CAMPBELL, Alexander, known as the founder of the Disciples of Christ or '
In March 1811, at West Liberty, Va., he married Miss Margaret Brown of Buffalo Creek, Brooke County, Va., and thereafter re sided at the home of his father-in-law, from whom he later (1814) received a deed for the home property. Immediately following his marriage he took steps to become naturalized. In the same year he was licensed to preach, and began near home a series of preaching tours. In 1812, after following his father in a movement to reunite different religious denomi nations, he took the lead in organizing the Disciples of Christ (q.v.), based on the doc trine that the Bible should be the only creed. Through his preaching tours, which in later years were gradually extended throughout the South and Middle West and eastward to Mas sachusetts Bay, he became widely known. He also won a wide reputation through his pub lic debates with prominent Presbyterian min isters in 1820-23, and later through more fa mous debates with Robert Owen in 1829 and Archbishop Purcell in 1837. In 1818-19 he es
tablished Buffalo Seminary and sent for his father to assist in the work of instruction; and in 1823 he established the Christian Baptist, which in 1829 became the Millennial Har binger and continued under his editorship until 1865. In 1827, finding it inconvenient to mail his letters and publications at West Liberty, he succeeded in establishing at his residence at Buffalo a post-office under the name of Bethany, which also became the name of the town later laid out by him (1847). He thus obtained the franking privilege which enabled him greatly to extend his correspondence. In 1829-30 he represented Brooke County in the Virginia Con stitutional Convention. In the debates he took an active part in urging a system of free popu lar education and a more equitable representa tion of the western counties in the legislature. In 1840 beginning with an endowment from his own means, he founded Bethany College, which was opened in 1841, and he remained president of the institution until his death. In 1847 he visited England, France, Scotland and Ireland. In 1850 by invitation, in connection with one of his eastern trips, he made an address in the House of Representatives at Washington.
Campbell was a prolific writer and continued to write and preach until 1865. He published many religious volumes, including hymnbooks and a translation of the New Testament. In 1861 he published the 'Memoirs of Thomas Campbell,' his father and associate, who died at Bethany on 4 Jan. 1854.