Third Son: Life with Horses and A Family

Carlyle Renner Campbell was born in Syracuse, N.Y. on January 22, 1903. The youngest child of David and Annie Campbell, he was the only one of their four children that stayed in Syracuse for his entire life. He spent his early years on the Thornden estate. There he was first involved with horses which were then, the main source of transportation. He learned to handle horses – grooming, harnessing, saddling, driving and riding. This had a major impact on his life and he was one of the best horsemen of his time in Syracuse.

As near as can be determined, Carlyle's family left Syracuse for the farm in Warners around 1922 0r 1923.  As stated earlier, the family initially used the house closest to the railroad tracks  In our family album, there is a picture of Carlyle sitting on a hammock on a porch of that house and would appears to be about nine or ten years old. But since he attended Central High School in Syracuse, the assumption is the family used the houses in Warners as perhaps a week-end or summer place.

He would have been out of high school in 1921. At that time, he was offered the opportunity to go to college, like his sister and brothers, or to join his father in the thriving landscape business. He chose to be a partner with his father. It is assumed that he had grown up learning landscaping from his father. He did spend time at Cornell University taking several courses in the landscaping field.

In the early 1920's, he joined Troop K of the 121st Cavalry of the New York State Guard. Troop K. In addition to being a reserve training unit during peacetime, it was also, was a mounted unit with members on horseback. At that time, horses were still in used in wartime. The troop owned a large number of horses and there was training at least one night each week during the year. In the winter months, the horses were stabled in Syracuse in the Armory in downtown Syracuse. The armory contained two troops, Troop D in the front of the Armory and Troop K in the rear. Riding was done in the coliseum assigned to Troop K.

In the summer time, the horses were ridden from the city east to a farm on Troop K Road near the village of Manlius and were there during the good weather months. The horses were usually taken out in May and brought back in September. Riding during the summer for training, was longer and involved miles as well as hills. As well, in summer, the troop members spent two weeks in Camp Drum, a training camp just north of Watertown, N.Y. Here they worked on field maneuvers that would prepare them for wartime.

Once each year, in the Armory, the troop would put on a show of horsemanship at the Armory which was open to family members and friends. The Troop also held horseback riding lessons on Saturday morning during the winter months for the children of Troop members. For the writer's Christmas present one year was a gift of lessons on riding.

In 1928, a new teacher for English and Latin, was hired at Warners High School. Her name was Marion Elizabeth Rapp and she was a graduate of Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y. and a resident of Rochester, N.Y. Her father, Frederick Rapp, was a prominent architect in Rochester. Her mother was Nina Rapp, nee Hurlbut. The Rapps had two daughters, Clara and Marion. Clara Rapp married an architect, Frank Kinney, and they had two children, Richard and Barbara. Richard (Dick), after serving in the Second World War, completed college and stayed in Rochester with his wife and two children. He passed away at the age of 40. It is noted that our mother's side of the family died at relatively young ages.

 Marion, as a single woman in Warners, N.Y. (a very small village) soon met Carlyle and they were married in 1931. A son was born on September 17th1932 and was named, from his two grandfathers, Frederick David Campbell.  At that time, the Depression was at its peak and the nursery business declined as incomes faltered.  Carlyle and Marion took up residence in Syracuse, eventually renting a house on West Pleasant Avenue on the south side of that city. In Syracuse they joined Plymouth Congregational Church. Carlyle, for a time, was the treasurer for the church and Marion sang in the choir and on Christmas Eve, at the church, played Christmas hymnals and carols on her violin.

In 1938, a second son was born and named Douglas Carlyle Campbell.  A sister arrived two years later and was named Kathryn Jean Campbell.  In 1940, with business somewhat improved, Carlyle and Marion built a home in Warners, next to the nursery. An acre of land was purchased from his father and a Cape Cod house was erected. In 1942, the Second World War changed plans for most Americans.  Troop K was mobilized. Carlyle was exempted because of the nursery business which he was now operating after his father's retirement. But war time gas rationing limited the ability to operate the delivery truck. So Carlyle took a job at a war plant in Baldwinsville for the duration.

In 1946, with the war ended, Carlyle, with his wide experience in the nursery business and   knowledge of landscape architecture, accepted a position in Syracuse as the Superintendent of Woodlawn Cemetery where he would remain until his death in 1968. There, he oversaw the operation of the cemetery, which included the grounds maintenance as well as lot sales and burials. . He was instrumental in establishing the use of "perpetual care" for the maintenance cost of all burial plots.

The position included a house located just inside the southwest cemetery gate. The family, now five strong, moved back to Syracuse. Each family member would live there until marriage or death. Sadly, in the late spring of 1947, Marion Campbell died from nephritis.

So Carlyle was left to raise three children and oversee the cemetery operation. During his time as Superintendent, he was involved in the state-wide cemetery organization that dealt with common cemetery problems and state laws. He was president of the organization one year. At the same time, he was member of the Rotary Club, an organization of business men that met weekly for lunch and a speaker. He also joined the Scottish order of Clan Douglas which was a club for those of Scottish decent. A cousin, Alexander (Sandy) Bannerman, born in Scotland, now lived in Syracuse in his waning years at the YMCA and it was he that interested Carlyle in joining Clan Douglas. A machinist by training, Sandy, never married, saw a lot of the United States and  spent time in Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890's.

During those subsequent years, Carlyle sold the house that he had built in Warners and bought a summer home on Tully Lake which lies west and somewhat south of the village of Tully seventeen mile due south of Syracuse.

In 1957, having been a widower for ten years, and finding that the elimination of one son from the household would free up space, he married Nora Jaquin, an Irish Catholic widow of many years She had one son, Donald Jaquin who attended St. Anthony's  High School and Lemoyne College. They had eleven good years together but Carlyle died in 1968 from a type of pneumonia.

Carlyle and Marion are buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Section 50, lot 1. 

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