Background
Johnson Newlon Camden was born on March 6, 1828 at the Collins Settlement, Virginia, United States; the eldest of the eight children of John Scribner Camden and Nancy (Newlon) Camden.
Businessman politician senator
Johnson Newlon Camden was born on March 6, 1828 at the Collins Settlement, Virginia, United States; the eldest of the eight children of John Scribner Camden and Nancy (Newlon) Camden.
Early in 1838 he moved with his father to the neighboring Braxton County, where as a boy he obtained a thorough knowledge of woodcraft and some insight into mineral resources. His basic training for business was obtained from a brief experience as assistant to the county clerk at Weston (1842 - 43), two years of study at the Northwestern Academy at Clarksburg (1843 - 45), a year of service as deputyclerk of the circuit court of Braxton County (1845 - 46), and a period of study as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point (1846 - 48). Resigning from West Point to study law, he was admitted to the bar in 1851.
Camden was admitted to the Virginia bar and began his practice in Sutton, the Braxton County seat in 1851. Although his father continued to live in Lewis county, his brothers Edwin, William and Lorenzo had moved to Braxton County. Young Johnson N. Camden was appointed the same year as Braxton County's prosecuting attorney. In 1852 J. N. Camden won election as prosecuting attorney for Nicholas County.
In 1858, Camden moved to Parkersburg, on the Ohio River. There he began investing in land. The following year, he moved to Burning Springs, site of an oil boom. Camden became involved in oil refining, coal manufacture and sold part of his interest for $100, 000. He joined with his brother in law became a wealthy industrialist, selling their oil interests for $410, 000 in 1866, and investing the proceeds in several new industries. Camden Consolidated Oil Company was ultimately acquired by Standard Oil. J. N. Camden also consolidated several small railroads, which helped transport great quantities of coal.
Camden sympathized with the Union and did not serve in either army during the American Civil War, although C. S. A. General Stonewall Jackson had been raised nearby. His father died in Weston in 1862. His younger brother Edwin Duncan Camden became Lt. Col. of the 25th Virginia Infantry, and after capture became one of the Immortal 600 (hostages used by the Union as human shields in South Carolina a retaliation for Confederate treatment of Union prisoners of war).
Johnson Newlon Camden became president of the First National Bank of Parkersburg at its organization in 1862, and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of West Virginia in 1868 and again in 1872.
Voters finally elected Camden as a Democrat to the U. S. Senate, where he served one term, from March 4, 1881, to March 4, 1887. He then resumed the practice of law at Parkersburg. Upon the death in office of U. S. Senator John E. Kenna, Camden won the election and served the remainder of that term, from January 25, 1893, to March 3, 1895, then retired from elective politics. While in the Senate, Camden was chairman of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expense (Fifty-third Congress) and a member of the Committee on Railroads (Fifty-third Congress). He continued his former business and civic pursuits.
Camden died in Baltimore, Maryland en route back to Weston, West Virginia after visiting family. His body was returned to Parkersburg for burial in Parkersburg Memorial Gardens with his infant son, and where his widow would join him a decade later.
On June 22, 1858 in Wheeling, Johnson N. Camden married Anne Thompson (1834–1918), daughter of prominent lawyer George W. Thompson, who had become a U. S. Congressman and was then a prominent local judge. They would have children Johnson Newlon Camden Jr. (1865–1942) and Annie Camden Spilman (1862–1958), although their son George died as an infant.