HISTORY AT A GLANCE

John Campbell was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, in 1830. As a young man he was working as a mate on a sailing ship when he met and became engaged to Mary Duncan, an Edinburgh lass living in Australia.

In 1859, he arrived in San Francisco and traveled north until he reached the head of Little Skookum Inlet, near Kamilche, where he settled. Mary Duncan arrived in Olympia in 1860, "with trunks of finery," and the two were married May 12. Between 1869 and 1880, John Campbell kept a diary about his life in Mason County. This story is from excerpts of the diaries that were published in The Seattl...