Campbell Hardware Store, Lebanon, Virginia

The earliest evidence of Campbell's being involved in the mercantile business (as opposed to farming) is the following advertisement in the Lebanon News of 1903.

 

Here's more information. 

Joel R. Campbell was the father of William Elbert Campbell, and James Vincent and William Harvey Campbell were their cousins. William Elbert and James Vincent Campbell are my great-grandfathers.

34 Year later, in 1937, William Bertron Campbell, the son of William Elbert Campbell, opens a store at Meadowview, Washington County.

 

In 1939, W. B. Campbell was advertising Rams for sale.

 

In 1941 there appeared this advertisement.

 

In 1954 William B. Campbell's son Joe traveled to the Netherlands as part of a Farm Exchange program. The Virginia Cooperative Extension came to Russell County to take pictures. Virginia Tech has the original images. Below are three pictures taken at the same time, although possibly not by the Cooperative Extension.

William Bertron Campbell in front of Campbell Hardware Store, 1954. Note the phone number - "8"!

The store with William B. Campbell, Doris Bundy, Daisy Campbell, and Bill Campbell in front. The name on the brick top says Lebanon HDWE and Feed Co and the windows have the later name of Campbell Hardware and Furniture. The area to the left is the hardware section and the area on the right was all furniture. The basement had larger tools and replacement parts like plow blades. Behind and on the other side of the street, was a warehouse. To the right of this warehouse, another cinder block building was build to hold feed and seed. The upper floor of the building had apartments and housed the County Extension Service.

Billy and Joe Campbell in family store. Taken in 1954 for Joe’s IFYE trip to the Netherlands. IFYE is International Farm Youth Exchange.