William Cameron (11 August 1829–26 October 1902), tobacco manufacturer, was born in Grantown, Inverness-shire, Scotland, the son of Alexander Cameron, a farmer and merchant, and Elizabeth Grant Cameron. His father died in April 1840, and his mother married again in 1841. That same year the family moved to Petersburg, where Cameron's mother died in January 1848. He probably received some education in Scotland and briefly attended school in Petersburg before he began working in the tobacco factory of David Dunlop (1804–1864). Cameron became a United States citizen after taking the oath of allegiance at age twenty-one. In October 1852 he married Martha Louisa Russell. Their one son died in 1859.
Cameron learned his lessons well at Dunlop's factory, and by 1858 he had opened in Petersburg with Robert Crawford a tobacco-manufacturing business styled Cameron and Crawford. On 9 November 1858 Cameron received patent number 22,014 for the first press to use hydraulic power in the manufacture of plug, or chewing, tobacco, one of the few mechanical innovations in the tobacco industry during the antebellum period. Cameron and Crawford continued operating successfully during the Civil War. In 1867 Cameron had to apply for a presidential pardon, even though he had taken no direct part in the war, because he was then worth more than $20,000.
Immediately after the war Cameron began expanding his tobacco business. In May 1865 he left Virginia on an eighteen-month trip to Europe and Australia, where he and his brothers opened factories during the 1870s in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. A younger brother, Alexander Cameron, went to Richmond and in 1866 established a factory there. The next year William Cameron brought their younger brother George Cameron into a partnership at his factory in Petersburg designated William Cameron and Brother. Cameron also turned to his two brothers-in-law to extend his production, and they opened factories in Kentucky and England during the 1860s. He used his connections to obtain a lucrative contract with the British navy after the Civil War. Each company operated independently, but they worked in concert to sell Cameron tobacco products worldwide. Their companies conducted trade throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America and were also involved in the sale and distribution of leaf tobacco. The Australian companies reportedly supplied 75 percent of the manufactured tobacco for Australia and India. The combined businesses of the Cameron brothers were among the largest operated by Americans during the late-nineteenth century. Cameron's tobacco companies alone ranked with the largest tobacco manufacturers in Petersburg. They employed hundreds in their factories and in 1880 produced more than $270,000 worth of tobacco.
By June 1886 Cameron had sold his interest to his brothers and retired from his tobacco business, possibly as a result of poor health. In July 1887 he formed a new partnership with William J. Young, the former manager of the Camerons' Australian factories, to create Cameron and Company. This new venture proved unsuccessful, and in September 1892 Cameron and Company was dissolved. In the meantime, in October 1890 Cameron and his brother George Cameron founded Cameron Tobacco Company in Petersburg, which operated for several years.
Cameron entered local politics. While serving on the Petersburg common council as a Democrat from 1888 to 1892, he chaired the Committee on Gas and Light. In October 1892 he resigned from the council and moved to Washington, D.C. While visiting his summer home in Wytheville with his wife, William Cameron died of heart failure on 26 October 1902. He was buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg.
Sources Consulted:
Birth and death dates in Cameron family Bible record, Accession 25020, Library of Virginia; tombstone inscription gives variant dates of 14 Aug. 1829 and 27 Oct. 1902; Edward A. Wyatt, "Rise of Industry in Ante-Bellum Petersburg," William and Mary Quarterly, 2d ser., 17 (1937): 14; Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1858, 2:279, 3:456, 35th Cong., 2d sess. (1859), House Ex. Doc. 105, serials 1010, 1011; Virginia Case Files for United States Pardons (1865–1867), United States Office of the Adjutant General, Record Group 94, and United States Industrial Census Schedules, Dinwiddie Co., 1880, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, both in National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; Edward Pollock, Historical and Industrial Guide to Petersburg, Virginia [ca. 1884], 116–117; Nannie May Tilley, The Bright-Tobacco Industry, 1860–1929 (1948), 490, 603; Joseph C. Robert, The Story of Tobacco in America (1949), 81, 131; Fay Campbell Kaynor, "George Campbell (1834–1917)," 3–4, 7–8 (1988 typescript), Jane Maud Campbell Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, Mass.; State Corporation Commission Charter Book, 13:398, 38:140, Record Group 112, Library of Virginia; letters and documents relating to Cameron in Young Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Va.; Petersburg Daily Index-Appeal, 25 May 1888, 13, 27 May, 4 Oct. 1892; obituaries (giving 26 Oct. 1902 death date) in Petersburg Daily Index-Appeal and Richmond Dispatch, both 28 Oct. 1902.
Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Marianne E. Julienne.
How to cite this page:
Marianne E. Julienne,"William Cameron (1829–1902)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2001 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Cameron_William, accessed [today's date]).
Return to the Dictionary of Virginia Biography Search page.
