SAMUEL BETTS (4) HAMPTON, (John 3, John 2, Joseph 1) was born in Frederick Co., Maryland, on the 9th of the 4th month, 1809. In the spring of 1825, when about one month passed sixteen years of age, he moved with his father's family, to Ohio, and settled on a farm at Blue Rock, Muskingum Co.

On the 23rd of the 9th month, 1829, he married ELIZABETH PIERPOINT, daughter of Jonathan and Ann Pierpoint, of Morgan Co., Ohio. The Pierpoint home was on Wolf Creek, a few miles south of Pennsville. They owned a flour and saw mill on Wolf Creek and Jonathan Pierpoint followed milling for many years.

They evidently came from Columbiana Co., Ohio, to Wolf Creek, but whence the husband came from to Columbiana Co., does not appear. His wife, whose maiden name was Ann Steer, was born in Loudon Co., Virginia. Her people, who remained in Loudon Co., were a good family, reported to have been in good circumstances before the civil war, but their home being near "the border," was plundered by both armies and they were left in destitute circumstances. They were Unionists.

Just where Samuel Hampton and his bride first made their home and what was his occupation at first, is not now known, but the home was no doubt near the Pierpoint mill, and the occupation farming or carpentry or both combined.

About five or six years later, he moved into the newly laidout village of Chesterfield, four or five miles away over the county line and then in Athens Co., where his occupation was carpentering and cabinetmaking. After a few years he built a brick house in the south end of the town which he occupied both as a home for his family and as a public house for the entertainment of travelers. After ten or more years in Chesterfield, in the spring of 1846, he moved back to the Pierpoint neighborhood and lived on a farm three miles south of Pennsville. Here he remained five years when in the fall of 1851, the family moved to Iowa, going overland in wagons. They were 21 days on the way. He purchased land near Viola, Linn Co., about 17 miles distant from Cedar Rapids, and engaged in farming. His daughter, Mary, writes: "He was naturally mechanical and very ingenious with tools - could manufacture a fine piece of mahogany furniture and as readily build a house or a barn."

She also refers to his being like his father in his love for fish and of fishing and says: "Times without number, do I remember his getting a few neighbors and fishing materials together and taking two horses and a wagon for an all night work in the Muskingum river McConnelsville. They usually came back with a good supply of nice large fishes which my father could not enjoy till his neighbors were supplied." Twice, also, while he lived in Chesterfield, he made a trip to the home of his sister, 20 miles away to fish, once in the Big Hocking river and once in the Little Hocking.

Of his anti-slavery opinions and practices, she writes: "Having lived in a slave state and witnessed much cruelty in the treatment of the slaves, he became greatly interested in their behalf and early espoused their cause. He was ever ready to assist them in obtaining their freedom. At one time he with a few of his friends, secretly fed a company of sixteen in a cave four miles from Chesterfield, Ohio. The slave owners were on their track and the usually quiet village was in a great state of excitement which, however, soon passed off as the hunters grew weary and left the place. It was now considered safe to proceed and the little band who were loyal to the slaves, sixteen in number, under cover of the night, escorted the fugitives to the next "underground station." There was $1500 offered for the capture of the slaves."

"Later, while living in Iowa, when the poor unfortunates found their way to his door, they were taken in a covered wagon as though going to market, at Dubuque, and from there forwarded to Canada. Of his moral and religious character, she writes: "He was a member of the orthodox branch of the Friends church, strictly moral and upright, although he did not experience a change of heart until he was 65 years of age. Would speak of it with great regret that he had lived so long without a religious experience. The change wrought a wonderful transformation. Always manifesting a meek and quiet spirit, now he became even more tender and Christ-like in his life, striving to better the condition of those about him and gathering in the children to teach them the scriptures. He died at the home of his son, Richard, in Davis Co., Kansas, of neuralgia of the heart, 11th month, 17th, 1883."

His wife, Elizabeth Pierpoint Hampton, "was a woman of a quiet temperament, ever ready to help the poor and unfortunate. Owing to poor health she seldom went from home. She was a warm friend of the slaves, and all that were oppressed, a real mother and a home maker." She outlived her husband a little more than a year and died 1st month, 20th, 1885.

Children:

	I	ANN born 7th month, 11th, 1830, died 2nd month, 28th, 1833.
(51)	II	JONATHAN, born the 5th month, 30th, 1832.
(52)	III	MARY, born the 10th month, 15th, 1836.
(53)	IV	ANN PIERPOINT, born 11th month, 5th, 1838.
(54)	V	ISAAC STEER, born 2nd month, 8th, 1841.
(55)	VI	RICHARD BETTS, born 2nd month, 21st, 1844.
(56)	VII	WILLIAM STEER, born 2nd month, 8th, 1847.
	VIII	ASA, born 5th month, 14th, 1856, died March 17th, 1880. He had married Ruth . No children.

Transcriber's Note: Numbers in parentheses above indicate page references to additional biographical info (not currently transcribed) about the particular descendant and his/her family. Samuel Betts Hampton is buried in Hopewell Cemetery, Linn County, Iowa.


Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, September, 2015, from "Hampton history : An Account of the Pennsylvania Hamptons in America in the Line of John Hampton, Jr., of Wrightstown; With An Appendix Treating of Some Other Branches", by John Hampton Doan, Milton, Ky: S. E. Hampton, 1911, pp. 40-43.

Complete book is freely available for download at Archive.org.