At the turn of the last century in a modest house on College Avenue in Wooster, Ohio, Elias and Otelia Compton raised a family that produced three university presidents, a devoted missionary and educator, and a Nobel Prize winner. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called them “America’s First Family of Learning.” A new exhibit opening June 1 at the Wayne County Historical Society, 546 E. Bowman St., in Wooster, traces their remarkable story.
Elias Compton taught philosophy, Latin, and English at the College of Wooster from 1883 to 1928. Daughter Mary, a teacher and Presbyterian missionary, spent much of her life in India with her husband and fellow educator, Charles Herbert Rice. Oldest son Karl T. Compton taught physics at Princeton University before becoming president of M.I.T., while Wilson M. Compton built a distinguished career as an economist and business executive and served for seven years as president of the University of Washington. The youngest, Arthur Holly Compton, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927 while a member of the University of Chicago faculty, played a key role in the Manhattan Project—including hiring Robert Oppenheimer—and went on to become chancellor of Washington University.
Want to learn more? Come to the Wayne County Historical Society, 546 E. Bowman St., in Wooster. Tours of the eight-building campus, including the Compton exhibit and two other special exhibits on Vietnam and the 75th anniversary of the Seaman Corporation, are offered every Saturday at 1 and 2:30 p.m., or by appointment. Admission is $5 for adults, free for those 18 and under. Learn more at waynehistoricalohio.org or call 330.264.8856.
