My Genealogy Hound

Robert J. Compton is a farmer of Union Township, and this calling has received his attention from his earliest recollections, for he was initiated into its mysteries by his father, who was a successful tiller of the soil. He was born in Laurens District, S. C, in 1828. His parents, John and Martha (Sloan) Compton, were also born there, and in this State the father died about 1837, his widow passing to her long home a short time prior to the opening of the Rebellion, the latter being a member of the Associate Reformed Church. John Compton, the paternal grandfather, was born in England, and prior to the Revolutionary War emigrated to the New World and died a farmer of the Palmetto State. The grandfather Sloan was born, reared and married in Ireland, and after coming to America, died in South Carolina, at the age of one hundred and fourteen years, an agriculturist by occupation. Robert J. Compton was the third of a family of nine children, and with his brothers and sisters was reared on a farm and attended the district schools in his youth. His marriage took place in his native county in 1851, to Nancy, a daughter of William and Frances Craig, South Carolinians, who came to Hempstead County, Ark., in 1850, and here spent the rest of their days. Mr. Craig was a farmer and miller, and both he and wife had long been members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Compton was born in Laurens District, S. C, in 1831, and has become the mother of the following family of children: Ora E. (of Howard County), La Fayette, Lawrence Young, John F. (of Howard County), America and two children that died in infancy. In 1856 Mr. Compton came to Hempstead County, and for the past eighteen years has lived on his present farm of 200 acres, three miles southeast of Nashville, Ark., a fertile and well tilled farm that he has earned by his own unaided efforts. He is a member of the Agricultural Wheel, a Democrat in politics, and he and wife have for some time been members of the Missionary Baptist Church. In 1862 Mr. Compton joined Company G, Nineteenth Arkansas Infantry, but while on duty at Arkansas Post was captured and was kept in prison at Camp Douglas, Chicago, Ill., for three months. Upon being released he rejoined his command, and was in the engagements at Chickamauga, King’s Station, and was in most of the battles of the Atlanta campaign. From that place he returned home, and was in the Indian Territory at the time of the final surrender.