Archie Campbell

By CATHY LANGEMO

June 26 — On this date in 1980, the family and friends of Archie Campbell were mourning his June 26 death. He was born to Alexander and Maude Campbell on July 13, 1897, on a farm west of Harvey.

After his mother died when he was just eight years of age, Archie was sent to live with relatives in New Brunswick. He was educated there, returning to North Dakota in 1915, where he worked with his father in road construction.

In March 1917, Archie went back to New Brunswick to marry Jessie Gilliss. They moved to North Dakota where he continued working with his father. That fall, the Campbells established their first home on a farm near Grace City. From then on, he worked in small-scale farming and in 1923 took over his father’s road construction business.

Archie modernized the operation and, in 1926, purchased a tractor to replace the horses and mules, developing one of the most efficient road building firms in North Dakota. In 1932, Archie also began a ranching operation on 2,970 acres east of New Rockford. He started out with some horses and mules and 100 head of Black Angus cattle.

During the Depression, the Campbells sold mules to the U.S. Army. They purchased the best prize-winning animals at the North Dakota Winter Show in Valley City and, by 1980, were running 2,300 head of cattle, 250 horses and 1 retired team of 37-year-old mules.

The Crystal Springs Ranch eventually grew to 11,000 acres, supporting nearly 1,000 head of Aberdeen Angus cattle, 125 horses and a team of mules as a reminder of the pioneer construction days. He took the mules to many communities for parades and other events.

Throughout his career, Archie helped his friends and neighbors with employment in construction and ranching. The Campbells didn’t have children, but took good care of their employees, personally assisting them financially. The crews were well-fed and never had to work on Sundays. When someone needed medical care, they were transported to the hospital. The Campbells were even known to pay funeral and burial expenses for area cowboys and others.

Archie donated many hours of construction equipment time to area towns, schools and parks. A remarkable man in many ways, he was inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in June 2011.

Derby Night at the Ballpark

By CAROLE BUTCHER

June 27 — In 1933, newsman Myron Scott of Dayton, Ohio, noticed a group of boys racing their homemade cars. It immediately caught his attention. He copyrighted the name “Soap Box Derby” and went looking for a company to sponsor a national program. Chevrolet agreed and the Soap Box Derby was born.

The event was a wild success. In 1936, a permanent track was built in Akron, Ohio. With the exception of a four-year hiatus during World War II, the Soap Box Derby has run continuously. Until 1971, the rules stated that only boys could compete. That year, girls began racing as well.

On this date in 1954, the cry in Fargo-Moorhead was “Take me out to the ballgame!” But the focus was on the Soap Box Derby, for it was Soap Box Derby Night at the Fargo-Moorhead Twins baseball game. The participants, along with the sponsors and management of the Derby, would be the honored guests. The Twins had sent out letters to the racers inviting them to the game. In addition to free admission, the Twins offered the racers free hot dogs, pop, and peanuts. In turn, the sponsors of the race planned to honor the batboys in a ceremony before the game. The batboys were presented with racing helmets and Soap Box Derby T-shirts.

The 1954 Fargo Soap Box Derby promised to be the biggest Derby ever held in the city. There were 161 entries. The previous record was 123 in 1949. Every car had to be completed by July 10 for the preliminary inspection. Trucks would be sent out to pick up the cars, take them to inspection, and then return them to the racers’ homes. The inspection was held two weeks prior to the race to give the contestants time to make any necessary adjustments. The inspection was followed by the annual Soap Box Derby picnic at Lindenwood Park. Fourteen towns in North Dakota held derbies, with the winners competing to see who would advance to the finals.

The Derby is still in North Dakota. The finals were held in Valley City earlier this month, with the top racers in the Super Stock and Stock divisions earning the right to compete in Akron next month.

Red River Valley resettlement

By STEVE HOFFBECK

June 28 — When the New Deal began in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt experimented with social planning and with programs to move people out of drought areas. The main program, the Resettlement Administration, created 160 new communities in the U.S. for those whose livelihoods had been crushed by the Depression. On this date in 1936, New Deal officials released information about how the resettlement program was planning to purchase 1.2 million acres of submarginal land and spend $3.3 million dollars for moving the farmers.

Two of the resettlement projects were in North Dakota. One was the Burlington Project, in which 35 lignite coal miners got eight-acre farms for growing vegetables to augment their miner’s income. The other was the Red River Valley Farms Resettlement Project. The federal government moved 101 farmers from the drought-parched regions in western North Dakota to greener lands in the Valley.

The project began in 1935 when the federal government bought 150 tax-forfeited farms scattered in Traill and Cass counties near Fargo. Banks and insurance companies and other investors had bought up these farms.

The federal government hired workers to build new farmhouses, barns, or outbuildings, then sold or leased the farms to the resettled farmers. Purchase was on a forty-year payment plan at three percent interest.

The center of the patchwork of farms in the project was at Grandin, which had been the original location of the Grandin Bonanza Farm in the 1880s to 1890s. The project constructed new buildings on 90 farms, at a cost of $4,000 for each set of buildings, and remodeled buildings on the others, using workers from the Works Projects Administration, the WPA.

Some observers were skeptical, wondering if a resettled farmer could successfully make payments on a 160-acre farm purchased for $55 per acre, even on a forty-year payment plan. Others thought the Red River Valley Farms project was a worthy effort to rehabilitate farmers and to put tax-forfeited lands back into production.

The farmers generally appreciated the Resettlement program, as one of them said: “We are getting [back] on our feet again.” Other farmers in the project were disappointed by the small acreage, for it was based on an outmoded farming model – raising chickens and milking a few cows on a 160-acre farm – at a time when mechanized farming was leading to much larger farms.

Shootout in Minot

By CAROLE BUTCHER

June 29 — On this date in 1922, the Ward County Independent reported quite a bit of excitement about a shooting in Minot. A policeman was wounded and the shooter was killed.

Mrs. L.G. Middleton, age 19, and her sister Nellie Sprague, age 21, had gone to a traveling carnival. There they met carnival workers Arthur Poole and Jesse Gibson. Mr. Middleton, described as hardworking and well-respected, complained to the police that his wife had taken up with one of the carneys and had been away from home for several nights.

On June 23, police learned that Mrs. Middleton had gone to the West Hotel with Poole. There they registered as man and wife, as did Sprague and Gibson. Three officers were sent to the hotel at four o’clock in the morning. Two of them watched the stairs as officer J. Sharrar knocked on the door of the room occupied by Poole and Middleton. He called out, identifying himself as a police officer.

Poole got out of bed, put on his pants, and grabbed his gun. Sharrar reported that he could hear Poole loading the gun, and he heard Mrs. Middleton cry out, “Don’t shoot, honey!” But Poole opened the door and started shooting. Two bullets hit the officer in the legs, but he fired back. The first bullet missed Poole and hit the door jamb. But the second hit Poole in the head, and the man fell to the floor. He died almost immediately.

Mrs. Middleton, Sprague, and Gibson were arrested for indecency and lewd behavior. Gibson said he had warned his friend about “stepping out” with a married woman. Poole had carried a gun because he was afraid that the angry husband would shoot him if given the chance.

The coroner’s inquest was held two days later. A large crowd turned out to observe, and many people were turned away. The inquest quickly came to the conclusion that Poole was killed in a case of self-defense.

Poole’s body was to be shipped to his family in Ohio. We find no report of the consequences for lewd and indecent behavior by Mrs. Middleton, Gibson, and Sprague.

Thomas Clifford

By LANE SUNWALL

June 30 — In 1990 the President of the University of North Dakota, Thomas Clifford, took on the additional task of serving as Interim Chancellor of the newly formed University of North Dakota System. After what must have been a busy eight months Clifford stepped down as Interim Chancellor on this date, June 30, 1991. For many, the work involved in managing both major academic bodies would have been overwhelming. But for Clifford the fast-paced work schedule was par for the course.

Born in 1921 in the small town of Langdon, Thomas J. Clifford was a go-getter. Attending the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Commerce in 1942 at the age of twenty-one. Following the outbreak of World War II, Clifford joined the U.S. Marine Corps. Clifford worked his way up to the rank of major, earning a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star in the process.

After the war Clifford returned to his alma mater to teach in UND’s Accounting Department. By 1948 Clifford had earned another degree, this time in Law, had been promoted to a full professor and was named the head of the Accounting Department. In 1950, at the age of 29, Thomas Clifford was appointed dean of the College of Commerce. After a brief stint at Stanford, Clifford returned to North Dakota to become UND’s vice president for finance.

After nearly twenty-five years studying and teaching at Grand Forks, Thomas Clifford began the second half of his career with UND as the president in 1971. Under Clifford’s leadership the student population increased from under 8,400 in 1971 to over 12,000 in 1992, grants and contracts grew six-fold, and the University’s annual budget rose from 24 to 174 million dollars.

Clifford finally retired from UND in 1992. However, North Dakota did not forget the lifetime of dedicated, hard work Clifford provided to the state. Ten years after Clifford’s retirement, Governor John Hoeven awarded UND’s former president with the highest civilian honor granted by the state of North Dakota, the Theodore Roosevelt Roughrider Award. At the award ceremony Hoeven remarked that “Tom has been one of the most effective university presidents in the nation. Because of his entrepreneurial spirit and leadership, the University of North Dakota is regarded today as one of the finest and most comprehensive institutions in the region.” Hoeven continued, “Honoring Tom Clifford with the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award once again proves that you can achieve great success living and working in North Dakota.”

“Dakota Datebook” is a radio series from Prairie Public in partnership with the State Historical Society of North Dakota and with funding from Humanities North Dakota.