In 1855 the vacancy at Peel in the Guelph District was destined to be filled by a young man not large in stature, and whose appearance was rather indicative of frailty, but who was to perform long years of service in the itinerant field with vigor and spirit.

This was Alexander R. Campbell, born at Mount Pleasant, September 12th, 1827, but left fatherless at the early age of two years.

The cruelties of a drinking stepfather led him to seek his fortune abroad at the age of fourteen. The Township of Blenheim became his residence until he commenced preaching. The heavy occupations of bush farming were his first employment.

Next, by incredible assiduity, he qualified himself for school teaching, which he followed for some years. The hardships of his youth were cheered and ameliorated by converting grace, received in a revival, conducted principally by two excellent local preachers, Messrs. Jared Kilborn and Dennis Thompson, at the age of eighteen.

This brother, who says he "obtained the little knowledge he possessed under great difficulties," had the good fortune, after some years, to marry a lady of education and talent, whose conversation and suggestions, it is not likely, were of any dis-service to him.

...from the minutes of the 1855 Wesleyan Methodist Conference in Toronto C.W.