The archive begins with a 1790 manuscript memorandum in which Campbell and his father, Samuel, agree with Joseph White on a two-year term of apprenticeship in which White would instruct William Campbell in the study of medicine. The records continue with receipts for Campbell’s medical practice in 1795, and continues with papers for his expanding businesses, his drug and hardware store, surveying business and making maps, legal work, money lending, land investments, as well as work involving the Western Turnpike Company.  These papers chronicle the development of this western New York village as well as Campbell’s own life and expanding business empire. The papers also include receipts and correspondence dealing with the arrival of craftsmen from Cooperstown to Cherry Valley, cabinet makers, bookbinders and booksellers, etc.

          The Campbell family were early and influential settlers of Cherry Valley. James Campbell was the first of the family to settle in the area arriving about 1740. He was the father of Samuel Campbell; William Campbell was his grandson.

          Cherry Valley was the first white settlement in Otsego County, dating from a land grant made by the authorities of New York to John Lindesay and others in 1738, the settlement was made in 1740. In 1778, during the Revolution Cherry Valley was attacked by Tories and Indians Samuel Campbell’s buildings were burned, his wife with several children were taken captive and carried to Montreal, where, after an absence of two years they were exchanged for the family of Col. John Butler.

        In 1780 the settlement was attacked again by Native Americans, eight of the remaining settlers were killed and fourteen taken captive. In 1783 General George Washington, accompanied by Governor George Clinton and others while on an extended tour through the state stopped in Cherry Valley where they were entertained at the home of Samuel Campbell.

       With the return of peace settlers returned and rebuilt the village. The township was organized in 1789. The settlement expanded and grew with the influx of western emigrants who traveled on the turnpike that passed through town. Dr. William Campbell helped it grow and prosper and prospered himself in the process.

     William Campbell born circa 1767, died October 27, 1844, was a physician, merchant, surveyor and politician from Cherry Valley, Otsego County, New York. He was the eldest son of American Revolutionary War colonel Samuel Campbell (1738-1824) and Jane Cannon Campbell (1743-1836.

     Campbell, in addition to being a physician, ran a drug and hardware store in Cherry Valley. The store was run in partnership with John Duill, until 1808, when it was carried on as a partnership known as Campbell and Dunlap. He helped lay out and survey routes for the turnpikes beginning in 1799 with the Western Turnpike that connected Cherry Valley to settlements in the east and the developing settlements to the west. He went on to serve as director of the Western Turnpike Company. Campbell also was an attorney. Campbell was also involved in the local affairs of his town, in the establishment of the Cherry Valley Academy, and as one of the Overseers of the Poor. He also served as town supervisor in the 1830s.  Campbell was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1816 and 1817 as a Federalist, and again in 1827.  Campbell was New York State Surveyor General from 1835 to 1838.