Thomas Mitchell Campbell papers

Collection

Identifier: urn:taro:utexas.cah.01701

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, speeches, financial reports, petitions, invitations, court reports, newspaper clippings, and pamphlets comprise the Thomas Mitchell Campbell Papers, 1898-1923, which document Campbell’s career as an attorney, general manager of the International-Great Northern Railroad, and governor of Texas. The papers, composed mainly of speeches and correspondence, contain speeches given by Campbell during his various campaigns such as the speech, How to Turn Texas Loose, which he presented to the 1904 Texas Democratic Convention.

Dates

Creation: 1898 - 1923

Creator

Campbell, Thomas Mitchell, 1856-1923 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no use restrictions on this collection. Publisher is responsible for complying with copyright law.

Biographical Note

Thomas Mitchell Campbell (1856-1923), lawyer, general manager of the International-Great Northern Railroad, and governor of Texas, graduated from Trinity University and passed the Texas bar in 1878. He began his practice in Longview, Texas, in the same year. In 1889, Campbell became master chancery for the financially distressed International-Great Northern Railroad in Palestine, Texas. Campbell guided the railroad through its recovery, becoming its general manager in 1891. Distrusting big businesses, Campbell eventually clashed with the railroad’s owner Jay Gould and left the railroad to resume his law practice in 1897. Campbell, upon the encouragement of his friend, former governor James S. Hogg, ran for governor, winning the office in 1906 on an anti-trust platform.

Campbell served as governor for two terms (1907-1911) and affected reforms such as railroads regulations, anti-trust laws, lobbying restrictions, food and drug regulations, prison reform, and insurance laws. Furthermore, Campbell helped create many state agencies, such as the Department of Insurance and Banking, Bureau of Labor Statistics, State Board of Health, and the Texas State Library. In 1911, Campbell returned to his private practice, but remained active in politics, unsuccessfully running for the United States Senate in 1916. Campbell died in Galveston in 1923.

Source: Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. “Campbell, Thomas Mitchell,” http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/CC/fca37.html (accessed July 1, 2010).

Extent

5 inches

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Accession Number(s)

1948

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Angela R. Olivera, February 1980.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light project, 2009-2011.