Indiana for heavy timbers for sills and frame, and in 1863 he completed his three story hostelry and depot, the finest in any of the new towns. He then leased the hotel section to his sister Mary's husband, Smith Johnston, and next secured permission to move the depot to the new location, where he continued as agent for both roads for a time. The next year on November 6 he married Frances Gertrude Henry of El Paso, and they established residence in the hotel as had the Johnstons.2

For years the hotel was listed as an excellent place to stop overnight, and the dining room became noted for the fine meals served to hotel guests, local citizens and the passengers from the trains. Dining cars were not regularly in use, and the trains stopped long enough for those wishing meals to be served at the Campbell House. The

The Campbell House just prior to the 1895 additions.
 
 

hand bell announcements of dinner now being served, or the call that the northbound passenger was arriving, are within the memory of several old timers still around El Paso. Col. Virgil C. Gordon, general chairman of the 1954 centennial celebration, owns the Campbell House hand bell as his prize relic.

Mr. Campbell took over the hotel management from his brother-in-law in 1870, a few months after the death of his sister, Mary Johnston. No record of the guests of those days now exists, but on January 12, 1869 one of Mr. Johnston's overnight guests was a young and unknown

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