Dallas County AlArchives Photo person.....J. C. Compton 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 19, 2004, 7:12 pm

Source: Brant & Fuller (1893)
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   HON. JORDAN CHAPPELL COMPTON.- This distinguished attorney-at-law, of Selma,
and the president of the senate of Alabama, was born in Jackson, Butts county,
Ga., and is the eldest son of Pleasant M. and Lydia R. (Devereaux) Compton. His
parents descended from among the oldest colonial families of Virginia. His
mother is a descendant from the well-known Harrison family of that state. The
Comptons came from England. Three brothers of them, after the revolution in
England, which resulted in the beheading of Charles I., settled in Maryland.
They had been loyal to the king. Two of these brothers afterward removed to
Virginia, and their descendants have removed thence to Georgia, Mississippi,
Louisiana and other southern states. Jordan Compton, the paternal grandfather of
J. C. Compton, was the son of John and Anne (Cross) Compton, of Dinwiddie
county, Va., and after marrying Susan Chappell, a daughter of Philip and Sarah
(Dickie) Chappell, of Halifax county, Va., removed and settled in 1807 at
Monticello, Ga. In the war with Great Britain, in 1812, he commanded a company
of horse on the coast of Georgia, near Darien. He died at the age of eighty-two
years, and was a very successful planter. Pleasant M. Compton, son of Jordan and
Susan (Chappell) Compton, and the father of J. C. Compton, while representing
Butts county in the Georgia legislature, as a Whig, was elected by the
legislature surveyor general of the state, which important office he held for
ten years. He died on the 19th of March, 1890, in the eightieth year of his age
at Milledgeville, Ga., where he had been a very prominent and wealthy business
man for many years. Jordan Chappell Compton was educated at Oglethorpe
university, in Georgia, and at the Mathematical and Classical school of Benjamin
Hallowell & Sons, in Alexandria, Va., the celebrated Quaker school, and one of
the best known schools in the United States at that time. While engaged in the
study of law he enlisted as a private in company H, Fourth regiment Georgia
volunteers, and served with that regiment at Norfolk, and at Richmond, Va.,
until after the series of battles at the latter place in 1862, when he was
commissioned in the pro-visional army of the Confederate States, and ordered to.
Gen. Bragg's army in Tennessee; there he was attached to the staff of Maj.-Gen.
Henry Heth, and served on that general's staff in Brag's Kentucky campaign.
Afterward, he accompanied Gen. Stevenson's division to Vicksburg, Miss., and in
January, 1863, he was one of three chosen by an examining board, from many
applicants, for service as an artillery and ordnance officer. During the siege
of Vicksburg by Gen. Grant's army, he was in personal charge of the ordnance
depot of the besieged army, a place of great responsibility and peril; after the
capitulation of that army, and his exchange, he was placed on duty with Gen.
Johnston's army at Meridian, Miss.; from thence he was ordered by the secretary
of war at Richmond, Va., to the Selma arsenal as second officer in command under
Col. James L. White. This arsenal was probably the largest in the Confederate
States. He participated in all the battles in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and
Mississippi, in which his respective commands were engaged, and surrendered with
the Confederate forces at Meridian, Miss., in 1865. He married in Selma, Ala.,
in 1865, Miss Ada Norris, the eldest daughter of Mr. William J. Norris, the
president of the Commercial bank of Alabama at that place, and made Selma his
home. He was admitted to the bar of the state, by the supreme court, in June,
1869, and has been actively engaged in his profession since that time. He is an
active member of the democratic party, and has served as chairman of its county
and congressional committees in notable campaigns. In 1881, he was a delegate
from the fourth congressional district of Alabama to the national democratic
convention at Chicago, which nominated President Grover Cleveland. In 1886, he
was, by acclamation, nominated for state senator, and was elected without
opposition. He served in the senate in the session of 1886-7 as chairman of the
committee on local legislation, and was a member of the judiciary committee;
during the session of 1888-9 he served as chairman of the judiciary committee.
In 1890 he was re-elected to the senate, and during the session of 1890-1 he
again served as chairman of the judiciary committee. At the session of 1891-2 he
was unanimously elected president of the Alabama senate, which position he now
holds. Maj. Compton is a fine type of the educated gentleman, with genial
manners and cultivated tastes. As a lawyer he stands high in his profession, and
has an extensive and lucrative practice. As a member of the Alabama senate he
has made a distinguished record. He is not given to much speaking in that body,
but when he takes the floor he is listened to with marked attention, and is
effective and convincing. He has exerted great influence in securing wise
legislation. As a citizen he is greatly beloved and respected in the community
where he resides, and is always in hearty sympathy with all movements looking to
the advancement of his city and state.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 852, 853-854 
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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