Basket Maker Bios
Annie Campbell
unknown life dates
The genealogy of the Campbells and the Florences can be confusing in the diversity of their relationships, but the basics can be traced through the 1901 Census and BC Vital Events, along with some personal communications from family members. On March 14, 2003 I interviewed Sonny Campbell to fill in some of the blanks.
John Campbell (b.1892) remains a bit of a mystery. He first enters the picture as a 9-year-old in the 1901 Census, as Joe Florence’s adopted son. There is still no hard evidence to suggest who his mother was, though he is listed as the informant and brother on George Campbell’s death certificate, so he was probably the son of George’s father, William Campbell. The personal communications of Sonny Campbell and his mother Helen Campbell assured me that John was the brother of George, and that John’s mother’s name was Mariah Florence.
John married Marion Creegan, who had previously been married to his adopted brother Frank Florence. They had at least one daughter, Helen, who is the mother of Sonny Campbell. Sonny’s father is a Mussell from the Chilliwack area. His half-brother Dick Mussell is married to Sonya Stromquist, another family with Spuzzum relations.
George Campbell (1891-1939) was the son of William Campbell of Scotland and Agnes of Anderson Creek, near Boston Bar. He married Alice Jones, and they had seven children; Esther, Agnes, Wilfred, and four more children who died young. Sonny Campbell remembers George from when he was a very young child.
No one has been able to tell me anything about Annie Campbell, who made the nice little basketry frying pan. The only information given on the accession record is that it was made by Annie Campbell of North Bend, who was about 10 years old when she made it, sometime in the 1920’s. Sonny Campbell speculated that perhaps Annie was a nickname for his grandmother Maryann, but his mother does not remember such a nickname. Besides, the time frame is not right. Annie would have been born sometime after 1910, which would more likely make her fit into the generation of George Campbell’s children, or perhaps the daughter of a sibling of George’s that we don’t know about. In any case, it is a very nice artifact, especially if made by a 10-year-old girl.