The Compher
Family has been a part of America for over 2 hundred years as a Compher Family
with a group of other settlers emigrated to America from the Palatinate, then one
of the oldest countries of Europe, situated on the Rhine River, and now one of
the states of Germany, in 1727.
In this shipload
of settlers was several other families, The Spring, Stoneburner and Davis
families. This German group of emigrants came to Pennsylvania in 1727, and
settled on the frontier lands of that state where they remained for two or
three years when they moved in an organized body to Virginia in what is now
Loudoun County, forming the German settlement in the northern part of that
county, where their descendents still reside.
A few years ago
I had the pleasure of visiting there and finding them a very respected and
prosperous people. No doubt the cause of the removal from Pennsylvania was the
out break of the Indians when they attacked the settlers and killed Mr.
Compher, the (first of our name in America) leaving his wife a widow with two
small sons. She hastily gathered a little food and with her two small sons,
started through the woods closely pursued by the Indians, finding that they were
gaining upon her she laid her bread upon a stump in the woods as they fled,
which was probably what saved their lives, as the Indians was so close upon
them, they could hear their shouts when they found the food which they stopped
to eat, and she and her two sons escaped to the settlement and was saved,
shortly after they with the other German settlers, removed to Virginia about
1730 - 1732, where these two sons became the ancestors of the Compher Family of
today, one brother forming our branch, the other one the other family, the
family of Compher's of which there is a number living in Virginia and Maryland,
unfortunately, I have not been able to learn their names or the names of the
father, as some years ago the early records of that community were destroyed by
fire.
Our Great
Grandfather Peter Compher was still a strong man about 1810, he with his sons,
was with other help working in his field harvesting with other men to help him,
when his dog and another dog, a man named Davis, stabbed him, killing him the
in the field where they were working. the two
daughters married and moved to Ohio, one settling near Zanesville, the other
daughter married a Mr. Adams moved near Cincinnati the two older sons remained
in Loudoun County, Virginia.
The oldest son,
John, married March 29, 1808, Margaret Spring, a sister of Grandmother Compher.
Three children was born to them - Sarah, Peter and Elizabeth, when John died,
his brother Peter married his widow March 26, 1816 and they had five children -
Mary, William, Jacob, William Frederick, and Margaret Ann - two of the children
died in infancy. Peter Compher, born May 21,1793, died
March 3, 1886, his wife, Margaret (Spring) Compher died September 14, 1867.
Grandfather
William Compher the youngest child of Peter and Maria (Cramer) Compher was born in Loudoun County, Virginia July 13, 1796 and one
of my prized heirlooms is the Certificate of Birth and Baptism printed in
German. While still a boy in his teens, the War of 1812 opened and he and his
brother Peter both enlisted in the defense of their county, shortly after his
enlistment, when he was moving to the defense of Baltimore, grandfather was
taken sick with the typhoid fever and after six months of sickness was
discharged because of disability.
Early in 1817,
his married in Loudoun County, Virginia, Mary Spring, a daughter of Frederick
and Barbara (Stoneburner) Spring, a sister of Margaret Spring, who his brothers
had married, her father Frederick Spring was a Soldier of the Revolutionary War
and had a family of eight children viz. Frederick who married Sarah Horn and
died in 1858, Adam Spring, Born March 27, 1784. Died July 18, 1849, married
Elizabeth Snoots, Peter Spring married a Miss Martin, Margaret Spring who has
been mentioned was born January 13, 1786 died September 14, 167 and married
first John Compher and second his brother Peter Compher sons of Peter and Maria
(Cramer) Compher. Susan Spring married March 30, 1820 Thomas Davis, Died 1834
Mary Spring, born September 19, 1793, died August 27, 1877, married William Compher,
(grandfather) Elizabeth Spring, born ,died 1885, married April 27, 1827, Thomas
Pritchard, Nancy Spring, born April 12, 1804, died July 6, 1882 married James
Jewell.
William Compher,
having arrived at the age of twenty-one in the summer of 1817 received his
share of his fathers estate decided to seek a home in the country opened to settlement
in Ohio, so he and his young bride gathered a few of the treasured possessions
with $800.00 in gold and loading them in a wagon they started on the long and
wearisome trip of those days by the Cumberland Trail, over the mountains to
Pittsburgh, where they took the boat down the Ohio River to Wheeling and there
they started to drive their white horse over the new Zane Trail, to Zanesville
to secure a farm near his sister there, but thought they would stop and see his
wife’s brother Frederick Spring who lived near where Piedmont now is (the
Barclay Farm) where he persuaded them to locate near him so looking around among
the woods he found a farm nearby with five hundred sugar maple trees which he decided
to buy the Northeast quarter of Section 22, Moorefield Township, Harrison
County, Ohio, a farm of 160 acres which he bought from the government on March
7, 1818, receiving the paper deed signed by James Madison, President, paying
for it $2.50 a acre instead of the usual price of $1.25 per acre as this farm
was the section which was just west of section 16 which was reserved for
schools so the government sold that section at double the price, The farm was
all in woods except an acre or so cleared by a squatter, the nearest town was
Moorefield which was laid out two years before and consisted at that time of
three houses, the nearest Post Office was Cadiz fourteen miles away, and roads
was trails thru the woods, The farm was unimproved and covered with a growth of
large trees upon it but hard labor he soon had a cleared space of land and a
comfortable house erected near a large spring which they continued to occupy
until in the summer of 1839, he erected the large two story brick dwelling
house where he lived the remainder of his life, The brick was made and burned
upon the farm in the afield below the house by a traveling brick maker of that
day Andrew Johnson the father of the late John L. Johnson of Moorefield, his brother-in-law
Thomas Davis was one of the bricklayers, and Andrew Monroe was the plasterer,
this house was build near the old log hewed house they had been living in. By
hard labor and good judgment, he prospered until he was one of the largest
landowners of the community and was to give each if his children a farm when
they married.
I think it
appropriate to hold the reunion here at this place as this was there church
home for so many years, Not finding any Lutheran Church in this community, or
any other church at that time, but in November 17, 1822 the Nottingham
Presbyterian Church was organized which was five miles distant from them, but
they attended it often walking the entire way and often carrying a baby in
there arms, Grandfather was a trustee of the church as early as 1830, and May
2, 1835 he and his wife united with the church and remained members until the
Slavery question arose, when the Compher family being men if strong convictions
of the evil of human slavery and wishing to throw all there influence against
it, at the organization of the Stillwater Free Presbyterian Church in the 1840s
under the Pastorate of Rev. Thomas Merrill they joined it and two of the sons
John and Jacob was elders of that church, but when the Civil War settled
slavery in this country forever they returned to the Nottingham Church and
remained faithful members until they died. As they fought the slavery evil so
it was natural for them to oppose the evils of drink also and Grandfather was
the first man of the community to refuse to furnish a jug of Whiskey fir his
harvest hands.
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This writing has
been taken from the "Compher Family History" which was written by
William Compher, before 1945. It is used to show the connections of the Spring, Stoneburner and Green Families. Not one word has
been changed, the text is exactly as it was given to
me by Lily Compher Clark in 1990. William F. Compher states the Comphers
arrived in America in 1727. This date is earlier that I have been able to
document. The actual date may have been closer to 1750-1755. William also
states that the Compher, Stoneburner and Spring
families arrived together in America. This is also an apparent error as the Springs are documented as arriving in 1751. Mr. Compher
mentions in his text, "that it is appropriate to hold the reunion at this
location." It would be interesting to find more about this reunion and its
location.
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I have copied
the above just as it was given to me by Charles F. Green in 1993. The only
changes were in spacing and typos. Along with this Mr. Green sent me copies of
hand written and typed pages of a genealogy project that William F. Compher was
apparently working on at the time of his death. This was given to Mr. Green by
Lily Compher Clark daughter of James Lincoln Compher (1864-1914) and Mary Jean
Green and granddaughter of Samuel Compher (1833-1912) and Jane Moore. William
Frederick Compher (1875-1947) was the son of Samuel Compher (1833-1912) and his
third wife Caroline Bethel - J.S.C.