Compton Cemetery
Dew, Freestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
William Scott Compton (1805-1882), and his wife, Angelina Louisa Gunn Ward (1806-1880) purchased over 3000 acres here in the settlement of Avant Prairie (later Dew) in 1852. On this acreage the Comptons built a log home, barns and quarters for their slaves. An attorney and banker, William served as a county judge and state senator in Alabama before moving to Texas. This cemetery began in 1855 with the burial of the Comptons' eldest daughter, Elizabeth Blackmon Compton Johnson. Also buried here are the Comptons' sons, Joseph (Jodie) and Felix Richard, both Confederate veterans of the Civil War; and their granddaughter, Martha (Mattie) Jane, and her husband George Walton White, Texas State Legislator (1889 and 1891), Baptist minister, and charter member of the Corinth Baptist Church in Dew, Texas. George White's heirs formally set aside the cemetery property in 1943 and for the next 40 years the cemetery received modest care from family members residing in the original settlement home built by William and Angelina Compton. Descendants of the Compton and White families formed an association in 1983 for the purpose of maintaining the cemetery. Compton Cemetery represents a well-preserved example of a small family cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
William Scott Compton, an Alabama attorney, banker, judge, and state senator, purchased more than 3,000 acres in the Avant Prairie settlement in 1852 and built a log home, barns, and quarters for the people he enslaved. The cemetery began in 1855 with the burial of his eldest daughter and holds two sons who served as Confederate veterans, along with descendant George Walton White, a Texas legislator and Baptist minister. Family descendants formed an association in 1983 to maintain the well-preserved grounds.
Why it matters
This family cemetery preserves the intertwined histories of antebellum settlement, slavery, and the Civil War that shaped so much of nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · William Scott Compton
- · Angelina Louisa Gunn Ward
- · George Walton White
Themes & tags
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