John Donation Compton
John Donation Compton was born in Manchester, Ohio, in 1844. The same year his father removed to the vicinity of Winchester, where he spent his boyhood until 1857, when his father removed to near Hillsboro, Ohio, and in 1860, he removed to Harveysburg, Warren County, Ohio. While residing there with his father, he enlisted in Company F, 12th O. V. I., January 28, 1861, for three years, and was transferred to Company H, 23d O. V. I., July 1, 1864. The 12th O. V. I. was in eleven battles and engagements from July 21, 1861, to June 17, 1864, as follows: Scarey Creek, Gauley Bridge, Carnifix Ferry. West Virginia; Bull Run Bridge, Virginia; Frederick, South Mountain and Antietam, Maryland; Cloyd Mountain and Lynchburg, Virginia, and Fayetteville, West Virginia. His captain was Harrison Gray Otis, who is a Brigadier General in the Army in the Philippines. It will be remembered that the famous 23d O. V. I. was President McKinleys regiment. The President was First Lieutenant of Companies E, A, and K in that regiment and Second Lieutenant of Company D.
After his return from the war, our subject attended school at Harveysburg the following winter, and from 1866 to 1869, he was engaged in business with his father at Rome. In the latter year he went to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he was employed in the dry goods house of Rumsey, Roads & Reed, and later with . H. Wait & Son, in the furniture business.
In 1874, he was married to Miss Mattie W. Mathews, of Cincinnati. They had two children: William M., who died in 1898, and a daughter now in the High School.
In 1872 and 1873, he was employed as traveling salesman for the Sheboygan Chair Company; in 1878, he removed to Cincinnati and was employed as bookkeeper, first, with Butterworth & Company, and for twelve years with F. I. Billings & Company, furniture dealers.
He has lived at Dayton, Kentucky, since 1883, and served on the Board of Education and on the Board of Health of that city. He is now Deputy United States Marshal at Covington, Kentucky.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900