My Genealogy Hound

HON. MATTHEW THOMPSON CAMPBELL.
Hon. Matthew Thompson Campbell, an attorney of Topeka, has resided in this city continuously since 1872. He was born at Bloomington, Indiana, May 2, 1846, and is a son of Matthew M. and Martha (McPherters) Campbell. His grandfather, Arthur Lee Campbell, was the owner of a great tract of land in Kentucky, where the city of Louisville now stands, and was a warm friend of President Andrew Jackson, with whom he used to correspond relative to Indian affairs.

Matthew M. Campbell, father of our subject, was born in Tennessee and upon reaching manhood’s estate went to Indiana. There he attended and graduated at the State University at Bloomington, and afterward taught the languages in that institution for a period of 15 years. He with his family came West to Kansas in 1860 as agent for the American Bible Society, visiting every house in the State. He returned to Indiana in 1862 and served as county superintendent of public instruction for a number of years. He was also chaplain in the army in the Civil War. He again came to Kansas in the later days of 1880 and located with the subject of our sketch at Topeka, where his wife died in 1881. He attained wide prominence as an educator, corresponding with educators all over the world, and contributed many articles for educational journals. His death occurred in December, 1897, and he lies buried by the side of his wife in the Topeka Cemetery. In politics he was a Republican and a strong temperance advocate.

Matthew Thompson Campbell first came to Topeka in 1860 with the rest of the family, but in a few years returned East to take a course in Eastman’s Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. He experienced a change of mind as to his career in business and decided to enter the legal profession. He entered the University of Indiana, and after graduation in 1869 came West to Atchison County, Kansas, reading law in the office of Hubbard & Glenn for two years. He was admitted to the bar at Atchison under Judge Nathan Price, and immediately thereafter began the practice of the law at Waterville, Marshall County, Kansas. In December, 1872, he came to Topeka where he has since practiced his profession. He has the confidence and esteem of a large clientage, as well as of the general public. He is a Republican in politics, and in 1876-77 represented the district north of the Kansas River in the State Legislature. He has also served as a member of the Board of Education of Topeka. He maintains his office at No. 531 Kansas avenue.

On September 3, 1871, Mr. Campbell was united in marriage with Louise Adams at Waterville, Kansas. She is a daughter of Henry J. Adams, who was the first Free-State mayor of Leavenworth and was one of the leaders of his party. His brother, Franklin G. Adams, a very prominent man, was graduated from Cincinnati College in 1852, and in 1858 was made probate judge of Atchison County, Kansas. In 1861 he was appointed register of the United States Land Office by President Lincoln, and in 1865 was appointed United States Indian agent. In 1864, he established the Atchison Daily and Weekly Free Press, and was later proprietor of the Waterville Telegraph. In 1876 he became first secretary of the State Historical Society, and held that office many years and until his death. On September 29, 1855, he married Harriet E. Clark. Henry J. Adams married Abbie R. Gibson, whose sister married the noted sculptor, Hiram Powers.

Our subject and his wife became the parents of six children, as follows: Annie, who married J. E. Griest, of Ellis, Kansas, now chief clerk of the Western Division of the Union Pacific Railroad, and has three children: Theodore Reed Griest, aged six years, Louise, aged four years, and John Mendleson, aged two years; Arthur Lee, the second child born to our subject and his wife, who was named after his paternal grandfather; Florence Powers (named after the daughter of Hiram Powers, above mentioned), who is now acting as her father’s stenographer; George M. (who is a sophomore at Washburn College and is greatly interested in scientific works); Eugene Dunlap, a freshman at Washburn College, who was named after Rev. Eugene Dunlap, a great and personal friend of Mr. Campbell, being at Eugene’s birth, pastor of the North Congregational Church at Topeka but now a resident of Chicago; and Donald Adams (who takes his mother’s family name), who is attending Topeka High School. The family are members of the Congregational Church of Topeka. Their residence is in the First Ward of the city.