For the Campbells, the Bradford oil refinery – at its Kendall
Avenue location as well as its properties elsewhere – is all in the
family.

At least one member of the extended Campbell family has worked
for the company and has been on its payroll – through its days as
Kendall, Witco and American Refining Group – for a total of 86
years, from Harry B Campbell to current ARG packaging department
employee Joel Campbell.

“It must be a good company,” Janet Hanson of Derrick Road said
with a chuckle. “There is a big sense of family at the
company.”

That same refinery will celebrate its 125th anniversary during
ceremonies slated for Thursday through Saturday. Founded in 1881,
it is the country’s oldest continuously operating refinery and one
of the oldest processing crude oil in the world.

Hanson, who is a daughter of Garney Campbell, a current resident
of The Pavilion at BRMC, and the sister of Joel Campbell, said her
father went to work for Kendall in 1941 as a roustabout, tractor
driver and pumper, among other duties.

Conversely, Garney’s late father, Harry B Campbell (like former
President Harry S Truman, there is no period after the initial) was
hired in May of 1920 in the production department as an assistant
to foreman Frank Harten. When Harten left the company, Harry became
foreman until 1929, when he was injured while walking away from a
drilling rig.

He was sent to Philadelphia, where blood vessels were restored
and a knee restructured. He returned to work as a pumper about 18
months after the surgery. Later, he was the custodian of the water
pressure plant at Bells Camp before retiring in 1952. Harry later
died in 1965.

“At that time, they had to be the biggest paying jobs in the
area,” Hanson said.

Shortly after he had become a foreman, Harry B needed a
teamster. He chose his father-in-law, Frank Russell, his first
relative to be placed on the Kendall payroll.

It wouldn’t be long before another relative joined the Kendall
ranks – Harry’s oldest son, Harry B Campbell Jr.

While still a student at Bradford Area High School, he was
employed by Cornell Pfohl, a surveyor and manager of the production
department, to help him survey Kendall-owned properties, only
working on Saturdays. After graduating, Harry B Campbell Jr. worked
full-time at Bells Camp, working himself up to foreman of the Bells
Camp properties.

Also working at Bells Camp was Alick Delaney, the husband of
Harry B’s eldest daughter, Nellie. He was employed as a roustabout
there. After a couple of years, Alick left to work for his
brother-in-law in Aiken.

From there, Alick was asked to rejoin Kendall as a pumper at
Stateline when the company started to develop a lease. He did so
after superintendent Bill Giebel and assistant superintendent
Gordon James agreed to build him a home on the lease. Alick
returned in 1929 and remained there until his death in 1965.

A fourth relative to work for Kendall was Harry B’s son, Bruce.
He was a roustabout until going to war; he became a mechanic in the
machine shop at Bells Camp on his return, retiring in 1976. There
was also Albert Campbell, known as Pete, who worked in the
production department at Bells Camp.

“From my grandfather to my grandmother’s father, they were all
Kendall people right down to the sons and sons-in-laws,” Hanson
said.

According to Hanson, her father Garney would often take her back
to the powerhouse during the day, where she would fall asleep on a
bench.

“It was always nice,” Hanson said. “Our neighbors also worked in
the oil fields. Lots of women and children packed lunches and went
to the powerhouse or wherever their man was working and would have
a picnic lunch. Children would play on the rod lines and we got
crude oil in our hair.

“They always said my dad was the best tractor driver they
had.”

Garney later went to Ohio when Witco took over the operations of
the refinery and its properties.

Meanwhile, Joel Campbell joined the company in 1959 at the
packaging plant at the main refinery on North Kendall Avenue; he
was later transferred to the new plant at Foster Brook.

According to Hanson, Joel had retired from the company, only to
return to work after his wife passed away. Another of Garney’s
sons, Randy, worked in the drilling department.

Others, including Harry B’s youngest son, Cornell (Sam) also
worked in the packaging plant on Kendall Avenue for a short period
of time. Harry B Sr.’s son-in-law, Bob Wilber, the husband of
Harry’s youngest daughter, Elayne, also worked briefly in the
refinery workforce.

Hanson admitted she was nervous about the prospects of the
company staying in Bradford during Witco’s sale of the Kendall name
to Sun Oil and before the eventual sale of the Bradford refinery to
ARG in 1997.

“I was nervous about it, not only from a personal point of view,
but also what it would do to our city,” Hanson said, noting she and
her husband will be taking part in some of the ARG festivities this
weekend.

“Anytime you go away, when you are from a family of Kendall
people, you come back to town and roll your windows down and wait
for the smell of that crude oil. Then you know you’re home.”