Too many people doing genealogy research want easy answers. In making this memorial, an 1878 date of death is a GUESS -- specific burial records have not been found; cemetery location and grave marker is also a GUESS -- Elon's son, George Washington Meletheal Campbell, his wife and two sons are buried at Mt. Olivet, and Elon and his family were living in that general area of Louisiana, so the marker pictured here, that is in the same row as the other Cambells, could be where Elon was buried. DON'T LIST IT AS FACT. The 1870 Louisiana census, DeSoto Parish, Ward 8, lists Elon's family. Then, Elon's wife Mary was living in Jefferson Township, Jackson County, Arkansas in the 1880 census, listed as widowed. The 1880 census in Mississippi seems to indicate Sarah, at 60 years old, living withe her 31-year-old widowed son Richard. There is some uncertainty regarding Elon Campbell who was married to Mary -- in that the records are not absolute that this is the same person who was also married to Sarah in Mississippi. Several Campbell descendants have documented this as true but absolute records do not explain the overlap of Campbell children in Mississippi by Sarah and the start of the family of Elon and Mary Strickland.

Elon's parents were Charles C. Campbell and Selah Carter. Elon (sometimes E.A. and sometimes listed as Elam, Eldon or Elias) married Sarah Jane Dunn June 18, 1837 in Franklin Co., MS. She was born 1814 in White Apple Community, Franklin County, MS, and died in White Apple Community, Franklin Co, MS. Elon married Mary Strickland in Sabine Parish, Louisiana June 14, 1846, but then he and Mary went to the Palestine, Texas area to claim 1/3 of a land inheritance. The 1850 Anderson Co., TX Census, Vol. 1, pg. 6, #68 shows Campbell, Elam A.: age 36, male, born in MS, Mary: age 17, female, born in LA, no schooling, Muhuldy J.: age 2 mos, female, born in Anderson Co., TX

The book "Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas, 1838-1839" by Stephen L. Moore tells of the Campbell Massacre, January 23, 1839 near present-day Palestine, TX. Elon's father Charles had died weeks earlier, and Indians attacked and killed the widow, Selah, and all but two of the children living there, son, Malathiel, about 20, Hulda, 14, Fountain, about 10 or 12. Pamelia, 17, and George, aged 4 escaped. This story had also been documented in the thesis of Edna McDonald Wylie, "presented to the Faculty of Sam Houston State Teachers College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree, Master of Arts" in August, 1958, entitled: THE FORT HOUSTON SETTLEMENT.