information came from the book on Oregon Pioneers. Apparently he successfully operated a large farm. I know that he owned slaves in Missouri because I came across a reference to Campbell Ewing Chrisman in a book about the slavery issue in Oregon. This was from a diary of a man who had known Campbell in Missouri and then met him again in Oregon.  

Apparently Campbell moved around a bit in Missouri. His children Peter Greene and Sarah Anne seem to have been born in Jefferson County, but Nelson Preston was born in Andrew County and there was a child named Malissa who was born in Jaspar County , I think that she must have died as an infant, the only information that I had about her came from the book on Oregon pioneers, there was no date for her birth. From this same book there is a mention of a child named Caroline who was born in Illinois, no date for her either. 

In 1851, Campbell disposed of his property and crossed the plains to Oregon. His equipment was beyond ordinary and they came across in relative comfort. He had several teams of oxen and a band of loose cattle, the latter serving as a foundation for his success in the Northwest. The party crossed the Cascades by the Barlow route and arrived in Lane County, Oregon in October, they spent the first winter in Coburg. (From now on all of the places where they went are in Oregon).

In 1852, Campbell moved south to Muddy, near Canyonville. There he bought a farm and possibly operated a hotel. He definitely bought into a mining partnership with a man whose surname was McGill, this mine was unsuccessful. On February 6, 1853 Campbell's wife Phebe died, three days after giving birth to Tommy, who must have died as an infant, he didn't have a middle name.

On June 1, 1854, Campbell married his ex-partner's widow, Lucinda McGill. He took up a donation claim of a large section of land along the Willamite River in Lane County. This became the nucleus of his large landholdings. From time to time he bought valuable property, and at the height of his prosperity owned several farms and much of the land between Walker and Creswell, near Eugene.

The community of Walker was named after his son-in-law John Walker who was married to Mary Jane. John Walker was my paternal grandmother's grandfather.

Campbell had large herds of cattle and extensive fields of grain. Based on his agricultural success, he started up a private lending business. One of my father's first cousins has Campbell's safe, I have always heard that a lot of money passed through that safe. In 1860, Campbell was listed as the wealthiest man in Cottage Grove. In the census of 1860, he listed his assets as $12,080 in real estate and $27,640 in personal property. In 1870, Campbell was still the richest person in Cottage Grove, listing his real estate at $28,00. Around 1870 he built a modest house in Cottage Grove that was still standing in 1972, I haven't checked to see if it is still there. This was his retirement home and he died there on June 21st 1885.

He was a Republican and he served one term in the Oregon State senate during two regular sessions and one special session. According to the book on Oregon Pioneers, Campbell was strong for the Union and was the first man to raise the flag in Lane County after the war. This may just have been a Southern family trying to whitewash themselves. The information in this book came from family members over 15 years after Campbell's death, so they may have been wrong about the two eldest children being born in Virginia, but I am pretty sure that Mary Jane was still alive at the time and her husband John Walker is in the same book.