Campbell, Thomas D. (Thomas Donald), 1882-1966

Involved in large scale agriculture. Born in Grand Forks, N.D.; educated at the University of North Dakota, Cornell University, and University of Southern California; served as special investigator of Native American lands for the U.S. Department of Interior during World War I; began buying land in New Mexico in the 1930's including parts of the La Joya, Belen, San Pedro, and Tome Land Grants; during World War II served in the U.S. Army Air Corps; in 1946 elevated to the office of Brigadier General.

Thomas D. Campbell was involved in large scale agriculture. Born in Grand Forks, N.D.; educated at the University of North Dakota, Cornell University, and University of Southern California; served as special investigator of Native American lands for the U.S. Department of Interior during World War I; began buying land in New Mexico in the 1930's including parts of the La Joya, Belen, San Pedro, and Tome Land Grants; during World War II served in the U.S. Army Air Corps; in 1946 elevated to the office of Brigadier General.

Grand Forks, N.D. resident, later moved to California, then to Hardin, Mont. and established a bonanza wheat farm; known as the top wheat grower in the U.S.

Thomas Campbell. Part of the Thomas D. Campbell Pictorial Collection PICT 000-566 (Box 1, Folder 15).

Thomas D. Campbell was born to wheat farming parents on February 19, 1882 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He earned a B.A., an M.E. and an LL.D. from the University of North Dakota (1903, 1904 and 1929 respectively). Campbell did post-graduate work at Cornell University in 1904-1905, and earned a doctoral degree in Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1929. In 1932, Longmans, Green and Company published Thomas D. Campbell's book, Russia: Market or Menace?

Campbell served as special investigator of Native American lands for the U.S. Department of Interior during World War I. He was a Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 until 1946. During World War II, Campbell also served as transportation and equipment specialist on the General's staff overseas, and was elevated to the office of Brigadier General in 1946. Campbell remained connected with the Air Force throughout his life, and was a General of the Air Force Reserves until his death.

By the time he was seventeen, Campbell was managing his family's 4,000 acre farm in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Campbell was involved in some agricultural ventures before World War I, but it was in 1918 that his career in large scale agriculture began. During the scarcity of a war economy, Campbell came up with the idea that previously untilled American tribal lands could be successfully converted to food production. With two million dollars secured through New York banks and the aid of U.S. financier J.P. Morgan, Campbell leased 95,000 acres from the Crow and Fort Peck reservations in Montana, created the Montana Farming Corporation, and began the seminal American agro-industrial experiment. In 1922, the Montana Farming Corporation became the Campbell Farming Corporation, and continued to farm on land leased from Native Americans in Montana.

In partnership with New York industrialist John J. Raskob, Campbell began buying land in New Mexico in the 1930's. By 1949 Campbell-Raskob owned some 400,000 acres in New Mexico (at different times Campbell owned parts of the La Joya, Belen, San Pedro, Sevilleta and Tome Land Grants). Campbell maintained an active interest in New Mexico throughout the rest of his life. As an active Republican, he advised the U.S. Government on southwestern land potential, traveled to Alaska to report on its strategic potential for the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and was an agricultural advisor to the governments of Russia, Britain, the United States, and France. Thomas Campbell died in March of 1966 at the age of 84.