1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

John J. Campbell, present incumbent of the office of city attorney of Pittsburg, Kansas, and otherwise prominent in the public and professional life of the city and county, joined the ranks of the legal fraternity a decade ago and has had a most successful career. He gained his start on the road to success by his great energy and inherited talent for participation in public affairs and legal matters, and he has for several years been recognized among the leading representatives at the bar in one of the foremost counties of the state.

Mr. Campbell has the distinction of being a native of the Sunflower state, so that his life from birth has been identified with its institutions and activities. He was born in Neosho county, September 10, 1869, a son of Daniel and Mary (McRae) Campbell, both of staunch Scotch stock and lineage. His father was born in Nova Scotia, and followed farming. He migrated to Kansas in 1867, locating in Neosho county, where he was one of the pioneers and took up a prairie claim. He was a highly successful farmer there until his death, which occurred in 1871. Mrs. Mary Campbell was also a native of Nova Scotia, and now makes her home in Erie, Kansas, being an old lady, endeared by her many graces of character to all who know her.

Mr. Campbell spent his youth in Neosho county on the home farm. He received his early education in the district schools of his community, and later entered Baker University, at Baldwin, Kansas, where he was a student for two years. At the age of nineteen he came to Pittsburg and took up the study of law in the office of his brother, Phillip P. Campbell, whose career receives cursory mention below. He was admitted to the bar in December, 1893, and six months later was appointed city attorney of Pittsburg. In 1900 he was elected county attorney of Crawford county, and after serving two years was offered the nomination again, but declined, owing to the fact that his brother was in that year a candidate for Congress. In the spring Of 1903 he was again appointed city attorney, and is still serving in that office.

Mr. Campbell is unmarried. He is highly esteemed in social and business circles, and is especially prominent in local politics. He has gained quite a reputation as an orator, and is often called upon to make speeches during the campaigns and on other occasions. He is a past exalted ruler and very prominent in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a high-degree Mason, having all the consistory degrees including the thirty-second and being a Shriner.