Background
William K. Compton (1824 - 1873) married my 4th great aunt, Jane P. Sloan (1822 - 1894), the oldest of John Sloan II's children. She was born in Newberry, South Carolina and moved to Indiana with her parents. I recently discovered photos of them both in the archives of the terrific
Carroll County Historical Museum, which I highly recommend subscribing to if you are from the area.
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| Jane P. Sloan and William K. Compton circa 1875 |
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| Close on Jane, same photo |
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| William circa 1870 |
William was a dry goods merchant and postmaster in Rockfield, Carroll County, before moving to Lafayette to become a factory worker. He died at the age of 49 of some sort of accident that fractured his skull while in Indianapolis. But before that, he got into a tiff with the editor of a local paper who was, shall we say, much more enthusiastic about the Democratic party than he was about the truth.
The Altercation
Inciting Incident
That editor was
Milton R. Graham of the Delphi Weekly Times, and began on
Saturday, September 17th, 1859. (That link is to the terrific newspaper archive for Carroll County.) Here, to give you an idea of the level of journalism we are dealing with, is the actual headline from the paper (transcription below):
The term "Black Republicans" originated with slaveholders expressing scorn for the party of Lincoln, and does not here refer to actual black Republicans (obviously). But the eight stacked headlines there (apparently he could not choose just one) are about William Compton supposedly holding secret meetings in his store so that he and his conspirators can plan how to import illegal voters to steal the election. The tone of overwrought moral outrage is very amusing. Here is the piece in full:
