|Mrs. Campbell was a distinguished representative of the female actors
in the Revolutionary drama in the section of country where she lived.
Prominent in position and character, her influence was decided; and
in the extraordinary trials through which she was called to pass, her
firmness and fortitude, her intrepid bearing under sufferings that
would have crushed an inferior nature, her energy, constancy, and
disinterested patriotism--render her example a bright and useful one,
and entitle her to a conspicuous place among those to whom her country
pays the willing tribute of honor and gratitude.
Jane Cannon was born on the first day of January, 1743, in the county
of Antrim, Ireland, almost within hearing of the ocean as it beat around
the Giant's Causeway. Her early years were spent upon this coast; and it
was perhaps her familiarity with nature in the wild and sublime scenery
of this romantic region, that nourished the spirit of independence, and
the strength of character, so strikingly displayed by her in after life,
amid far distant scenes. The permanency of the impressions received in
childhood is shown by her frequent recurrence, towards the close of a
protracted life, to these juvenile associations, to her school and her
youthful companions, and the customs and manners of that day. At the
age of ten she left Ireland with her family, her father--Captain Matthew
Cannon, who was a sea-faring man, having determined to emigrate to the
North American Colonies. His first settlement was at New Castle in the
present State of Delaware, where he remained for ten or eleven years
engaged in agricultural pursuits. He then, with his family, penetrated
the wilderness to the central part of the State of New York, and fixed
his home in the extreme frontier settlement, within the limits of the
present county of Otsego, and about seven miles from the village of
Cherry Valley. A year after the removal of the family to this new abode,
Jane Cannon was married to Samuel Campbell, a son of one of the first
settlers of Cherry Valley, a young man twenty-five years of age, and
already distinguished for his energy of character and bold spirit of
enterprise. At the very commencement of the Revolutionary war, the
father and the husband of Mrs. Campbell embraced the quarrel of the
Colonies with great ardor. They were both on the committee of safety;
both at an early period, pledged themselves to the achievement of
national independence, and in the long and bloody warfare on the
frontier, both were actively engaged. Both also lost every thing, save
life and honor--in the contest. Mr. Campbell was early chosen to the
command of the militia in that region; and at the genial request
converted his own house into a garrison, where for two years--and until
a fort was erected in the settlement, the inhabitants of that exposed
frontier were gathered for protection. In all his patriotic efforts,
he not only had the sympathy of his wife, but found her a zealous and
efficient co-operator. Her feelings were ardently enlisted in behalf of
her adopted Country, and she was ready to give her own exertions to
the cause, as well as to urge forward those who had risen against the
oppressor.
In August, 1777, Colonel Campbell, with his regiment, was engaged in
the disastrous battle of Oriskany, the bloodiest, in proportion to the
number engaged, of any of the battles of the Revolution. His brother
was killed by his side; and he himself narrowly escaped. In the July
following, occurred the massacre at Wyoming; and in November, 1778,
a part of the same force, composed principally of Indians and tories,
invaded and utterly destroyed the settlement at Cherry Valley. The
dreadful tragedy here enacted, says Dunlap, "next to the destruction of
Wyoming, stands out in history as conspicuous for atrocity." The horrors
of the massacre, and the flight, indeed likened the scene to that=
``"Whose baptism was the weight of blood that flows
```From kindred hearts."=