Ebenezer Lee Compere, was born in 1833. He was the son of English former missionaries to Jamaica who, because of health problems, moved to Charleston, S.C., but then on to work among the Creek Indians in Alabama, where he was born. After E.L. was converted to Christ, he was baptized by his father, joining the Montaches Creek Baptist Church in Mississippi. As a young man, the Lord called him into His ministry. In 1859 Compere completed his education at Mercer University and Mississippi College and then went to visit his brother in Arkansas. There he became burdened for the souls of the Indians in west in the Indian Territory. He began to work in the Baptist church in Fort Smith and also among the Cherokees. When the war began, Bro. Compere returned to Mississippi, and while he was there he met and married Josephine Mullins. When it became the Lord’s will to return to Arkansas, he was completely without funds. In the midst of his journey west, and not wanting to travel on the Lord’s Day, he and his bride attended one of the churches in Memphis. There he met an old friend, Martin Sumner. That providential encounter resulted in Sumner’s promise to support Compere’s ministry with $500 a year. The missionary returned to Fort Smith and resumed his two-fold ministry, with God blessing both. On September 7, 1895, while participating in a Bible conference he became ill, passing into the Lord’s presence on this day (November 27) that year.