“…In Harvest Thou Shalt Rest”: Rev. Compton’s Marple Farm

Posted On December 26, 2020

By Sam Pickard

About a year ago, I came across Robert Compton, who was listed as a “Baptist clergyman” in the 1860 census schedules for Marple Township. Compton caught my attention because I was not aware of a Baptist congregation in Marple during this period, so I began digging. I soon discovered that he was a pastor of the Newtown Baptist Church, who spent about four years (that we know of) living on a small farm in Marple. This vignette will focus on how Compton wound up in Marple and his time in the township during the twilight of his life.

Robert Compton was born in England in 1793 and likely immigrated to the United States early in the 1800s. According to a history written by his great-great-grandson, Gene Compton, Robert Compton had been born a Methodist, but had converted to the Baptist denomination and later became ordained as a minister.¹ Like most Baptist ministers during this era, Compton likely did not receive much (if any) payment for his work, and probably farmed for a living.²

The first church of which Compton is known to have been a pastor is the First Baptist Church of Camden, New Jersey, where he ministered to the congregation between September 1829 and September 1832.³ While there, he married Maryland native Anna Moffat in about 1829 and she soon gave birth to their first son William M. Compton. Anne would give birth twice more in the coming years, bringing sons Joseph and Franklin into the household.⁴ Though he was starting a family, Rev. Compton appears to have been quite itinerant for a pastor, allegedly walking over a thousand miles one year spreading the gospel. While probably driven to preach by evangelical zeal, the aforementioned family history notes that in at least two letters Robert wrote to his wife, he expressed concern about leaving his young family alone.⁵

The Compton family crossed the river to Delaware County, where Robert appears to have served as the pastor of the First Particular Baptist Church of Ridley. Other records appear to indicate that he was serving as pastor at Goshen Baptist Church from 1832 to 1834 and then of the newly-founded Newtown Baptist Church in Newtown Square for several months during 1834 and 1835. Perhaps taken as a whole these are an illustration of his mobility and riding a circuit as an itinerant minister.⁶

Compton served at several churches in Chester County before moving to Baltimore in 1842 to take over as pastor for Mt. Zion Baptist Church (also known as Madison Street Baptist Church).⁷ This congregation struggled with financial and membership issues during its nearly two decades of existence, but Compton’s tenure was a bright spot in its history. Historian John Thomas Scharf wrote in his history of Baltimore that Compton was the church’s longest-serving and most successful pastor, “adding forty-six to the membership.”⁸ By early 1845, Compton was back in Chester County, serving as the pastor of the Beulah Baptist Church during the remainder of the 1840s.⁹

After Compton’s tenure at Beulah Baptist Church ended in 1849, the family appears to have moved to Newtown Square, with Compton assisting as a supply minister at the Newtown Baptist Church, which had no formal pastor during this time. By January 1850 he was conducting marriages at the “parsonage” in Newtown Square.¹⁰ The 1850 census appears to indicate that the Comptons were living along Media Line Road near the intersection with West Chester Pike.¹¹ According to the agricultural schedules of the census, Compton was farming a small, four-acre tract that he was likely renting. The family had a horse, three cows, and two swine, and grew a limited number of crops compared to the surrounding farms. The Comptons grew corn, potatoes, and hay on their small farm and produced 200 pounds of butter a year. In comparison, the average amount of butter produced by Newtown Township farms was 1,390 pounds.¹²

Though they farmed the four-acre tract, no one in the Compton household had their occupation recorded as farmer on the census. William M. Compton, the 20-year-old eldest son, was enumerated as a printer, while 14-year-old Joseph was still in school.¹³ Curiously, William had married several months before in Philadelphia, and was working as a printer in Kensington with Samuel Compton, likely a relative. He would die in Philadelphia of cardiac issues just five years later at age 26.¹⁴ The middle son, Joseph Compton, then 18, was not enumerated with the family, but may have been working in Philadelphia as a brass moulder.¹⁵

In February 1851, Compton seemingly took a position as pastor of Goshen Baptist Church in West Goshen, Chester County, though he continued to live in Newtown Township. Anna M. Compton purchased and then sold a lot on State Street in Media in 1853/1854 while she was a resident of Newtown Township and there is no indication that the family moved once again.¹⁶ Compton left the pulpit at Goshen Baptist in 1856, allegedly worn out, but accepted a call to become Newtown Baptist’s permanent pastor.¹⁷ Despite this new position, Compton did not remain in Newtown Square but instead bought a farm in Marple.

In August 1856 Richard Poole ran an ad in the Delaware County Republican offering his 7.5-acre truck farm for sale. Poole had purchased the farm just two-and-a-half years before and was selling because he planned “to remove to the West…” The farm was located on what is now the southeast corner of Sproul and Paxon Hollow Roads—the present site of the Marple Commons office complex. According to Poole’s ad, the farm was “first quality land” which had “been used as a truck or vegetable garden.” As described by the ad, truck farming focused on raising vegetables and produce for markets in towns or cities. The farm featured a frame farm house, barn, milk house, “and other out buildings,” as well as good fences.¹⁸

In January 1857, the Delaware County Republican reported that Richard Poole had sold his “productive” farm to Rev. Compton, though the deed was not executed until March 1857 when Compton purchased the farm for $2,116.¹⁹ Sadly, Robert probably did not get to enjoy his newly acquired farm for long. In October 1857, just seven months after Compton acquired the farm, the Philadelphia Public Ledger reported that the Baptist Association of Philadelphia had taken up a collection for Compton, who was “disabled by illness.”²⁰

Little is known about Compton in the intervening years. In June 1860 the census recorded Robert Compton as a Baptist clergyman owning real estate worth $2,300 (the farm). In addition to Anna Moffat Compton, the couple’s surviving sons—the 28-year-old Joseph and 24-year-old Franklin were living on their parents’ farm. Joseph, like his brother William in 1860, was married but living apart from his wife, who was living with her mother and children in Upper Penns Neck, New Jersey.²¹

Both of the Compton son’s occupations were given as gardeners as opposed to farmers, possibly hinting at their roles in working the truck farm (1860 Census).²² The agricultural schedules of the census show that the Comptons had a horse, two cows, and three pigs in June 1860. In the preceding year the farm had produced 25 bushels of corn, 30 bushels of oats, and 30 bushels of potatoes as well as 140 pounds of butter and $150 worth of produce.²³

In March of the following year, Robert and Anna Compton sold their farm to Margaret P. Worrall for $2,150.²⁴ As quickly as they had come to Marple, the Comptons seemed to be leaving. It is not known why they sold their farm or where they lived in the ensuing years, though an 1868 driving map, perhaps copying earlier maps, notes R. Compton as the owner of the small farm.²⁵ Both Franklin and Joseph Compton enlisted in the Union Army in 1861, with Franklin eventually dying in the Confederate prisoner of war camp at Andersonville, Georgia.²⁶ Robert Compton himself died several years after the war in July 1869 at age 73.²⁷ He was buried behind Newtown Baptist Church at the front of its cemetery and his grave is marked by a stone his widow Anna erected. Anna Compton would survive her husband by more than 20 years, passing away at the Baptist Home in Philadelphia in 1899 two months short of her 99th birthday.²⁸

Further research would be needed to flesh out the rest of Rev. Robert Compton’s busy life. While he probably spent only four years on his Marple Township farm, he was likely a well-known figure in northern Delaware County and northeastern Chester County for decades. More research into Compton’s time in the area and the congregations which he served would provide a better understanding of communities in this area and how they grew and interacted.

I would like to thank Doug Humes of the Newtown Square Historical Society for answering my inquiries about Compton, and Carol Miller and Robert Compton for giving permission to use photos of Robert and posting otherwise undigitized material relating to their ancestor’s life online.

1. J. E. Compton, “Franklin J. Compton,” (unpublished manuscript, 1999, retrieved from Ancestry.com, posted as 1999-LGC-Frankiln Compton Storey by user Robert Compton), 2.
2. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 180-181.
3. First Baptist Church, Historical Sketch of the First Baptist Church, Camden, N. J. (Camden, New Jersey: First Baptist Church, 1893), 35.
4. Compton, “Franklin J. Compton,” 1; “Anna Moffat Compton,” death notice, Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 September 1899, 14.
5. Compton, “Franklin J. Compton,” 2.
6. Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., 1884), 644, 747; J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 262-263.
7. Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 262-263, 265; J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 559-560.
8. Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County, 560.
9. Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 265.
10. “Marriage,” Village Record (West Chester, Pennsylvania), 29 January 1850; “Marriage,” Delaware County Republican (Chester, Pennsylvania), 1 February 1850.
11. 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Newtown Township, sheet 244B, lines 20-25; Joshua W. Ash, Map of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, 1848).
12. 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 4.—Productions of Agriculture, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Newtown Township, pages [287]-[288], line 11; Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, “Delaware County 1850 Census Data,” Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project, 2015, retrieved from http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/agriculture/files/1850/data/delaware_county_1850_census_data.pdf.
13. 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Newtown Twp., 244B, lines 20-25.
14. “William M. Compton” with “Sarah C. Sewell” at Old St. George Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 17 April 1850 in “Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1669-2013,” Ancestry.com, [online database], original data from Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania); A. McElroy, compiler, McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory, for 1850 (Philadelphia: Edward C. & John Biddle, 1850), 77; A. McElroy, compiler, McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory, for 1851 (Philadelphia: Edward C. & John Biddle, 1851), 77; A. McElroy, compiler, McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory, for 1852 (Philadelphia: Edward C. & John Biddle, 1852), 81; A. McElroy, compiler, McElroy’s Philadelphia Directory, for 1855 (Philadelphia: Edward C. & John Biddle, 1855), 99; “William M. Compton,” death notice, Village Record (West Chester, Pennsylvania), 3 July 1855.
15. 1850 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County, Philadelphia, High Street Ward, sheet 181A, line 33.
16. Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 263; Delaware County Deed Book A2, 564-565; Delaware County Deed Book B2, 428-429.
17. Futhey and Cope, History of Chester County, 263; Ashmead, History of Delaware County, 644.
18. “Private Sale,” advertisement, Delaware County Republican (Chester, Pennsylvania), 29 August 1856; Delaware County Deed Book D2, 496-498; Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, s.v. “truck farming,” accessed December 2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truck%20farming.
19. “Real Estate Sales,” Delaware County Republican, 23 January 1857; Delaware County Deed Book D2, 496-498.
20. “Local Affairs,” Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 10 October 1857, 1.
21. 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township, page 98, lines 15-18; Record Proof of Marriages, Births, and Deaths, Joseph H. K. Compton and Adelethea Simkins, 2 July 1855, Hilltown Baptist Church, Hilltown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, (retrieved from Ancestry.com, image posted as “Joseph Compton marriage to Adlethea Simkins,” by user CabbieM424); 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, New Jersey, Salem County, Upper Penn’s Neck Township, page 35, lines 25, 31-33.
22. 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 1.—Free Inhabitants, Pennsylvania, Delaware Co., Marple Twp., 98, lines 17-18
23. 1860 U.S. Census, Schedule 4.—Productions of Agriculture, Pennsylvania, Delaware County, Marple Township, pages 9-10, line 16.
24. Delaware County Deed Book I2, 65-66.
25. H. E. B. Taylor, Barnes Driving Map of Philadelphia and Surroundings (Philadelphia: R. L. Barnes, 1868).
26. Compton, “Franklin J. Compton,” 3, 66.
27. “Rev. Robert Compton,” death notice, Public Ledger (Philadelphia), 11 August 1869, 2.
28. “Anna Moffat Compton,” death notice, Philadelphia Inquirer, 29 September 1899, 14.