LeCompte, Samuel D.

Born: 1814-12-13 Cambridge, Maryland

Died: 1888-04-24 Kansas City, Missouri

Flourished: 1854 to 1862 Kansas Territory

Samuel D. LeCompte, lawyer, judge, and politician, graduated from Jefferson College in Pennsylvania in 1834. He then attended the United States Military Academy before returning to his hometown of Cambridge, Maryland, to study law. He next commenced practicing law and entered politics. In 1854, President Franklin Pierce appointed LeCompte the first chief justice of the new Kansas Territory, a position he held for eight years. He subsequently platted the town of Lecompton, which became the pro-slavery territorial capital of Kansas. LeCompte was a pro-slavery Democrat and participated in an 1855 convention of pro-slavery leaders that denounced free-state Kansans. The next year, he ordered a grand jury to indict free-state leaders for treason. When the accused heard of their fate, they absconded. The pro-slavery forces made chase, leading to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas.

LeCompte married Camilla Anderson in April 1841 in Cambridge. The couple had thirteen children.

Biographical and Historical Catalogue of Washington and Jefferson College (Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing, 1889), 72; Charles S. Greed, ed., The Kansas Memorial, A Report of the Old Settlers' Meeting Held at Bismarck Grove, Kansas, September 15th and 16th, 1879(Kansas City, MO: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, 1880), 234; Maryland, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1655-1850, 28 April 1841, Dorchester County (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2004); Kansas City Daily Journal (MO), 25 April 1888, 3:5; James C. Malin, John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-Six (New York: Haskell House, 1971), 538-39.