Alexander Duncan Cameron was born in Ontario, Canada of Scottish parentage. He left home while still very young to follow work in the early logging camps, first as errand boy, then cookee, and finally camp cook. He eventually settled in Wisconsin where he became acquainted with Henriette Villemin, the daughter of an early French Canadian fur trading family in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Her ancestry included Fox Indian blood, one of the Algonquin families. Her father, Constant Villemin, was a native of France. He, with other members of his family, migrated to the United States some time prior to 1860.
After their marriage in Wisconsin, Alex Cameron and his wife continued to live there for some time. He then began scouting for a new location and arrived in Bemidji where he fell in love with the lakes and woods. He persuaded his wife to move from Wisconsin to this wilderness territory. She agreed, but only after extracting a promise that she could take her books and organ. This was quite an undertaking, as trails had to be blazed through the dense forests while heading further and further north. A near tragedy occurred when the wagon hauling their belongings tipped over while fording a river, including her precious organ. Packed in the crevices in the crate were all her best dishes. She was an excellent packer and they survived.
They were pioneers in Beltrami county before the railroad was built in the area. In fact, Mr. Cameron was one of the men who shingled the first house built in Bemidji, and also aided in the survey of the Great Northern railway. Cameron staked out a lot and cleared a small place for a cabin on what became Minnesota Avenue. Mrs. Cameron said the forests were so dense that there was just a small patch cleared outside her door where she could see the sky.
During the time it took to clear the lot, prepare the logs and erect the cabin, Mrs. Cameron boarded with the Carsons on the western shore of Lake Bemidji. When the cabin was completed, Mr. Cameron came for her and wanted to pay for her board and room. In no way would Mrs. Carson accept payment. Mrs. Cameron had not been idle, but she had made a lengthy rag carpet for the hallway and many other helpful projects for her hostess.
Cameron filed on a homestead near Northome but preferring Bemidji, he let the claim lapse and purchased land owned by the Great Northern Railroad in what became Grant Valley Township, about seven miles west of Bemidji along the Mississippi River. There they developed their farm of 220 acres and named it Meadow View Farm. They donated two acres of land for a school and the logs for the school came from the Meadow View Farm as well. The school was named Riverside School.
As the children grew older, it was necessary to move back into Bemidji so that they could go to high school. They also kept the farm, a practice which was shared with several other Bemidji pioneers as well. The Camerons lived for awhile on Mississippi Avenue and then moved to the NE corner of Fourth and Irvine.
Back of the house on Irvine Avenue, Cameron and his brother-in-law, Jack Falls, built a store about 1912. It was called the Falls & Cameron Feed Store. The sign read: Flour, Feed, Wood and Hay. They were dealers in all classes of feed necessary for poultry and live stock. They also sold coal and wood. Economic times were bad and the store extended credit to all farmers. Timber sales were down and the farmers could not pay their bills.
Once again, the family moved back to Grant Valley. After Alex Cameron’s health failed, they moved back into town where he died in 1942. Mrs. Cameron later moved to California to live with her youngest sister, Virginia Foran, until her death in 1963 at age 94.
Information for this article came from the recollections of Mrs. Archie (Cameron) Bowers, from the files of the Beltrami County History Center, supplemented by newspaper articles from the Bemidji Daily Pioneer, 1904-1922, and the Bemidji City Directories.