[1] Campbell graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh in 1839[2] and later that year sailed for Australia, New South Wales, as a surgeon on the emigrant ship Palmyra.

[3] Confronted with drought and constrained prospects at the time Campbell departed Australia for New Zealand in March 1840 on the Lady Liford, arriving at Port Nicolson, and eventually travelling to Waiou (now called Whanganui Island)[4] on the Coromandel.

Campbell and William Brown (a Scottish lawyer) who had previously met in Adelaide, Australia, formed a business partnership after purchasing Motukorea from Te Kanini of Ngāti Tamaterā and the sub-chiefs Katikati and Ngatai with the aim of becoming merchant traders,[5] in the rumoured new capital of New Zealand, Tāmaki Makaurau, soon to be named Auckland by Captain William Hobson following a gift of land and negotiations with Ngāti Whātua.

[7] Campbell and Brown built Acacia Cottage in 1841,[8] on their street frontage the partners put up a two-storeyed warehouse from which they conducted their business as general merchants in the infant city of Auckland.

John Logan died in infancy in Florence, Italy and is buried at in the English Cemetery at the Piazzale Donatello – Delgli Inglesi.

'And there lies buried in that little grave,' [14] Campbell told his two daughters, 'the poor Papa's hopes that to him had been born a son who would be his pride and pleasure in his declining years and to whose care the name of his Firm would have been handed down to another generation.

Winifred the only surviving child of John and Emma Campbell married Herbert Cyril Orde Murray a lieutenant in the 1st Gloucestershire Regiment on 10 December 1889.

In early 1901, Campbell was approached to be Mayor of Auckland for the royal visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall in June that year.

Aged 83 and long been in retirement, Campbell agreed on the proviso that he would fulfil representative functions only and step down after the visit, with a deputy undertaken most of the mayoral tasks.

[20] During the royal visit, Logan Campbell donated Cornwall Park to the people of New Zealand and named it after the Duke and Duchess.

[24] He lived long enough to witness the erection of the bronze statue of him in Mayoral Robes at the Manukau Road entrance to Cornwall Park.

[25] He advised his closest advisors of his wish to erect a monument to demonstrate his love and regard for the Māori people and allocated funds for it in his will and Trust Deeds for the formation of his Residuary Estate to continue to distribute funds for charities for relief of poverty, advancement of education and support of the cultural and medical interests he supported in his life time.

The Trustees of his estate sought permission from Iwi throughout the Auckland Provincial region for his burial on the tihi summit and later for the building of the obelisk, which commenced in the 1930s to be complete by 1940 as a bicentennial project supported by the Government of the day.

Sir John Logan Campbell's grave is located in the middle of the flat platform which is part of a structure supporting the obelisk complex, built of local volcanic basalt, which serves as the forecourt to the monument.

The papers record a range of activities, events and business across the Auckland Province, also include "Reminiscences" of his time in Europe, India, the Near East, Scotland.