Colin Campbell was born June 22, 1811 in Glasgow, Scotland to John Campbell and Jessie Garnock. In 1840, Caroline Linn began attending the Disciples of Christ meeting in Glasgow, where she met Colin Campbell. They married in late 1840 or early 1841. Their first child, John Milton Locke Campbell, was born December 24, 1841 in Glasgow. Colin, Caroline, and John along with Caroline’s parents, William and Jean Linn, and siblings Alexander (with his wife and children), Thomas, Robert, and Janette left Scotland and arrived in New York on August 2, 1842 on the ship Wandsworth.
In late 1842, after arriving in Detroit, the Linns and Campbells began meeting for worship at Thomas Hawley’s home in Detroit. Colin and Caroline had a daughter, Jessie Garnock Campbell, on June 24, 1844. During this time, Colin was in a business partnership with James Jack, his former roommate in Glasgow. This ended in 1847, and James Jack went into business with John Coats, the brother of James and Peter Coats who founded J & P Coats Thread Company. In 1848, Thomas Linn and Colin opened the “Campbell & Linn” Dry Goods Store (aka the “Scotch Store”) at the corner of Jefferson and Woodward Avenues. Caroline and Colin then had a son named Forrest Smith Campbell on May 14, 1849. In the 1850 U.S. census, Colin was listed as a merchant, aged 39. Caroline was 29, John was 8, Jessie was 6, and Forrest was 2. Also living with them was Caroline’s family. William Linn was 60, Jean was 57, Thomas was 26, and Janette was 18. Colin and Caroline had a daughter named Jeanie Flora was born on December 28, 1853. There was a fire in 1858 at the Scotch Store and it moved to the corner of Woodward and Congress.
from Detroit Public Library Burton Historical Collection
Apple Island
On August 27, 1856, Colin bought Apple Island, a 38-acre island in Orchard Lake, from John Coats for $3,050. From 1856 to 1939, the Campbell family and friends spent summers there, traveling from their homes in Detroit and Ohio. Colin and Caroline’s family lived in the original Greek Revival house, which was begun in 1847 and completed in 1851 by previous owners. Campbell Harvey described the main summer house as a “rambling, red-roofed, clapboard-sided, one-story structure on stone foundation… [with] a narrow porch in front, the ceiling of which was supported by four square wooden pillars.” Worship services were often held in the Campbell’s parlor and, beginning in 1874, at the Orchard Lake Chapel. Summer activities including swimming, fishing, sailing, and gardening.
Additionally, the women and girls, according to Campbell Harvey, “sat on the porch, knitted, read, or sewed.” Charles Louis Loos, father of Charles II and Louise Loos, stayed in a bedroom in the Campbell house during his summer visits. Other families built their own cottages on the island, including Colin’s daughter Jessie Harvey, his son Forrest, his granddaughter Annie Brush King, and the Loos and Mayers family. The Harvey house was built in about 1870, soon after Jessie Campbell married John Harvey in 1867. Their son Campbell Harvey described it as “a story-and-a-half white clapboard-sided structure witha wide, comfortable verandah on three sides.” The Mayers cottage belonged to Samuel Mayers and his wife Lola. They spent summers on the Island between the 1870s and 1910s. The King cottage was built around 1900 by Annie F. Brush, the child of Colin’s daughter Jeanie, and Annie’s husband Claude B. King. Annie’s grandson, Glen King, described the cottage as a two-story building with an east-facing porch, a central stairway, and Annie and Claude’s bedroom in the northeast corner. Forrest Campbell’s cottage, on the east side of the island, was two stories and a full length, east-facing porch, likely built in the 1890s. A duplex on the south end of the island was occupied by Albert Mayers and his wife Rebecca and Charles L. Loos II and his wife Mary Louise Mayers. It may have been built in the 1870s, after Charles and Mary were married. Samuel, Albert, and Mary Louise were all siblings.
Forrest and Tina sold the island to Willis Ward in 1915 and were allowed, along with Annie King, to keep their cottages. Annie died in 1931, Forrest died in 1933, and Tina died in 1939. After 1939, the buildings all began to decay and were overtaken by nature. For more information about the island, see materials created by the Greater West Bloomfield Historical Society including a wonderful video Apple Island: Then and Now, Apple Island Archaeology, and Apple Island History
Their last child Caroline Ella, nicknamed Tina, was born March 25, 1860. In 1862, Colin Campbell and others started a separate congregation on Jefferson Ave. and Beaubien Street, due to conflicts within the Howard Street congregation, especially with Campbell’s brother-in-law Alexander Linn. The two congregations reunited in 1865 briefly, but differences over issues like the use of musical instruments during worship split them again by 1867. On April 2, 1867, their daughter Jessie married John Harvey. In the 1870 U. S. Census, Colin (60) and his two sons John (26) and Forrest (21) were dry goods merchants. Caroline (49) kept house, while daughters Jeanie (16) and Caroline (10) attended school. Caroline’s mother Jean (77) was living there as well. They had 2 servants living with them named Kate Collins and Hanna Harper. Next door, Jessie and her husband John Harvey, a druggist, lived with their 1-year-old daughter Caroline. Two servants, Lizzy Codd and Anne Keller, lived with them. Also in 1870, Campbell and his brother-in-law Thomas Linn purchased the old Scotch Presbyterian Church and moved it to Washington Avenue. The Washington Avenue Christian Church congregation was located here until about 1890. (A new building, designed by W. G. Malcomson and W. E. Higginbotham, was built at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Ledyard and was called the Central Christian Church. In the 1920s, the congregation moved further up Woodward Avenue to a building built with funds from John Gray’s son, Philip H. Gray and designed by George D. Mason. In 1928, the Central Woodward Christian Church was dedicated. They moved to Troy in 1978 and sold the building to the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church.)
In 1871, Colin’s partnership with his brother-in-law Thomas Linn ended. Colin then started Campbell & Sons with John and Forrest. Colin and Caroline’s daughter Jeanie married Henry T. Brush on December 18, 1873. Their daughter Annie Frances Brush was born April 12, 1874. Campbell & Sons went out of business in August 1874. Sadly, Jeanie died of typhoid fever at the family’s house on Apple Island on September 18, 1874. After her husband Henry died in 1879, the Campbell family raised their daughter Annie.
About Henry Thomas Brush
Henry T. Brush was born August 9, 1849. He was an architect and formed a company with Hugh Smith in 1873. He designed and built the Orchard Lake Chapel, which was funded with donations from Colin and Caroline Campbell, in 1874 (perhaps how he met Jeanie). Smith and Brush split in 1875 and George D. Mason joined Brush. After Jeanie’s death, Brush married Charlotte M. Grosvenor on March 7, 1876. On August 10, 1877, a son named Frederick Farnsworth Brush was born. During this time, Brush, with Mason, designed the Ransom Gillis House. Some other buildings he designed were Central Hall at Hillsdale College, Ypsilanti High School, the Woman’s Hospital and Foundlings’ Home, and the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue. Mason left the firm in 1878, and John M. Donaldson joined Brush. Brush had suffered from depression over Jeanie’s death and his financial problems, and he shot himself on July 15, 1879. He and Jeanie were buried in Woodmere Cemetery. Three years later, Charlotte married Brush’s former partner John M. Donaldson.
In the June 1, 1880 census, Colin and Caroline lived on W. Montcalm Street with their sons John (aged 38) and Forrest (30), daughter Caroline (20), granddaughter Annie Brush (6), and a boarder, Oberlin Loos (24). Colin was a fire insurance agent. Oberlin Loos was the brother of John’s future wife, Louise Loos. John and Louise were married on August 12, 1880 in Bethany, West Virginia.
About the Loos Family
Charles Louis Loos was a frequent guest of Colin Campbell’s in the summers at Apple Island. He and Colin had met at a church convention in the late 1850s. Charles had been born in France in 1823 and had come to Ohio with his family in 1834. In 1838, he began attending a Disciples of Christ church near his home and was baptized. In 1842, he began attending Bethany College in what is now West Virginia which had been founded by Alexander Campbell. Charles taught at Bethany College and became president of Transylvania College in Kentucky. He also edited Campbell’s The Millennial Harbinger.
Charles married Rosetta Kerr in 1848. They had many children, including a daughter named Louise. As mentioned, she married Colin Campbell’s oldest son John in August 1880. They had probably met during one of those Apple Island summers. Another of Charles and Rosetta’s children, Charles Loos Jr., married Mary Louise Mayers, sister of another Apple Island visitor, Samuel Mayers.
Colin Campbell died on September 9, 1883 from a heart attack he suffered at the Sunday service at the Orchard Lake Chapel. Forrest Smith Campbell married Harriet B. Hall on October 14, 1891. Colin’s wife, Caroline Linn Campbell, died May 15, 1900. Their daughter Tina never married. She was a schoolteacher at Central High School and resigned from teaching at the same time as Rachel A. Malcomson – June 13, 1924. Tina died on October 23, 1939. Her obituary stated that “she spent her summers for 75 years in the family home on Apple Island.”
Colin and Caroline Campbell’s Grandchildren
John Milton Locke Campbell and Louise Loos – No children
Jessie Garnock Campbell and John Harvey
– Caroline Campbell – born 11/5/1868; never married, no children; died 4/21/1961
– Jessie – born 11/9/1871; never married, no children; died 5/28/1951
– John Gould – born 10/26/1875; married Evelyn Beattie, 1 daughter; died 5/24/1945
– Amelia Drummond – born 9/16/1879; married David J. Law, 2 children; died 8/1967
– Alice Garnock – born 4/14/1884; married Neil Bentley, 2 daughters; died 4/11/1981
– Campbell – born 4/28/1889; married Dorothy K. Durfee, 1 daughter; died 1978
Forrest Smith Campbell and Harriet B. Hall
– Elma Virginia- born 1/7/1893; married Henry Hart, 2 daughters; died 8/10/1925 of leukemia
– Colin – born 5/19/1895; married Margaret Lytle, 3 children; died 12/27/1974
– Douglas Hall – born 1/14/1900; married Eleonore Grindley; died 12/9/1984
– Forrest Jr. – born 6/19/1903; died 11/21/1906 of diptheria
Jeanie Flora Campbell and Henry T. Brush
– Annie Frances – born 4/12/1874; married Claude King, 3 sons; died 10/9/1931
Caroline Ella Campbell – never married, no children. Helped to raise Annie Frances.
Sources:
– Campbell, John M. L. (1890). Historical Sketch of the Central Church of Christ, Detroit, Michigan from July 1842 to Sept. 24th, 1890.
– Taylor, G. G. (1906). A History of the Plum Street Church of Christ, Detroit, Michigan.
– Wurst, LouAnn. (Approved June 5, 2018). Apple Island’s Approved application for National Register of Historic Places.
Wells & Wilson Family History 
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