Dakota Datebook: The Wheat King

February 19, 2018 — A 1928 Time magazine article dubbed Thomas Campbell the “Henry Ford of farming.” It was a fitting tribute to the internationally renowned “Wheat King,” born in Dakota Territory on this date in 1882.

Raised on a Grand Forks wheat farm, Thomas Campbell earned a reputation as a mechanic who could fix anything. By the age of seventeen, he was managing his family’s 4,...