Hugh Cameron, born near Saratoga Springs, New York on October 28, 1826, was the third son of six boys and two girls. Much of his early years were devoted to helping his father on the farm. Therefore, his formal education did not begin until he was 18. He taught himself reading, writing and mathematics and soon was able to attend a Normal School where he trained as a teacher.

In 1849 Cameron moved to Washington, D.C. to take a position as instructor of mathematics at Whittenhouse Academy. He taught at the Academy for three years, but was discharged because he had befriended a man who was in favor of slavery. Shortly after being dismissed from his teaching job, Cameron was appointed by William L. Chaplain to a clerkship in the Treasury Department. He held this position for several months, but health problems forced him to resign.

Next Cameron obtained a position with Harpers Monthly Magazine. He worked for the magazine only a short time when poor health again forced him to leave Harpers. At this point Hugh decided to heed Greeley's words, and go west. At this time he tried to join the emigrants from New England under Eli Thayer. Failing this he started for Kansas alone. Reaching Kansas City and not finding it to his liking, he moved on to the present site of Lawrence. On July 1854 he took out a claim on the bluffs and named it Camp Ben Harrison. Within three years Cameron had a successful ferryboat operation across the Kansas River just above Lawrence. His business soon grew into an extensive freighting business. He made trips to Denver and other distant places with his 10 wagons and 60 yoke of oxen. Cameron became a wealthy man. However, old problems revisited Hugh. Cameron again fell ill and could not take care of his booming business. Secondly, the free state pro-slavery troubles in the Kansas Territory angered him. He did not agree with either side. Because of his political beliefs, he was harassed by both sides and was in constant danger. Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder appointed him a judge at the territorial elections. Cameron’s only major action as justice of the peace was to issue a warrent for the arrest of Jacob Branson, a free state outlaw. A mob led by free state leaders James Lane and Charles Robinson forcibly released Branson and demanded that Cameron resign. Hugh refused to comply and a mob promptly seized him. While most of the mob was drunk, Cameron was able to escape.

With the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 Cameron enlisted with the Kansas Volunteers. After two years of service he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and given the command of the Second Arkansas Cavalry. By war’s end in 1865, President Andrew Johnson had brevetted Cameron Brigadier General for his contributions to the War in the West.

Cameron remained in Washington D.C. and politically active through the 1870s. He became disillusioned with Washington life and decided to return to Camp Ben Harrison.

From this time on Cameron became reclusive and was known as the “Kansas Hermit.” His only contact with politics was when the walked from Lawrence to Washington for the inaugurals of Zachary Taylor and William McKinley. Hugh lived in Lawrence for the rest of his life. His residence was not like most of the population of Lawrence. His home was a tree house located near Massachusetts Street overlooking a ravine. During the winter he would move to a small cabin built on his property.

Cameron became a strong advocate of woman’s suffrage and prohibition. In 1887, Francis Willard, an early suffragist, suggested that Cameron not cut his hair until women had equal rights. He accepted her challenge and for the rest of his life he refused to cut his hair. When his beard was loosened, it reached to the ground.

On Sunday, December 13, 1909, Hugh Cameron died at his Lawrence tree house. For decades he chose the solitary life. Many who knew him wondered why he had chosen this life. A possible answer was given in the Lawrence Journal-World on July 29, 1909.

“Last week some boys of the town attracted by the tales they had heard of the recluse to the spot where he had passed his last years, found hidden in the wall of the cave he had occupied a small bundle of letters. The writing was in the general’s hand. … They supplied the missing chapter in the story of the writer’s life, a story that Lawrence read and sighed over. The letters were written during the years 1864 and 1865 from the field where Cameron was serving as a captain in the Second Arkansas… and addressed to Mary Phelps…. Captain Cameron loved and lost. The letters, which evidently are only a part of the correspondence that passed between the couple, leave much unexplained. Although the earliest date they bear is February 1864, it is plain that the captain had fallen a victim to the Missouri belle’s charms some time before. . . When and for what reason the relationship between the two was broken off. . . All that is plain is that the captain’s love did not prosper and that his missives were returned to him.”

Whether this lost love caused Hugh to retreat to life at Camp Ben Harrison will never be known for sure. All traces of the Kansas Hermit and his camp are gone, but this rich and unusual character will long be remembered.