Samuel Minor Campbell was born on June 1, 1823, in Campbell, Steuben County, New York.

He was a prominent Presbyterian minister in central and western New York. He graduated from Franklin Academy at Prattsburgh, N.Y. and from the Theological Seminary at Auburn, N.Y.C. He became a Presbyterian pastor at Paris Hill, Oneida County, at Dansville, then at Utica and at Rochester. From there he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota where he was a pastor and one of the editors of a Presbyterian Weekly paper. He continued to Astoria, Oregon, and subsequently, for the benefit of his health, he moved to Southern California and became a pastor there. He travelled to the “Holy Land,” Asia, and wrote an interesting book of his travels through Egypt and Palestine. He was an unusually able preacher, a very interesting writer, and a frequent contributor to the Presbyterian newspapers east and west.

In 1845, he married Sophia Louisa Burton (1826–1877). In 1877, he married Mary B. Lawrence Judson (1827-1901). He died on November 17, 1892, in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota.