Hugh Cameron was born in Perth, New York, Oct. 20, 1826. He came to Kansas in July, 1854 with the first Emigrant Aid Company group. He was a sort of free-lancer, criticizing outrages committed by members of either the free state or pro-slavery people.

Gov. Reeder appointed him a judge at the first territorial election. He made a report that gave the Governor valid grounds on which to declare the election void. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace by Gov. Shannon (a pro-slavery governor) and issued a warrant for the arrest of Jacob Branson for which Cameron became very unpopular with the free state men.

He was always a man of decided, bold and aggressive opinions and almost always with the minority politically. He volunteered, was mustered in as a private soldier and ordered on the recruiting service by Col. R.B. Mitchell. He served about two years in the second Kansas Cavalry as First Lieutenant and Captain.

Those in Lawrence who remember Hugh Cameron picture him as a recluse and odd, but Elise Isely remembers him as a unscrupulous and hard officer as she tells us in her book entitled Sunbonnet Days. Mrs. Elise Dubach Isely gives us this story of her husband's experiences with Cameron as well as tales told to her from her son Bliss.

"Unable to recruit a company in Lawrence, Cameron opened a recruiting office in St. Joseph. In talking to prospective recruits, Cameron assured them that officers would be elected after the company had been recruited to full strength. He held out to each man the probability that he would be an officer and possibly a Captain. The Captain, however, already had his commission; and when the recruits reported for duty at Fort Leavenworth, instead of being called to nominate officers, they were curtly ordered to fall in. After they had formed ranks, Cameron read sections of the military law dealing with insubordination, the extreme penalty of which was death.

Naturally, the men were bitterly resentful and hostile. The Captain responded to this feeling by administering the discipline with vigor. Frequently, he ordered that men be cruelly punished for minor offenses. He seemed to delight in ordering men to be hung up by their thumbs until their toes partly rested on the floor."

Cameron walked to Washington twice to attend the inauguration of two presidents.

This photograph of Gen. Cameron was taken and tinted by J.L Morris for an organization and when that organization disbanded, Mrs. L. B. Read secured it for Spencer Research Library in 1933.

The picture of Hugh Cameron with his hair cut was given to the library by Mrs. George Leis in 1935, Mr. Cameron having given the picture to her.