BlockBefore

Compton, Illinois

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Brooklyn Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61318. The Survey maps it on the Compton quadrangle. 274 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 974 feet above sea level.

Compton within Lee County

Population over time

2 figures

Compton fell from 303 to 274 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010303
2020274-29 (-10%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

4,456 words on this township

History of Lee County, Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc. .., published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Brooklyn Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Compton was laid out in 1873 upon land owned by Joel Compton, from whom the village derived its name. It is situated on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad in the eastern part of the township. Compton has one church, the Methodist Episcopal, which society was organized in 1837 at the residence of Zachariah Mallugin. Their first pastor was the Rev. Stephen R. Beggs. Until about the year 1850 they held services in a school-house at Mallugin's Grove. The building now occupied by the society was erected in 1860 in that village and was removed from there to Compton. The membership of this organization is forty ; present pastor, B. H. Dickens.

Passage source: History of Lee County, Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc. .., published 1881.

Masonic Lodge, No. 282, was organized at the residence of O. P. Johnston in 1858. The first officers were : Master, John C. Corbus ; Senior Warden, John Gilmore; Junior Warden, S. H. Finley ; Senior Deacon, Jonathan Hyde ; Junior Deacon, O. P. Johnston ; Secretary, J. R. Bisbee ; Treasurer, Wm. Gutiirie ; Tyler, Robert Ritchie. The present officers are : Worshipful Mastei-, Theodore Doty ; Senior Warden, W. W. Gilmore ; Junior Warden, David Holdren ; Senior Deacon, W. C. Holdren ; Junior Deacon, S. W. Carnaham ; Secretary, A Bradshaw ; Tyler, Edwin Ellsworth ; Senior Steward, Abrara Bennett; Junior Steward, Andrew Compton.

Passage source: History of Lee County, Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc. .., published 1881.

Carnahan station is situated on an eminence about equidistant between West Brooklyn and Compton ; is the result of the labors of A. J. Carnahan. The expense of the side-track, station-liouse, and other improvements, were all borne by iiim. And whatever of convenience the neighbors in the community may enjoy in the future must be credited to his determination. When the project of the Canada Southern railroad was started he entered into it with enthusiasm and received assurances of having a station located on his farm. To get possession of certain lands, it is said, the company located the station at Compton. But Mr. Carnahan, nothing daunted by this defeat, laid his claim before the Chicago, Burlington & Quincj Railroad Company when they became owners of tiie road. After some effort on his part a station was granted him, which was to be made at his own expense.

Passage source: History of Lee County, Together with Biographical Matter, Statistics, Etc. .., published 1881.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Brooklyn Township - it names this place 12 more 12 times.

Fires near this place

2 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Compton in 2008, burning about 5 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Smoking1
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
5 April 2008Debris and open burning2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources2
4 April 2008Smoking3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources3

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lee County

Storms near this place

12 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Compton in 12 storm reports between 2006 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2008Thunderstorm WindCompton$5,000Wind gusts were estimated to 80 mph. Multiple one foot diameter trees were blown down. Shingles were also blown off of houses.
April 2023Thunderstorm WindCompton-A utility pole was leaning over.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindCompton-A wind turbine blade was blown off.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindCompton-A wind gust to 67 mph was measured by a personal weather station in Compton.
September 2021HailCompton-Hail two inches in diameter smashed at least six auto windshields and smashed multiple skylights at one residence.
September 2021HailCompton-Golf ball size hail damaged siding at a farmstead.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindCompton-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph.
September 2006Flash FloodCompton-Street flooding was reported in Compton and a creek overflowed its banks, 2.03 inches of rain was measured in Paw Paw.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindCompton-Trees were blown down along Route 30.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindCompton-no account filed
July 2023Thunderstorm WindCompton-no account filed
June 2022Thunderstorm WindCompton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lee County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
The Burg1.2 miles11
Melugin Grove (historical)1.9 miles11
Roxbury2.2 miles11
West Brooklyn3.5 miles10
Twelvemile Corner4.5 miles11
Welland4.7 miles11
Paw Paw5.3 miles8
Scarboro6.5 miles11

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on ComptonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1991916The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 406429. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.