My relationship (2nd great grand uncle): Me > William R. Compton II > William R. Compton I > Norris Compton > Peter Compton (Stephen Compton, Jr. was his older brother)
Stephen Compton, Jr. was the brother of my great great grandfather, Peter Compton. He was born in Wantage, New Jersey on April 2, 1799 and was baptized in the Clove Dutch Reformed Church in Wantage on June 9, 1799. As described in the previous post of his father Stephen Compton (Dec 16 2016), the family moved to New York after a fire destroyed their New Jersey home. In the 1820 census they are living in Catherine, NY (Tioga county).
Stephen Jr. appears in a granted U.S. patent file # 331 on July 31, 1837 from Elmira, Chemung county, NY for a "Locomotive Power Machine." A brief description and drawings are included in the file:
Subsequently, an advertisement was placed for many consecutive weeks in the Elmira NY Gazette in 1837, with testimonies from users of the machine. The first affidavit was signed by S. Compton (Jr), Peter Compton, and Jacob Compton, all brothers.
Comments made about the machine included:
1) Its ability to remove buildings, hauling ships and other vessels out of the water to make repairs, and removing trees and stumps.
2) It has justly and effectually superseded all former attempts of the kind or for a similar purpose.
3) We cheerfully recommend its use for all these purposes as superior, vastly so, to any thing that we ever saw or heard of.
4) The Machine firmly anchors itself, while in operation, and is worked simply by one man's turning a crank.
Comments: Unfortunately I know nothing further about this machine or its success, but I doubt they got rich from its sales. I suspect it was utilized by his father, Stephen Compton, in his contracting building work, as mentioned in his blog post (Dec. 16, 2016).
I also know nothing further about what happened to Stephen, Jr., or anything about his family. But I thought it was neat that I had an inventor in the family
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