Barnes Compton - Beyond Politics

Beyond Politics

Outside of his political career, Compton taught practical agriculture at Maryland Agricultural College. He sat on the board of trustees for Charlotte Hall Academy, the School Commission of Charles County, and the Maryland Insane Asylum. In 1890 he had been appointed director of the Citizens National Bank of Laurel, Maryland, a position he held until his death. In 1898 he was made president of the Guarantee Building and Loan Association of Baltimore.

Unable to maintain their plantation after emancipation during a time of labor shifts and agricultural decline, the Comptons sold Rosemary Lawn in 1872. They moved to Baltimore with their two daughters and soon to be four sons. They settled permanently in Laurel, Prince George's County, in 1880.

As adults, sons John Henry and Barnes Compton became assistant treasurer and clerk of the B&O Railroad, respectively; Key Compton was an agent of the Bay Line at Norfolk, Virginia; and William Penn Compton, a graduate of Georgetown University, became a physician in Washington, D.C.

His son, Barnes Compton, attended the Maryland Agricultural College, where he played as an end on the school's first official football team.

The elder Compton had persistent heart trouble, falling more ill in November 1898. On December 2 Barnes died of a stroke. He was buried in Baltimore's Loudon Park Cemetery. Margaret Compton was an invalid when her husband died, but she lived until June 12, 1900. She willed her furniture, stocks and bonds, personal savings, her house on Washington Avenue in Laurel and the farm "Lochlevlin" (Loch Leven) to their six children: Mary Barnes, John Henry Sothoron, Key, William Penn, Elizabeth S. Reese, and Barnes Compton.