attorney. In 1852 J. N. Camden won election as prosecuting attorney for Nicholas County. In 1858, Camden moved to Parkersburg, on the Ohio River. There he began investing in land. The following year, he moved to Burning Springs, site of an oil boom in 1860 which made him rich. Camden became involved in oil refining, coal manufacture and sold part of his interest for $100,000. He joined with his brother in law became a wealthy industrialist, selling their oil interests for $410,000 in 1866, and investing the proceeds in several new industries. Camden Consolidated Oil Company was ultimately acquired by Standard Oil. Camden also consolidated several small railroads, which helped transport great quantities of coal. Camden sympathized with the Union and did not serve in either army during the American Civil War, although CSA General Stonewall Jackson had been raised nearby. His father died in Weston in 1862. His younger brother Edwin Duncan Camden became Lt.Col. of the 25th Virginia Infantry, and after capture became one of the Immortal 600 (hostages used by the Union as human shields in South Carolina a retaliation for Confederate treatment of Union prisoners of war). Camden became president of the First National Bank of Parkersburg at its organization in 1862, and was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of West Virginia in 1868 and again in 1872. Voters finally elected Camden as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate, where he served one term, from March 4, 1881, to March 4, 1887. He then resumed the practice of law at Parkersburg. Upon the death in office of U.S. Senator John E. Kenna, Camden won the election and served the remainder of that term, from January 25, 1893, to March 3, 1895, then retired from elective politics. While in the Senate, Camden was chairman of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expense (Fifty-third Congress) and a member of the Committee on Railroads (Fifty-third Congress). He continued his former business and civic pursuits. Death and legacy Camden died in Baltimore, Maryland, en route back to Weston, West Virginia, after visiting family. His body was returned to Parkersburg for burial in Parkersburg Memorial Gardens with his infant son, and where his widow would join him a decade later. His son, Johnson N. Camden Jr., was a U.S. Senator from Kentucky in the 63rd Congress. In 1903–04, Camden built the Union Trust & Deposit Co./Union Trust National