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Campbell Farming Corporation records, 1918-1975

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Campbell Farming Corporation
Title
Campbell Farming Corporation records
Dates
1918-1975 (inclusive)
Quantity
125 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
UPMC 178
Summary
The Campbell Farming Corporation, founded by Thomas D. Campbell in 1918, was a large wheat farming operation on and near the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. Records include general correspondence (1918-1970), financial records (1922-1928), legal documents (1920s-1970s), subject files (1920-1974, undated), miscellany, maps, and printed materials. Collection includes 34 volumes and one oversize box.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Much of the material is fragile, and extra care and supervision will be required for use.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Thomas D. Campbell was born in a sod house in the Red River Valley of North Dakota, on February 19, 1882. His parents, Thomas D. and Almira Catherine (Richards) Campbell, were among the first homesteaders in the Red River Valley. Over the years, the senior Campbell expanded his farming operations by buying the abandoned farms of neighbors.

The younger Campbell attended a rural school through seventh grade and then went to high school in Grand Forks. He was president of his senior class and graduated valedictorian. Due to his father's ill health, Tom took over management of the family farm as well as attending the University of North Dakota. On October 3, 1906, Tom married Bess McBride Bull. The couple had one son who died in early childhood, and three daughters Elizabeth-Ann "Libby", Jean, and Catherine. After the death of his father, Tom moved his family to California, where he worked as an engineer and invested in real estate.

At the start of World War I, Campbell planned to enlist, but instead decided to produce food on a large scale for the war effort, using Indian reservation land in Montana. He presented his idea to Secretary of Interior Franklin K. Lane, who put him in touch with financier J.P. Morgan. Campbell then founded the Montana Farming Corporation and negotiated an agreement with the Department of the Interior to lease land on the Crow and Fort Peck reservations. He began his operations on the Fort Peck Reservation, but after a year moved his primary operation to the Crow Reservation. He leased approximately 95,000 acres of land from Indian allotment owners, and eventually purchased additional land. On this land he grew wheat and other grains on an industrial basis, pioneering the extensive use of mechanization. With the drought and depression years of the early 1920s, Campbell's New York financial backers withdrew and he formed the Campbell Farming Corporation to purchase the assets of the Montana Farming Corporation. He reduced the acreage of leased land, but nevertheless continued to lease approximately 35,000 acres and bought 15,000 acres from individual Indian families and from neighboring ranchers. After Campbell retired to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the late 1950s, Floyd Slattery took over active management of the Montana farm. Campbell hoped to one day sell his farm to the Crow Tribe.

In the late 1930s Campbell, with partner John J. Raskob, bought the La Joya, San Pedro, and Belen land grants in New Mexico, totaling over 300,000 acres. Campbell and Raskob operated the grants as a cattle ranch and also experimented with dry-land wheat farming. In 1941 Campbell bought out his partner, and in 1946 transferred the property to the Campbell Farming Corporation. Beginning in 1952 the Campbell Farming Corporation began the gradual liquidation of its New Mexico properties, finally selling in 1970.

As an expert in dryland farming and industrial farming techniques, Campbell served as an advisor to the Soviet Russian government in the early 1930s in setting up State farms. He was also an agricultural advisor in England, Tunisia, South Africa, and Australia. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served as an advisor on mechanization of military transportation. Following the war he was promoted to General.

Campbell, in his later years, became involved in charitable work, transferring most of his assets to the non-profit Campbell Family Foundation. This Foundation became a major benefactor of the University of North Dakota and other educational institutions.

Thomas D. Campbell died March 18, 1966, in Pasadena, California.

[Based on "Tom Campbell: Montana Wheat Farmer" by Jane Slattery, and biographical outline by Bruce Gjovig.]

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Content Description

Collection includes records of the Campbell Farming Corporation (1918-1976); the United States Wheat Corporation; the La Joya Development Company; Thomas D. Campbell's Trinity County, California, mining property; and Thomas D. Campbell's personal papers concerning his service in World War II and other matters.

Campbell Farming Corporation Subgroup includes Correspondence File (1918-1919, 1924-1973); Managers File (1919-1924, 1948-1968); Machinery File (1918-1937, 1951-1957); Personal File (1918-1927) continued by Miscellaneous File (1928-1975); Desk Diaries (1942-1948); Employment Records (1919-1973) including payrolls; Financial Records (1919-1975) including ledgers, journals, tax files, and other materials; Legal Documents (1918-1972) including contracts, lease files, allotment records, etc.; Maps; minor Organizational Records (1918-1959); Production Records (1920-1973); a numerically-based Subject File (1970s); and Miscellany.

Records of the United States Wheat Corporation, a Campbell Farming Corporation subsidiary, consist of Correspondence (1949-1952), Financial Records (1949-1952), and Legal Documents (1948-1952).

Records of the La Joya Development Company, including records of its predecessor the Raskob-Campbell Partnership, and successor Campbell Farming Corporation, consist of Correspondence (1938-1965); typed transcript of court papers (1888) concerning the Canon del Agua Grant in New Mexico; Financial Records (1928-1968), Legal Documents (1939-1970), and Subject Files on the La Joya Grant and San Pedro Grant.

Thomas D. Campbell owned several mining claims in Trinity County, California. There is a subgroup of records of this operation (1933-1942).

Thomas D. Campbell personal subgroup includes Campbell's files on his World War II service, and limited material on his advisory work in the Soviet Union, South Africa, and Australia.

[The bulk of Thomas D. Campbell's La Joya, New Mexico, records are at the Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico. That collection also contains addition files on Campbell's military, political, and foreign advisor activities.]

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Montana Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library before any reproduction use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.

Preferred Citation

item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

by subgroup and series

Location of Collection

88:5-3

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Processing Note

Preliminarily sorted, needs much conservation work

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preliminary finding aid prepared by Ellie Arguimbau
2007

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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