Around 50 people showed up to the historic North Burial Ground on Monday morning to pay homage to a man who lived as a revolutionary and died as a nearly-100-year-old respected and generous member of early post-colonial Warren.

The Town of Warren, along with local historians and in partnership with the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and nonprofit group Revolution 250, prepared a brief but illuminating ceremony about one of the more noteworthy fibers within Warren’s historic fabric that you’ve likely never heard of — but whose contributions to the birth of the nation and to his local community are worth learning about.

As last week’s story previewed, Campbell was born in Malta and came to Boston during the height of rising tensions with the British Crown. Despite giving an oath to secrecy, in the twilight of his long life he gave a firsthand account of his participation in the act of rebellion that would become forever known as the Boston Tea Party, which occurred on Dec. 17, 1773.

“It is quite clear that Nicholas Campbell was a revolutionary spirit. And that revolutionary spirit can still be felt here in Warren and across the state of Rhode Island as the actions of the Tea Party participants reverberate as strongly today as they did in 1773,” said Evan O’Brien, Creative Manager for the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum. “Nicholas Campbell is just as important to the formative years of our region and our nation as the names we all are more familiar with. The Paul Reveres, the John Hancocks, the John Adams. They were great men, but so was Nicholas Campbell, and they are worthy of our recognition.”

Around 1775 (and by 1777 for certain, according to military census records), Campbell came to Warren, and although there are no records that indicate he was ever married or ever had any children, he was obviously not content to simply live out his days in quiet solitude.

Warren Historian Sarah Weed walked the audience through what is known of Campbell’s life, such as the fact that he was illiterate — signing his name on his will with just an ‘X’. He owned real estate in Bristol and Warren (a home at 23 Broad St., built in 1750, which still stands today). But aside from the Tea Party connection, it is Campbell’s charitable endeavors that stand out most about him.

“Even though he was not a member of any church in town, he led the fundraising campaign for a bell when the Baptist Church erected a steeple in 1800,” Weed said. “Legend has it that in addition to the funds he contributed to the campaign, Campbell traveled to the Paul Revere Bell Foundry where the bell was being cast, and threw in a few silver dollars. This charm, a superstition of the time, was supposed to improve the bell’s tone. About 30 years later, the bell cracked, and the original materials, including his silver dollars, were recast into the bell that has rung at the Baptist Church even today.”

In 1802, Weed continued, Campbell bought six shares in a corporation that created a highway and bridge leading to Bristol, contributing to the precursor of what we know today as Route 114. Weed said that Campbell Street is most likely named for the man as well.

Campbell’s will, written in 1821, displays more evidence of his generosity.

He left $100 each to the Methodist and Baptist Churches. He split $2,500 among 19 people in town. His house and its contents were left to a Ruth Child and her daughter, Louisa, who along with an unnamed teenage boy are recorded to have resided in the home along with him in the 1820 Census. He passed on July 29, 1829.

“One of his most lasting legacies, which he arranged through his will, was to leave the bulk of his estate — 5,000 dollars — for the benefit of the poor children of Warren,” Weed said. This fund was used to build and operate a tuition-free school on Pleasant Street, a photograph of which (bearing the name “Campbell School”) was shown to attendees at the ceremony.

“Imagine how many young children benefited from this gift from an illiterate, childless, benevolent, man who was 97 years old at his death,” Weed said. “It’s hard to pick apart the elements of the Town’s gratitude toward him, his patriotic act, and his generosity, which were of such great value.”

Pat Mues, a Broad Street resident who helped organize the event along with Town Manager Kate Michaud, said that she was thrilled at the turnout for the event, and thanked the Town (including DPW Director Brian Wheeler and his crew), for working together to honor Campbell and Warren’s history.

“So many different kinds of people came today. I think one of the draws is that people got to come to the cemetery. It’s a beautiful cemetery and there’s obviously a lot of history here,” she said. “Good work by all.”

A costumed member of the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum placed the commemorative marker in front of Campbell’s grave monument, which in and of itself is worth seeing.

“It is our hope that people forevermore will pause in beautiful cemeteries like this to take a moment of reflection upon the brave deeds of those people so critically tied to the formative years of our nation,” concluded O’Brien.

The commemoration event is one of many taking place across New England to celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, which will culminate in a full reenactment of the event in Boston.