Thomas Campbell Collection

Collection

Identifier: SC 876

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Correspondence between Campbell and Leonard Sackett regarding the records of Campbell's wheat farm, the Cream of Wheat corporation, the Bull family, and bonanza farms. Includes newspaper and magazine clippings.

Dates

1920, 1949-1966.

Creator

Campbell, Thomas, 1882-1966. (Person)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the NDSU Archives.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection is held by the Institute.

Biography

Thomas D Campbell, Jr. was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota on February 19, 1882, to Thomas D. and Almira (Richards) Campbell. In 1899, he enrolled at the University of North Dakota and earned a BA in Engineering in 1903. He went to New York to attend Cornell University, to study mechanical and electrical engineering, but did not finish. He returned home to help his ill father run his 4,000 acre farm.

On October 1, 1906, he married Bess McBride Bull. Together they had four children. In 1907, he was President of Northern Dakota Railroad Co., charged to haul concrete 20 miles from the mine in Concrete to Edinburgh, North Dakota. In 1909 he became Operations Engineer for all properties of JS Torrance. Around 1910, they moved to Los Angeles, California. From 1918-1923 he operated the Montana Farming Corp. in Hardin, Montana. In 1923 he started the Campbell Farming Corp. serving as president and chief engineer of world's largest wheat farm, at 95,000 acres. He also directed the operation of a 448,000 acre land holding near Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1929 he became an agricultural adviser to the Soviet Union assisting in the development of 10 million acres of Russian farm land. Great Britain and France also requested his service to assist in wheat development in the countries of Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia. Due to his development and techniques he became known as "America's Wheat King". When World War II started, he entered the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant Colonel and rose to Brigadier General.

In 1955, he became Vice President and Treasurer of the Tejon Ranch Company in California which comprised 270,000 acres. He was active in this business until 2 weeks before death on March 8, 1966, in Pasadena, California.

Extent

17 Items (17 items.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence between Campbell and Leonard Sackett regarding the records of Campbell's wheat farm, the Cream of Wheat corporation, the Bull family, and bonanza farms.