Henry's Lieutenants

Frank Charles Campsall

Frank Charles Campsall 1884-1946 "Frank, I imagine, was the most faithful servant a man ever had. He was at Mr. Ford's beck and call night and day.,, —Irving R. Bacon* Aprivate secretary to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford, Frank Campsall ministered to their every wish. He took care of their personal business, answered Henry's mail, arranged travel plans, and accompanied the Fords on trips. He was faithful to the extent that his wife is said to have felt somewhat neglected at times. Frank Charles Campsall was born January 2, 1884, in Essex, Ontario . His father, William Campsall (earlier spelled Campsale), had immigrated from the village of Campsall near Yorkshire, England, in the year Frank was born. Frank's mother was Susannah Thornton Campsall. In 1892, the family, with four children—Frank, Arthur, Frederick, and Dorothy—moved to Detroit and settled in a predominantly French section of the city. Frank became a citizen of the United States as a minor child. His father operated a building contracting business in Detroit. Frank attended public schools in Detroit and, after graduating from Central High School, did office and secretarial work for various business establishments. He married Florence Valliere of Detroit on June 21, 1908. The Campsalls had three children: Madeline, Eleanore, and Frank Jr. In the Detroit City Directory, Campsall is listed in 1911 as living at 654 Porter Street. He was at 98 23rd Street in 1912 and 1913, and designated "clerk" at Ford Motor Company. His home was at 729 Porter Street from 1914 to 1917, when the family moved to 1254 Taylor Avenue, and Campsall is listed as "secretary." This Taylor Avenue address remained their home until 1925, when the Campsalls occupied their Dearborn residence at 705 South Military Avenue. *From the oral reminiscences of Irving R. Bacon, artist employed by Henry Ford. 59 Henry's Lieutenants Campsall first worked in the Ford purchasing department at Highland Park. Because of his secretarial experience, he was transferred to Henry Ford's office. From 1922 until about 1938, Campsall spent considerable time supervising the purchase of property and the restoration of historic Wayside Inn in South Sudbury, Massachusetts, where he represented Henry and Clara Ford. When they were not on the scene, weekly reports of operations of the inn, adjoining farmlands, gristmill, and schools were sent to Campsall, who reported items of importance to the Fords. The Wayside Inn was the motivation for Ford's establishment of Greenfield Village in Dearborn. Wayside Inn was headquarters for a collection of antiques from the New England area during the late 1920s and early 1930s. From 1925 until his death twenty-one years later, Campsall represented Ford in the purchase of plantations and the operation of the Ford Farms (70,000 acres) at Richmond Hill (Ways Station), Georgia. From Dearborn, Campsall arranged shipments of materials to and from Richmond Hill plantation and escorted the Fords on their winter sojourns there. As Henry Ford's private secretary, Campsall not only had to be thoroughly familiar with Ford's varied activities, but he had to execute his every wish relating to them. Ford's control of such enterprises as Henry Ford Hospital, Dearborn Country Club, Greenfield Village Schools, Wayside Inn, and Richmond Hill plantation was exercised largely through Ernest Liebold and Campsall. Just answering the voluminous stacks of mail addressed to Ford involved several under-secretaries in addition to more than fifty types of form letters. CampsalFs office records are filled with details of travel plans for which he was responsible down to the last detail, all as favored by Henry and Clara. In 1928, Campsall made arrangements for a European trip for Mr. and Mrs. Ford and accompanied them on that trip. Their passports specified both business and pleasure, and their destinations were given as England, Scotland, Ireland, and France. This was the Fords' first trip to Europe since 1912, when, with Edsel, they had visited France, England, and Ireland. They had located their ancestral homes—his in Ireland, hers in England. The 1928 trip, limited to England , extended from March 31 until May 8. Passage was on the steamer Majestic. Campsall's expense account reveals he provided British currency almost daily to Clara Ford, and he bought for himself a set of golf clubs. During the period when Liebold was losing authority, from 1933 to 1944, Campsall's responsibilities to the Fords were increasing. As secretaries , the two men's positions were considerably different, however, 60 inasmuch as Liebold's duties were...