James T. Campbell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1229-1230 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.


	JAMES T. CAMPBELL, county commissioner of Charles Mix county, was 
born in Iowa county, Wisconsin, on the 2d of November, 1855, and is the 
eldest of the six living children of James T. and Wilhelmina 
(Helmaustine) Campbell, the former of Scotch and the latter of German 
ancestry. Two of their children died in infancy and those living are 
James T., Jr. (subject of this sketch), Alexander, Charles, Eliza, 
Archibald and Frederick. The father was engaged in farming in Wisconsin, 
and is still living, while his wife passed away in 1878. 

	The subject was reared on the homestead farm in Wisconsin, 
assisting in its cultivation during his youth and securing his early 
educational training in the public schools. At the age of seventeen 
years he left the parental roof and went to Iowa, where he worked on a 
farm and also learned the carpenter trade, while he there continued his 
educational work as opportunity presented, continuing to attend school 
at intervals until he had attained the age of twenty years and thus 
rounding out a good practical education, while he continued to reside in 
Iowa about ten years, at the expiration of which he came to what is now 
the state of South Dakota, taking up a homestead claim of one hundred 
and sixty acres in Charles Mix county, where he has ever since 
maintained his home, having been among the first permanent settlers 
within its borders. Shortly after coming here he also bought a tree 
claim of one hundred and sixty acres, adjoining his homestead. He is now 
the owner of a well-improved and highly cultivated farm of two hundred 
and forty acres, while he also rents a half section not far distant, the 
greater portion of the latter being also under cultivation. In addition 
to raising the cereals and other products best adapted to the soil and 
climate he has been very successful in the raising of cattle and swine 
of excellent grade, and his farm always shows a goodly array of live 
stock. When he came to the county it was practically an unreclaimed 
prairie, there being few settlers, while the nearest market town to his 
farm at the time he located thereon was White Lake, forty miles distant. 
He has not only witnessed but has materially aided in the development of 
this section of the state, which is now thickly settled, and as a 
practical and progressive farmer he considers this as good an 
agricultural district as is to be found in any state in the Union. 

	In politics Mr. Campbell is one of the leaders in the local ranks 
of the Democratic party, and in the autumn of 1902 he was elected a 
member of the board of county commissioners, defeating the Republican 
candidate by sixty-five votes, which fact indicates his personal 
popularity in the county, since it has a normal Republican majority of 
about two hundred and thirty, he having been one of the two candidates 
on the Democratic county ticket elected at this time. He has been for 
many years a member of the school board of his district. Fraternally he 
is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America, holding membership in 
the lodge at Geddes. 

	On the 11th of June, 1883, Mr. Campbell was united in marriage to 
Miss Eva Scott, who was born in the state of Illinois and who is a 
sister of Mrs. Edward Hemminger, of this county. She is a daughter of 
William and Catherine Scott, both of whom died in Iowa, her father 
having been a farmer by vocation. She was the youngest in a family of 
seven children, the others being Erastus, Robert, Edwin, Minerva, 
Malinda, Ellen and Charles. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have four children, 
all of whom remain at the parental home, namely: James W., Zella B., 
Louise and Byron F.