Butte County
Biographies
JOSEPH COMPTON
JOSEPH COMPTON.—There are many inhabitants of Chico who were attracted to its hospitable confines in the latter part of the eighties, and of this number we find the name of Joseph Compton enrolled among those who have made themselves generally useful in building up the varied interests that have made Butte County famous. He was born in Howard, Steuben County, N. Y., February 23, 1848. His grandfather was George Henry Compton, born in Rhode Island, of Welsh forebears, who settled in New York. Joseph Compton’s parents were Henry and Dorcas (Hill) Compton, both born in the Empire State, but who eventually moved to Allegan County, Mich., where they died. Of their family of twelve children, ten grew to maturity and six are now living; George Henry, in Michigan; David, in Glenn County; Joseph, of this review; Daniel L., in Chico; Albert, in Washington; and William A., in Oregon.
Joseph was reared to the age of thirteen in New York, where he attended the public schools. He accompanied the family to Allegan County, Mich., in 1861, and worked with his father on the farm, helping to subdue the virgin soil, until he was seventeen, when he bought his time from his father. He then returned to Buffalo, N. Y., and drove canal boat on the Erie Canal, being tow-boy from Buffalo to Albany a season, and then he worked in the woods, becoming adept with the ax. At about twenty years of age he went to Iowa and spent one summer, then went back to Michigan and apprenticed himself to learn the trade of carpenter, under Alva Tracy. Three years later they formed a partnership, which continued one year, then Mr. Compton began taking contracts for himself, until he came west to North Dakota, in 1878. In Wahpeton he worked for four dollars per day, building elevators. He located a preemption claim and paid out on it, and put in a crop on sixty acres, using oxen to plow the prairie sod. When he sold out, he made a trip to Rochester, N. Y., then back to Michigan, finally returning to North Dakota, and again went to work helping to build an elevator, doing carpenter work, and later installed the machinery. He next went to Albion, Boone County, Nebr., where, with a brother, Daniel, he bought a farm, improved it and at odd times did contracting and building, soon having about all the work he could handle for the ensuing five years. In 1887 he went to Salem, Ore., and later came to California, and on January 1, 1888, arrived in Chico.
It was about this time in life when Mr. Compton began to realize that a “rolling stone gathers no moss,” and decided to settle down. He found nothing was moving in the building line, so hunted for some other work, and found it on the E. T. Reynolds Ranch, where he remained for three years. He then was employed by the Sierra Lumber Company as a carpenter in their Smoky Flat Mill, repairing and building cars for logging, continuing with that company at intervals for several years. In the meantime he helped build the compressor plant at the Magalia Mine, and did jobs for other mining companies. When the Diamond Match Company opened up for business, Mr. Compton bought lots of Chapman Addition and erected houses on them, selling to the employees of the company, making some profit on each deal. He has continued to build houses and other buildings in Chapmantown and other places ever since, and has a wide reputation for honest workmanship. He occasionally works for the Diamond Match Company. He owns a five-acre prune orchard adjoining Chico on the south. Fraternally Mr. Compton belongs to the Pride of Butte Lodge, Knights of the Pythias. He is a Socialist.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1258-1259, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies