Cyrus Maxwell Campbell

The plaque puts Cyrus Campbell in Company F of the Sixteenth Texas Infantry, and the Handbook of Texas traces that regiment. Col. George Flournoy, Texas attorney general at secession and an author of the state's declaration of causes, organized it at Camp Groce in March 1862. It served west of the Mississippi: Little Rock, Milliken's Bend, Opelousas, then Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry in the 1864 Red River campaign. The men unofficially disbanded at Hempstead on April 30, 1865.

What the plaque says

Cyrus Maxwell Campbell (September 14, 1839 - January 27, 1921) Born to Cyrus C. Campbell (1810-1883) and Rebecca Elizabeth Robbins (1818-1846), Cyrus Maxwell Campbell was raised near Travis (Austin County). At the age of 21, he enlisted in the Confederate army at the beginning of the Civil War, serving in the Lone Star Rifles and later Company F, 16th Texas Infantry Regiment, where he achieved the rank of captain. Following the war, Campbell's father gave him a 100-acre tract in Washington County, which Cyrus began improving with the aid of Freedmen. On December 29, 1867, he married Lydia Ann "Annie" Dever (1845-1912), and they raised cattle and hogs on their farm. Campbell dabbled in politics and was a partner in a mercantile business but, by 1883, he sold his holdings and settled in Belton with his wife and children with intentions of launching a lumber business, C.M. Campbell & Sons Lumber. By 1888, Campbell, with partner Irwin A. Lovitt (1854-1920), opened Campbell & Lovitt Lumber in Temple. The Belton and Temple stores prospered, and Campbell expanded to Killeen, San Antonio and other locations. In 1896, Campbell moved his family to Temple and built a stately home on North Main Street. His sons later managed several of the family lumber yards. The Campbells' lumber enterprises flourished, spurred by the county's remarkable growth and the subsequent need for lumber. However, by the 1930s, amid the Depression, the company closed. Cyrus Campbell was among a group of entrepreneurs who assisted the growth and development of Bell County, transforming it from tent cities to permanent communities. (2018)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 1.4 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 17 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Claudia Potter, M.D. — steps away
• City Federation of Women's Clubs — 0.5 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Temple — 0.9 mi
• Cultural Activities Center — 0.9 mi