Camden, Johnson N
lawyer, legislator, United States senator, was born March 6, 1828, in Lewis county, W. Va.
He was appointed a cadet to West Point in 1846; and resigned in 1848. He was admitted to the bar in 1851; appointed prosecuting attorney for Braxton county the same year, and was elected prosecuting attorney for Nicholas county in 1852. He was engaged in the banking business from 1854 to 1858, when he entered into the development of petroleum and manufacturing interests at Parkersburg; and was made president of the First National bank of that city in 1862. He was the nominee of the democratic party for governor in 1868 and again in 1872; and was a delegate to the democratic national convention of 1868, 1872 and 1876. He was elected to the United States senate, and took his seat March 4, 1881, and served till March 3, 1887; and was in the United States senate in 1893-95, to fill a vacancy.
He was instrumental in organizing the Ohio River Railroad company and building a road on the east bank of the Ohio river from Wheeling, by way of Parkersburg, to Huntington, and later he organized and built the railroad from Fairmont to Clarksburg, opening up a coal field which is now marketing over a million tons of coal and coke annually. He is president of the Monongahela River road, and the West Virginia and Pittsburg road; and is also the president of other railroads and business enterprises.