Malcolm Charles Campbell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1365-1366 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	MALCOLM CHARLES CAMPBELL, of Lead, was born in Brock township, 
province of Ontario Canada, December 25 1849, and is the son of Peter 
and Catherine (Macfee) Campbell, the father a farmer, contractor and 
millwright. When Malcolm was quite small his parents moved to Bruce 
county, Ontario, and it was in that part of the country that he grew to 
young manhood on a farm, obtaining the meanwhile a limited education by 
attending a few months of each winter season a school three miles 
distant from his home. On attaining his majority he went to Marquette, 
Michigan, where he worked for some time at carpentry, later finding 
employment in a livery stable, the two kinds of labor occupying his 
attention until 1873, when he changed his location to Ishpeming, where 
he followed contracting and building until his removal the same year to 
Michigamme. From the latter place he subsequently went to Lance, 
Michigan, where, in addition to erecting a number of dwellings and other 
buildings, he constructed during the fall and early winter of 1873 
seventeen miles of road for the government, which being finished, he 
worked for some time in the Calumet and Hecla mines at Hancock. Later he 
built twenty-seven residences at Osceola for a mining company. In the 
summer of 1875 he went to Copper Harbor, where he was employed for some 
months building homes for another mining company, going from that town 
the following winter to Oconto, Wisconsin, near which place he worked in 
a lumber camp until the ensuing spring, when he started for Dakota. 

	Owing to the trouble then existing in the Black Hills, Mr. 
Campbell did not complete his journey, but returned to Wisconsin, where 
until the winter of 1876 he sold a patent right, making the city of 
Oshkosh his headquarters. The latter part of the above year he returned 
to Hancock, Michigan, where he remained until May, 1877, at which time 
he again turned his face westward, reaching Crook, Dakota, on the 25th 
of June. Immediately after his arrival, he made one of a party of five 
that started out on a prospecting tour, spending about one year in that 
capacity, during which time the little company traveled over a large 
section of the territory, experiencing many interesting vicissitudes and 
meeting with a number of thrilling adventures, also locating several 
valuable mining properties, which subsequently yielded rich returns. In 
the winter of 1877 Mr. Campbell located in Deadwood and resumed his 
trade, which he followed in that city until the spring following, when 
he engaged as carpenter and millwright with the Homestake Mining Company 
at Lead City. After remaining with that large and wealthy corporation 
until 1886. he resigned his position to take charge of the Campbell 
Hotel at Lead City, which he had erected three years previously, and 
which as originally constructed, consisted of fifteen rooms, a capacity 
entirely inadequate to meet the rapidly increasing demands of the 
traveling public. Shortly after assuming the duties of "mine host" he 
began adding to the building and the improvements continued until the 
number of apartments increased from fifteen to seventy. He made the 
Campbell the leading hotel in Lead City, spared neither pains nor 
expense in furnishing it throughout with the latest modern improvements 
and during the twenty years of his management it became widely and 
favorably known as a first-class stopping place. As a landlord, Mr. 
Campbell justified the expectations of the most critical and exacting of 
his numerous guests, being always pleasant and agreeable, and hesitating 
at no reasonable sacrifice for the entertainment and comfort of those 
seeking his hospitality. 

	Mr. Campbell has been an influential factor in the public affairs 
of Lead since locating in the city, and he is now serving his third term 
in the common council, having been a member of that body since about 
1895. He is a Republican in politics and an active party worker, the 
success of the local ticket upon divers occasions being largely the 
result of his untiring efforts in its behalf. His fraternal relations 
are represented by the Odd Fellows, Elks and Pythian orders, in all of 
which he has held important official positions. 

	On the 6th day of July, 1899, Mr. Campbell contracted a 
matrimonial alliance with Miss Margaret McKinney, a native of Missouri, 
but at the time of her marriage a resident of the Black Hills. Mr. and 
Mrs. Campbell have an entertaining family of four children, all sons, 
their names in order of birth being as follows: Malcolm P., William A., 
Walter D. and George Albert.