By George H. Costain
Written in 1979
When the J.W. Campbells built their huge home on Seventh and Dakota there were virtually no buildings south of Fifth Street.
Mrs. Campbell’s family owned the Brooklyn Street Car Company among other holdings. Mrs. Campbell was a large, unattractive lady who seldom socialized with friends and relatives back East and only attended lavish parties of the exclusive wealthy elite. It was said, unkindly, that she was given a fortune by her parents to go out West, and stay there. She hated Huron and had few friends. Their first home was on California Avenue and their social life was with a small group of the area’s wealthy or politically prominent people.
At the time of the building, the road to it was made of heavy, deep sand and there was a lot of comment about building so far out of town in the “Sand Hills.”

The building had a very large lower level room finished beautifully and well-appointed with a Steinway grand piano. The consensus of opinion was that the mansion, larger than their family needed, was built mainly for entertaining and large parties. The rest of the square block was planted to orchards, walnut and ornamental trees, and beautifully landscaped gardens. It was truly a magnificent mansion that people would  drive from  all over the state to see.
Mr. Campbell planted trees along both sides of the Avenue for many blocks from Fifth Street on past his place south.
As an  example of  Mrs. Campbell’s exclusiveness, she would not let her two younger sons, Tom and Willie, go to public school and mix with the common kids.
Matt  Harris,  the  captain  of  the  first  Huron College football  team,  was  hired  to tutor  the  boys privately,  and  he used to tell many amusing incidents that he experienced in their homes.
Soon after opening their new home, the Campbells gave a huge house warmmg party to an exclusive guest list. As people were leaving they were shocked to learn that  Mrs. Campbell’s diamonds were missing.
There was a lot of searching and inquiring of the guests,  which caused no end of bad feelings. I recall being stopped on the  street by another business man who jokingly asked me if I had taken the diamonds. After a good laugh, we both concluded that as we were not important enough to be invited, we were above suspicion.
After about two weeks it was reported that there was a knock on the front door, and that upon opening it there was no one in sight, but a package containing the diamonds lay on the doorstep.
None of the myriad guesses and suggestions ever helped solve the mystery of Mrs. Campbell’s diamonds.