Disciples Historical Society

Explore the history of the Stone-Campbell Movement

A black and white photo of an elder woman.
Date of birth: June 25, 1800
Date of death: December 10, 1871 (71 years old)
Education: Unknown
Organization(s): Stone-Campbell Movement
Known for:
  • The fourth of Thomas and Jane Corneigle Campbell’s seven children.

The fourth of Thomas and Jane Corneigle Campbell’s seven children.

Jane Campbell McKeever was born in Ahorey, Ireland, on June 25, 1800. Thomas emigrated to the United States in 1807, followed by Jane and the rest of the family in 1809. After living in several locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, in 1819 the family settled in West Middletown, Pennsylvania, within ten miles of her brother Alexander Campbell in Bethany, (West) Virginia. There Jane married Matthew McKeever; they eventually had nine children, and adopted at least a dozen others. 

By 1830 Jane had opened a home school, Pleasant Hill Seminary, which educated boys and girls. In 1842, two years after Alexander Campbell founded Bethany College, Jane’s school became Pleasant Hill Female Seminary, with Jane as its principal for most of the next quarter century. Many of the courses in its three-year curriculum were identical to those of Bethany College. Several of the seminary’s graduates became influential in the Restoration Movement during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Unlike her brother Alexander, Jane was a firm abolitionist. The McKeevers ran a station of the Underground Railroad on their farm, and Jane made clear her antislavery sentiments in a letter to the North-Western Christian Magazine. 

As her health declined in the 1860s, Jane relinquished control of the seminary and moved to Harrisville, Ohio, to live with her daughter, Lorinda McKeever Wilkin. She continued a spirited correspondence with family members until shortly before her death on December 10, 1871. 

See also Abolitionism; McKeever Family; Pleasant Hill Female Seminary 

BIBLIOGRAPHY Jane Reader Errett, “Pleasant Hill Seminary,” Christian Standard 46 (1910): 1396-1400 • John H. Hull, “Jane Campbell McKeever,” Discipliana 52:1 (1992): 7-12 • Phoebe A. Murdock, “Pleasant Hill Seminary” (unpublished manuscript, no date, Pleasant Hill Seminary Collection of Mrs. Jane Fulcher, West Middletown, Pennslyvania). 

JOHN H. HULL

Foster, Douglas A.. The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (pp. 1581-1582). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition. 

This entry, written by John H. Hull, was originally published in The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement (Edited by Douglas A. Foster, Paul M. Blowers, Anthony L. Dunnavant, and D. Newell Williams; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004), pages 508. Republished with permission.