Vine St. (4th &
5th--one house now--from SW Corner Upper, Lexington,
Fayette County, Kentucky
Built before 181?
Source: Old Houses of Lexington, C. Frank Dunn, typescript, n.d., copy located in the Kentucky Room, Lexington (Kentucky) Public Library.
"I give to my son, Arthur Campbell, the Brick House and lot whereon he now lives on Water St., 22 1/2 feet front, with half the alley between the two houses...I give my step-son, John Brumfield, one Brick House and lot on Water St. adjoining and between the House and lot I have given to my son, Arthur Campbell, and the lot belonging to the Thomas estate, being 22 1/2 feet on Water St. besides one-half the alley between the two houses," read the will of Robert Campbell, made in 1811. The will was witnessed by John Carty, who also had a potter's shop--across the street.
The two houses stand here today (as one), more than a century and a quarter later. Robert Campbell, in giving the house to Brumfield (which later went to Rachel Ryman), said he owed Brumfield $600 with interest, and "in case the said House should be consumed by fire" (which it has escaped ever since!) Brumfield was to be paid the $600 and interest out of Campbell's estate.
Robert Campbell also willed a lot fronting 85 feet on Water adjoining this house on the east, also Outlot No. 74 and a horse "or the value thereof to the amount of $100 to his son, Arthur, the latter "to pay for a horse which I received of him when I returned from Philadelphia; and to his son, James, 64 feet on High St. "whereon the Potter's shop now stands" (south-west corner of High and Upper Sts., now a new apartment house) "adjoining a new street lately opened" (Upper St.) "from High St. at the corner of Campbell's Pottery and Bodley's new house (May 1, 1804, deed) and next to "the lot upon which the German Lutheran Church hath been erected," also Outlots No. 72 and 73, which he bought in 1791 from the Town Trustees.
To his "beloved wife, Elizabeth Campbell," he gave "the southwest end of the two lots on High St. where I now live, Nos. 58 and 59" (back of the Water St. property--Campbell lived in a log house, torn down not so many years ago, next to the James Harrison House in these tours), five acres "on the Upper end of Main St., purchased of John Maxwell," and 12 acres of Woodland. He made other bequests of property to his sons, Arthur and James; gave each member of the family a slave (one "negro man, Frederick," was freed), and made a complimentary bequest to his brother, Arthur Campbell.
Robert Campbell had purchased two lots of 66 feet each, extending from High to Water Sts., from the Town Trustees in February, 1791.
The 1818 Directory lists "Mrs. Arthur Campbell, Boarding House, Water St."--everyone seemed to run a boarding house in those days--and deeds to adjoining property for many years proudly referred to the fact that it flanked the "lot whereon Dr. Arthur Campbell resides." Dr. Campbell was a son-in-law of the famous inventor, Edward West.
James Campbell and wife, Polly, sold their half (42 1/2 feet) of the Robert Campbell lot next east to this house, and Arthur Campbell and wife, Catherine B., conveyed the 85 feet in deeds of one-half each to John Lockwood and George W. Morton--the latter being next to the "Brick House at present occupied by Campbell" (September 1815).
In July, 1816, Dr. Campbell's house was sold as the result of a suit, and was purchased by William Bowman. Bowman and wife, Nancy, immediately deeded it to Mrs. Catherine Campbell, "wife of Doctor Campbell," he making Edward West, the famous steamboat inventor, her trustee (her father). The house was described as being "situated on Water St., fronting the new Market House" and between the lots of George W. Morton and the heirs of Robert Campbell.
In 1839, Wm. G. Campbell and wife, Mary D., of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Norville W. Campbell, of New Orleans, La., sold the 24 feet on Water St. "opposite the upper Market House, where Doct. Arthur Campbell and after him Mrs. Catherine Campbell, the parents of the first parties formerly resided and where David Tingle now resides," (1838 Directory: David Tingle, 10 E. Water St.), to Wm. Van Pelt, Jr. (1838 Directory: Wm. Van Pelt, Jr., Grocery, 8 E. Water St.--the other half of the house here).
Wm. Van Pelt and his wife, Anna, after occupying the house for 50 years, sold it in 1888 to M.P. Robinson and J.J. Sullivan.
The west half of the house--willed to his step-son Brumfield, by Robert Campbell--first showed up again in the will of Campbell's step-daughter, Rachel Ryman, made July 6, 1854. Mrs. Ryman willed to her son, Robert Ryman, "my house and lot on Water St. and the balance of her estate to her other children, Betsy Young, John Ryman, Joseph Ryman and Jacob Ryman.
Robert Ryman's heirs sold the house (24 1/2 feet) in 1894 to William Martin who had bought up the row of buildings from there to the corner.
(The following obituary appeared in the local press in January 1812: "Robert Campbell, of Lexington, a native of Ireland and soldier in the American Revolution" died January 9, 1812).
Transcribed by pb April 2003