Associate professor of animal husbandry in the State Agricultural College at Manhattan and secretary of the State Livestock Registry Board whose offices are in the same city, Charles W. McCampbell is a native Kansan and for ten years had broadened and amplified his experience and authoritative knowledge of all phases of the livestock industry, not only with reference to Kansas but to the world at large. While he had perhaps rendered his greatest service as an instructor of the younger generation of Kansas farmers, some of his practical demonstration work and experiments have attracted national attention from livestock men.
He was born on his father’s farm in Marshall County, Kansas, February 1, 1882, is still a young man, and his usefulness had not yet reached its prime. He comes of two old and highly respected American families. The McCampbells are of Scotch ancestry, and from that stock he inherits the traits and characteristics which have made Scotch people leaders in every part of the world. In the maternal line he is of English and German ancestry. In both lines the family had been represented in Kansas since pioneer times. His maternal grandfather, Heber Freeman, came to Kansas in 1862, settling in Washington County. The paternal grandfather, William McCampbell arrived in Kansas in 1869 and also settled in Marshall County. Both grandparents came from Iowa. The parents, James A. and Kate (Freeman) McCampbell, were born in Ohio and were married after they came to Kansas. They then settled on a farm in Marshall County, and after many years of industry there moved to Manhattan, where they now reside. They have two sons, Charles Wilbur and Andrew Delos. Both sons grew up partly in Marshall County and partly in Wabaunsee County.
Charles W. McCampbell attended the public schools at Alma, Kansas, then attended the Normal University at Salina, and having definitely determined that his tastes and inclinations were toward the agricultural profession, he entered the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, where he was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1906. The year following his graduation was spent in the employ of the United States Department of Agriculture in the Bureau of Animal Industry.
With this practical experience he returned to the Agricultural College at Manhattan, and continued his studies in the veterinary school until graduating in 1910 with the degree D. V. M. He then became an instructor in the department of animal husbandry at the college.
Concurrently with the latter office he had held the position of secretary of the Kansas State Livestock Registry Board. Through these two positions he had carried on his work which had brought him an enviable reputation. A few years ago Mr. McCampbell carried out the most extensive and carefully managed horse feeding experiment ever conducted, and undoubtedly the most valuable from a practical standpoint. The results of this experiment are now considered as a standard of reference among progressive horsemen all over the country.
Mr. McCampbell is president of the National Association of State Livestock Registry Boards, is a member of the American Society of Animal Production, and is secretary of the Kansas Horse Breeders Association. He is also a member of the Phi Kappa Phi, the Alpha Zeta, the Alpha Pai, all national fraternities, and a member of the Beta Theta Pi social fraternity.
In 1913 he married Miss Jessie Edwina Apitz of Manhattan.