Thomas Campbell Research Paper

Thomas Mitchell Campbell was born on April 22, 1856 in Rusk Texas. He is the son of Thomas Duncan and Rachel (Moore) Campbell. As a young lad, he went to public schools until finally getting into Trinity University of Tehuacana, Texas to study law. Though, lack of finances forced him to withdraw from the school after a year. He was able to find a job in Gregg county clerk's office and would study law at night. In 1878, he was admitted to the Texas Bar at Longview. He also married Fannie Irene Bruner of Shreveport, Louisiana in the same year. They had five children.
Campbell practiced law in Longview until he was assigned to the troubled International-Great Northern Railroad in 1889. Financier Jay Gould had allowed the ailing railroad to default on its debts in 1888 and then forced it into federal receivership in order to gain eventual control of it. Campbell soon found himself involved with the railroad’s recovery. He moved his family to Palestine in order to become its court-appointed receiver in 1891. The next year, after lifting the line from bankruptcy, he remained in Palestine as the general manager of the railroad.
He shared many of the reformist political views of his lifelong friend, former governor James Stephen Hogg. In 1897 Campbell resigned from the railroad, returned to private law practice in Palestine, and became active in Democratic Party politics. He attended several Democratic conventions. Hogg urged Campbell to run for governor and ended up doing so. Though Hogg died before the campaign was carried out, Campbell used his support and promised to resurrect his friend's antitrust policies. His campaign gained added impetus when Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey offered his support, and Campbell was elected governor in