Mathew McNeil (1795 - ?)

My relationship: Me > Norma Haynes (mother) > Thomas N. Haynes (grandfather) > Annie Vessie McNeil (my great grandmother) > Matthew McNeil (My great great grandfather)

Matthew McNeil was the son of John McNeil (or McNeal) and Elizabeth McLearn (or McLennan).  He was born in the Douglas Township of Hants County, Nova Scotia on 7 November 1795.  He married Hannah Lutches Blois (daughter of early settlers Abraham Blois and Sarah Margaret Kilcup) on 8 December 1823 in Douglas Township.  They had six children: John (1824 - 1885), Lydia Jane (1826 - 1902), Lavina (1829 - 1905), Hugh (1830 - 1910), Twins Olive (1832 -    ) and Oliver (1832 - 1911), and Annie Vessie McNeil (1836 - 1913) who was my great grandmother.

Hannah died at the young age of 32 (when Annie was almost 2 years old) and was buried in the Gore at the Blois family cemetery. After Hannah died in 1838, the family was broken up and Matthew moved away. I presume Annie stayed in Hants County, probably brought up by relatives, as she married Robert Hanes on December 4, 1860 in Kennetcook, Hants County.

Matthew married again (Bertha, born in New Brunswick) and lived the rest of his life in Clements, Annapolis County and Bear River, Digby County, Nova Scotia and was buried there. He had two children with Bertha: Margaret (1859 - 1947) and Willie (1861 -    ). There is no record of Matthew in the 1881 Canada census, or of Bertha or son Willie.

Matthew's occupation was listed as a shoemaker in the 1871 census and in the marriage record of his daughter, Margaret McNeil, who married James Winchester on July 9, 1878 in Hillsburgh, Digby County.

William R. Compton (1860-1912) - Part 3: The Scrapbook Miracle

Relationship: Me > William Randall Compton II > William Randall Compton I (grandfather)

In 1974 when my father William R. Compton II died, he willed many of his family possessions to my sister, Anne Compton. She joined the LDS Church in 1975 in Birmingham, Alabama. As she and I were the only children in our family, we decided to split up the responsibilities of genealogy research in 1977.  I would take my mother and her information, and Anne would take our father. Among the many items that Anne had was a black scrapbook of newspaper articles about William R. Compton I (our grandfather), who was appointed U.S. Marshal for northern and western New York state by Presidents McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.  These had been collected and saved by our grandmother, Helen Tubbs Compton, until his death in 1912. Anne had the 82 scrapbook pages laminated and rebound. She also had many photographs of our Compton line ancestors restored, duplicated and sent to me. During her years in Alabama, she did extensive research on the Compton side of the family, resulting in the submission of thousands of family group sheets with more than 52,000 names to the LDS Church. She was featured in an article in “The Church News” on January 1988 about her research despite her many medical problems.

Soon after this article appeared, she was contacted by Lynn and Dixie in Plano, Texas, distributors of herbal products marketed by Sunrider Corporation. Anne left Alabama shortly thereafter and moved in with them and became a Sunrider distributor as well. In 1989, this couple moved to Oregon and Anne decided to move to Desert Hot Springs, California. Dixie and Lynn planned to rent a storage unit in Oregon. As Anne had no place of her own to store her personal possessions, she asked Dixie if she could take her things with her and store them until such time as Anne could get settled and have a place of her own. In addition to the many personal items of Anne’s, most of the memorabilia items of our father and his parents were included, including the scrapbook. Anne stayed in California until early 1992 and then moved to Nebraska for three years before returning to Desert Hot Springs in 1995.

In 1996, Anne had heard from Dixie that they were moving and would no longer need their storage unit (they had transferred the storage items several times to different localities in Oregon over the 7 year interval).  After requesting access, she and a close friend drove to Oregon. Anne told me at the time that she found many of the boxes were missing, and what remained had been crushed with broken items inside. She salvaged what she could, and after returning to Desert Hot Springs, she was able to send me a number of the remaining Compton items, but said all the rest was either lost or destroyed.

Fast forward: 17 years later, on June 12, 2013 Donald Clark, 72, living in Butte Creek Canyon near Centerville, California shot and killed three Sacramento residents at his property. Two teenagers and a mother had stolen a car, driven up to Mr. Clarke’s property, and he shot them with a 12 gauge pump shotgun as they approached his home. He then put them in their vehicle, along with a bicycle, and drove 20 miles further into the mountains, set the car on fire, and then biked back home. During his trial, it was testified that he moved to the property as a caretaker for an owner in southern California about 1998. It had previously been a boy’s ranch over a hundred years ago, but all that was left was a few sheds, one of which Clark lived in with no electricity or running water. He was described as a scavenger and hoarder who would collect and reuse, resell or take apart and recycle items. He was described as having “everything under the sun.”  He was sentenced to prison for life without parole.

After the property was vacated in June, another man, J.S., settled on the property. On August 31, 2013 a vegetation fire on the property burned 80 acres including the buildings and scattered piles of debris. The property owner wanted to sell the property and asked J.S. to leave the property. He and a girlfriend, Tanya, attempted to clean up and salvage what remained, taking it to nearby Chico, California. They couldn’t afford a storage unit, and they decided they would just get rid of it. A girlfriend of Tanya's, L.N., got wind of the situation and after looking through the stuff found some collectible baseball cards and among other things a newspaper scrapbook. L.N. told her, “You can’t get rid of this; this is somebody’s life!” So some of the items were kept and the rest were destroyed. After keeping them for several years, in 2018 L.N. was cleaning her home and decided to do something about the collected items. She went to Ebay and other sites to find out what the cards were worth, and decided to also try and find someone who might be interested in the scrapbook. Doing a Google search for a William R. Compton who died in Elmira New York in 1912, she came across my “Compton - Haynes Ancestral Nuggets” blog website. I had started this blog in 2017 after I took a class at a family history convention in St. George, Utah. The blog had posts and pictures about William R. Compton, my grandfather. As my email contact was listed on the blog, she sent me an email on December 29, 2018, writing “Dear Mr. Compton, I have your grandfather’s scrapbook.  I have been wanting to get this to you.”  She gave me her phone number, and after talking with her and confirming that she did indeed have the missing scrapbook, she mailed it to me. I received the package on January 12, 2019, and upon opening the package I found the scrapbook of newspaper articles in near pristine condition, having survived for over 44 years after my father died, missing from the family for 30 years, 7 changes of hands and a fire.It was like receiving manna from heaven and a true MIRACLE!

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Robert Hanes (1831 - 1883)

My relationship: Me > Norma Haynes (mother) > Thomas N. Haynes > Robert Hanes (my great grandfather)

Robert Hanes was born on July 20, 1831 in Douglas Township, Hants County, Nova Scotia. He was one of thirteen children of John Hanes and Christiana Lahey (married at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Rawdon, Hants County on January 5, 1816).
Robert married Annie Vessie McNeil on December 4, 1860 at Kennetcook, Hants County, and had nine children.

Annie Vessie McNeil

In the 1871 Nova Scotia census, Robert and Annie are living in the Shubenacadie district of Hants County. At this time they had six children, all living, and they were living with Robert's parents John and Christiana. Robert is listed as a farmer and lumberman and could not read or write. He was said to be very strong, having at one time lifted a ship's anchor.

Sometime after their last child Lavinia (Millie) was born in 1876, the family moved to Boston. Robert is listed in the Boston City directories in 1880, 1882 and 1883. However, the family is not enumerated in the Boston 1880 census.

In the Massachusetts Death Records it states that Robert Hanes (laborer) died on August 7, 1883 at 53 1/2 Kendall Street, Boston of dysentery. A daughter, Lucy Alice, had died 14 days earlier of dysentery as well at age 11. Robert was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain. I have visited the cemetery and checked their records. There is no headstone at his burial location.

[The story is that at some point the family changed the spelling of their last name to Haynes, because they did not like the pronunciation of the name in Nova Scotia as Hines. However, all Boston records of Robert 1880 - 1883 have his name spelled as Hanes. The death record of his daughter Lucy in 1883 is also spelled Hanes. Therefore, it is likely that the name spelling was changed after Robert's death by Annie, as all records of Annie and their children from 1900 on are spelled Haynes].

William Randall Compton (1860 - 1912) - Part 2

Continued........

William R. Compton resigned his position in the Treasury Department after a service of two years and came to Elmira, NY to engage in the real estate business in 1891. Charles F. Hurlburt was interested with him, the firm name being Compton & Hurlburt.






In 1893-94, he built a beautiful home in Elmira at 925 College Avenue, which was even written up in the newspaper:
William R. Compton, the real estate agent, is building one of the handsomest houses now in process of erection about Elmira. The house is half way between this city and Horseheads. The house is designed by a lover of out-door air and has piazzas and balconies of the most spacious dimensions at every possible point. The observatory commands a view of the Chemung Valley as far as the eye can reach, sweeping far over the city to the south and an equal distance over the village of Horseheads to the north. The view stops only where the encircling hills touch the horizon.
The house, by the way, will be equipped with all the modern conveniences. Hot and cold water wherever wanted, electric light in every room and street cars each way every half hour will enable the Compton family to enjoy all the pleasures of both country and city life. The grounds are spacious and in proper time this will be one of the handsomest places about Elmira.

On July 17, 1898 he was appointed for the first time as U.S. Marshal of the northern district of NY by President McKinley. During the first four years, the office was in Rochester, NY and was then moved to Elmira, NY as a result of Mr. Compton’s efforts. Mr. Compton served four consecutive terms as U.S. Marshal. He was appointed by three Presidents: McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and Taft. A term of appointment was for four years at a salary of $9000. This was a high salary in those days. They were extremely well off and obtained the first car in the area—this is when motor cars first came out! The U.S. Marshal appointed his own deputies, and William Compton had 17 field deputies under him. Some of the charges in cases he dealt with mentioned in articles included: selling liquor to the Indians (many cases), smuggling Chinese into the country in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, misappropriation of bank funds, and counterfeiting.

He wore a mustache and smoked cigars. He was described in one article as an enthusiastic horseman and in another as spending a considerable amount of time in the pursuit of reading.

In 1899 Mr. Compton became an enthusiast on the subject of incubators and would travel miles to see one in operation! This was a new invention there. A newspaper reporter described how Mr. Compton attended a big poultry show and quoted him as he discussed how incubator parties were being given in his area: “Up our way many of the young society folk are giving what they call incubator parties. The host or hostess finds out the time when a lot of chickens are due and they invite their friends to go with them to watch the little fellows break through their brittle covering into the world. They have a great deal of fun at these incubator parties and the merriment at times was high at the antics of the chickens when they first come from the shell.” He became the Treasurer of the E. W. Andrews Incubator Company in Elmira.
He also became President of the LaFrance Jewelry Company of Elmira in 1899.

On February 25, 1899 he divorced his first wife, Alice, and on April 27, 1899 he married Helen Rosamond Tubbs, who at the time was a stenographer and secretary  in his Realty office.
They moved into the beautiful upscale home he had had built in Elmira and had one son (my father), William Randall Compton, Jr., born July 9, 1902.

William R. Compton with his son, William, Jr.

Upon the death of Mr. Hurlburt in 1903, the William R. Compton Realty Company was organized. The office was one of the finest in the city and occupied a part of the ground floor of the Realty building.  The idea to which this concern owed its origin was to provide more homes for the industrial classes of the city.  New districts were opened and houses erected with only a small payment down, thus aiding the occupants to apply rent money toward a home of their own.  The company did a general real estate business, had houses for rent, from the cheapest to the best, acted as agents for property owners, and loans were made on properties.

In December, 1904 Mr. Compton became President and General Manager (he had been a prominent stockholder) of the United States Cut Flower Company. This company was incorporated under the laws of the State of NY in June, 1903 and began doing business in Elmira, NY in March, 1904. This company had one of the largest greenhouses in the world and as of 1908 had 18 long greenhouses constantly in operation and operating at different degrees of temperature. One house was devoted to the culture of the tea rose (many types). Three houses were devoted to the culture of green plants called similax, and the different varieties of asparagus, plumosia, and sperengi. A section measuring 65 ft. by 100 ft. was the home of the lily of the valley, the hyacinth, daffodils, and other spring blooming varieties. The bulb stock ready for shipment was kept here too. A field was used for growing carnations until they reached the proper stage and were brought inside. The field was then used for chrysanthemums. The company could never grow enough hydrangeas and other flowers of that variety to supply the demand. Flowers were packed daily for destinations in NY and as far away as Hot Springs, Arkansas and Denver, Colorado arriving there in good condition.

One of the newspaper political cartoons which appeared in 1908 has these verses:

William R. Compton, the marshal

To Republican methods is partial.

He likes flowers, too, and grows quite a few

While his real estate makes quite a parcel.

Elmira Star Gazette March 18, 1908

The following descriptions are mainly from newspaper articles. A few of the excerpts are from letters of recommendation for the position of US Marshal concerning the character and talents of William Compton. Nearly 100% of the comments praise what an exceptionally talented orator he was. Some excerpts of a few talks are included in the articles:
“. . .easy, graceful talker and whether in humor or pathos, whether in a dress suit at a banquet, somber black at a memorial service or in everyday dress on a bench in a political convention, he always knows just what to say and how to say it.”
“. . .endowed with a high order of executive ability.”
“. . .one of the most genial and warm hearted of men, interested in all matters of common concern in the community and contributing generously of time and money for their advancement.”
“. . .generally wears a silk tie and his friends call him ‘Billy’ when they are intimate enough to presume on that familiarity.”
“. . .His word was as good as gold.”
“. . .sterling qualities of intelligence, industry, and integrity.”
“. . .thoroughly honest.”
“. . .a perfect gentleman at all times.”
“. . .can be relied upon under any and all circumstances.”

He died on April on April 28, 1912, unexpectedly from complications of long-standing diabetes (for which insulin treatments had not yet been discovered). He was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, where my father is also buried.

Comment: My grandfather was a self-made man with great ambitions and talents who became a leading businessman and politician in the community, whose life was unfortunately cut short at an early age of 52.