An Alabama -born Southern Baptist pioneer missionary to Cherokees and Creek Indians in Arkansas, E.L. Compere was one of th most influential religous figures of the 19th century in the region and established a legacy of church's , serving a greater calling than he ever imagined when he started preaching at the age of nineteen.
Ebenezer Lee Compere was born near Montgomery, Alabama, on February 6 1833, the youngest of nine children.
His father, Lee Compere, and mother, Susannah Voysey Compere, went from England to the island of Jamaica as missionaries in 1814. The climate there was too trying for them, and they went to South Carolina.
Afterwards, they served as missionaries of the Triennial Convention to the Creek Indians in Alabama and eventually followed the Creek Indian migration into Mississippi.
On July 23 1849, after his conversion at the age of sixteen , Compere was baptized into the fellowship of Montaches Creek Church, Itawamba County, Mississippi. At the age 19, he was "liberated” to preach, against his own strong protest.
In 1851 He preached his first sermon in Mooresville Church, Mississippi. Educated in Mercer University, Penfield, Georgia, and Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi. He graduated in l857 with BA degree from Mississippi College with first honors.
On graduation day he was asked to become a professor at Mississippi College, but he declined.
He became pastor of three Indian churches in east Mississippi, beginnng what turned out to be over three decades of ministering to both settlers and native American's
In 1858, March Ordained in old Monte Vallo Church in Columbus, Mississippi. In l858 and 1859 he visited his brother, Thomas H. Compere, in Arkansas and was deeply impressed with the destitution and wickedness along the border of western Arkansas and the Indian Territory.
Upon his return home, he resigned his Mississippi churches to go to the Arkansas border without a dollar in view.
He refused a call to a church at $1,200 per year salary to become missionary of the Cherokee Georgia Baptist Convention, to Arkansas and the Cherokee Indians, at a $500 annual salary.
The $700 he left on the table to move to the Arkansas wilderness in 1859 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $25,948.16 today.
In 1860 he received the M.A. degree, Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi. Also in 1860, he went to the border of western Arkansas and the Indian Territory to labor.
He began work as pastor in Ft. Smith, where the built the church edifice during his pastorate.
On December13, 1863, he married Josephine I. Mullins, of Copiah County, Mississippi, while on a trip back to Mississippi. The Comperes returned to Arkansas and the Cherokee Indians they serveed out in the territory.
Josephine Compere was a fine helpmate to Compere in spite of the many unaccustomed hardships which she bore living on the frontier.
Her family background was one of gracious "old south" living. During the Civil War, E. L. Compere and his father were chaplains, serving under the command of Brig. General Stand Waite, the only full-blood Indian serving in the Confederate Army.
The couple had four sons and three daughters.
The last born of that brood, Ebenezer Lattimore “Jack” Compere, would go on to fufill an amazing militray career, servng as a Brigidier General in the Arkansas National Guard, the National Giuard of the United States and, eventually, in the US Army. (Another story for another time.)
In 1866 Compere was commissioned as a missionary by the Board of Domestic Missions of the SBC to preach the gospel in Ft. Smith and the surrounding communities on both sides of the border at a salary of $500 a year.
In 1866 – 1877 helived in Charleston, carrying on mission work from this center. In 1876 He helped to organize the Baptist General Association of East Arkansas and Indian Territory at Charleston.
In 1877 – 1885 He carried on his taxing missionary work while living in Witcherville.
His health was failing. During this time, he and H. F. Buckner, who was missionary to the Creek Indians, founded Buckner College in Witcherville.
In 1883 he was commissioned by the Home Mission Board to preach in western Arkansas. For eleven years, he was Foreign Mission Secretary, and Superintendent of Missions for that association for nine years.
He also pastored several churches during these years, among them a Baptist c-ngregation in Waldron He was forced to learn to write with his left hand, as his right hand had become 'too nervous' to use.
In 1885 he moved to Dallas, a community in Polk County for reasons related to his health., but continued his mission work. 1887, Compere. log a supporter of education issues, qualified as a county examiner of Polk County teachers.
In 1894 the missionaries under his superintendence reported 1,000 baptisms during the year.
On November 27, 1895, he died in his homeeducation issues, brought on by "nervous prostration from overwork and exposure".
Compere was intially buried near his home in Dallas. His body was later moved to White Oak Cemetery at Mena when his wife, Josephine, was buried there after her death in 1937.
Shortly before his death, Compere published a brief monograph detailing his work as a missionary, titled" Indian Missions for the Five Great Southern Tribes".
The Scripture used at his funeral was 2 Samuel 3:38.
2 Samuel 3:38. The king said unto his servants — Who perhaps were not sensible enough of this loss, or thought he bewailed it too much; Know ye not that there is a prince fallen this day in Israel?
