HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID
RG5393.AM: Hardy W. Campbell, 1850-1937
Correspondence; writings: 1925-1927
Brown County, Dakota Territory: Farmer
Size: One folder
BACKGROUND NOTE
Born in Vermont in 1850, Hardy Webster Campbell homesteaded in Brown County, Dakota Territory, where he helped to found the county’s first rural school near Putney. After several crop failures, Campbell began experimenting with various farming practices to help conserve soil moisture. He eventually established a system called, “Scientific Soil Culture,” which he believed could be successful even in years of drought. He promoted his system of agriculture, and from the 1900s to the 1930s, he managed demonstration farms and gave lectures along several rail lines through the Great Plains. Campbell wrote articles for numerous agricultural publications and established two agricultural journals. Hardy W. Campbell continued lecturing on his dry farming techniques and eventually settled in California, where he died in 1937.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
This collection consists of one folder containing correspondence and writings by Hardy W. Campbell. Much of the correspondence is between Hardy W. Campbell and Addison E. Sheldon, superintendent of the Nebraska State Historical Society. The Society invited Campbell to Nebraska to give a lecture on the history of dry farming practices. Campbell was unable to attend, but he sent a speech to be read, entitled, “The Origin and Beginning of Progressive Soil Culture or Dry Farming in the Western Plains Region.” Several additional published articles and a bibliography of Campbell’s works is also included in the collection. Items in the collection date from 1925 to 1927.
INVENTORY
Correspondence and writings of Hardy W. Campbell, 1925-1927
Subject headings:
Campbell, Hardy Webster, 1850-1937
Crop improvement
Dry farming
Sheldon, Addison Erwin, 1861-1943
Soil conservation
TMM 01-13-2021
