Dr. Ted Campbell
Interested in knowing more about the history of Lake Highlands?
Dr. Ted Campbell produced two videos on the subject, and he’s happy to share them with neighbors. Though they focus on the Forest Meadow side of town, and despite being created in 2011, Campbell thinks they’re relevant today – and interesting to folks all over LH.
“I was in England, Oxford and Manchester, in the spring of 2010, editing the letters of John Wesley (1703-1791),” says Campbell. “I went walking around and hiking, as I always do over there, looking at the historical sites, and it struck me that a lot of them were no older than stuff in Dallas, but I had absolutely no clue about the history of my own neighborhood in Dallas. So one hot Saturday morning in June 2010, we went around to local historical markers and started piecing stuff together.”
Campbell says he began the work for fun, but jokes that it netted him a position on the Dallas Landmark Commission. He just stepped down from his appointment by Dallas City Councilman Jerry Allen.
Campbell, a former Methodist pastor, is now a professor at SMU. He’s written eight books on Christian subjects and is currently working on a manuscript about Dallas history.
“My favorite Lake Highlands story involves the Prigmore family,” says Campbell. “Their ten-year-old daughter, Eliza, died during a tornado. Their farm was on Forest Lane, just about where Forest Lane Academy is now. Benjamin Prigmore helped found the Dallas County Pioneers Association and left us a brief account of his own family’s coming to Dallas in 1844.”
Campbell’s stories could go on all day. You can watch his videos below.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADbY8cAr5_o&w=560&h=315][youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M_E1Rd_xe8&w=560&h=315]
