Barton County Beacon

Thursday, July 16, 1891

Front Page Column 2

Obituary

Jasper W.  Compton enter the Heavenly rest on July 9, 1891, at his home in Barton County, 16 miles west of Great Bend.  The deceased was born in Tazewell County, Virginia on the 10th day of August, 1846.  On the 14th day of March, 1870, Jasper W.  Compton and Miss Mattie Bird were reunited in holy matrimony by Rev. A.  Ashworth.  Mr. Compton, with his family, removed from Bland County, Virginia to Barton County, Kansas, in March, 1878, and was a citizen of the same till his death.  He knew what hard times were, and the struggles peculiar to a new country; but he was a good manager and possessed good business ability, as well as his wife, and they were successful in their efforts.  They own 480 acres of land with a good house and barn, and some stock.  Thus he had provided for his family a good home, with many of the comforts of life.  He had arranged his business affairs previous to his death, deeding everything into Mrs. Compton, to be distributed to his heirs according to a will previously made.

Mr. Compton had been afflicted for thirteen  Years, and a part of that time, a great sufferer.  His disease was a complicated one.  First, the catarrh, then rheumatism, dropsy, and erysipelas.  He tried many remedies, but none of them gave him permanent relief.  He was confined to the house for some years before his death, and part of the time to his bed.  His death was expected, by his friends, at any time for two or three years; but he struggled on and battled with the monster, death, and would rally from the sinking spells which he so often had.  But there came a last struggled in his suffering was o’er and he quietly passed away.  A few days before the end came he began to grow worse.  The doctor was called at Mr. Compton consented to be tapped, as the doctor said that was the only means of relief; but it failed to relieve him, has no water was taken from him.  On the morning of his death he called for Mattie, his wife, after his breakfast had been prepared and brought him, and said to her, “I can't eat anything.”  She offered to fix him something else, which she did but he could not eat it.  Then he said to her “Mattie, do not leave me, for I am so very sick and suffering so much.”  Then he said, “send for Johnny” (his son, for he was dying.)  Johnny had gone out to the harvest field, about twenty rods from the house.  He came running, but his father only breathed twice after he got in the house.  And then the end came, and the family was deprived of a husband and father, but their loss was his game.  He bore his intense suffering without a murmur, without complaining.  He leaves a devoted wife and six children and a number of near relatives and hosts of friends to mourn his death.  Mr. Compton had not only acted wisely in his secular affairs, but in the welfare of his soul.  He first joined the Methodist church South.  Sometime after he got a letter from that church and in August 1879 joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and remained a member of the same until his death.  Shortly after joining the M.E. Church he professed religion, and often told his friends that he was fully prepared to die, and not to be uneasy about his future welfare.

It was my lot to preach the funeral, and when I was told that Mr. Compton is prepared to die, it gave me great comfort, and a foundation from which to speak. “Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.”  Great events require preparation.  Why, not “prepare to meet thy God, Oh Israel”?

Mrs. Compton and family have the sincere sympathies of the community, as was shown on the day of the funeral.  Though in the midst of harvest, a large congregation gathered to pay their respects to the dead and the living.  We commit them all to One who is “a very present help in trouble.”

Rev. W.  E. Knight