E. L. Compere, son of a Baptist preacher, was born in 1833. He graduated in 1857 from Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi, at that time one of the leading Baptist colleges of the South, and earned a Master's degree in 1860. On leaving college, he became pastor of three eastern Mississippi churches. Compere's lifelong endeavor was to preach in the border towns of Arkansas and the Indian Territory and work among the Creek and Cherokee Indians. He began missionary work in Ft. Smith until the beginning of the Civil War, whereupon he served for four years in the Confederate Army as Chaplain. In 1863, Compere married Josephine Mullins. After the Civil War, Compere continued his mission work, organizing and building churches in Ft. Smith and vicinity. He began to teach in early 1872, and later built a school-house in the yard of his home in Charleston. In 1879, the General Association, an organization of "Border Missionaries," appointed E.L. Compere general missionary and later superintendent of the Mission. The opening of the Buckner College on September 11, 1882, was a great moment in Compere's missionary life. It was the first Baptist College in Arkansas. E. L. Compere, the leading Border Baptist preacher of his time in Arkansas, died on November 27, 1895.

William Minor Pipkin was born on April 1, 1870, in Polk County, Arkansas. He started schooling in an Indian School in Oklahoma, taught by his father and subsequently attended several public schools. By 1884, Pipkin completed his primary education and for the next four years held various jobs. In 1888, he became the editor, publisher, and printer of the Dallas Courier, a weekly newspaper, at that time owned by Judge W. M. Matheny, the son- in-law of Arkansas Civil War governor Henry M. Rector. Pipkin entered Ouachita College at Arkadelphia in January 1891, taught school during summer breaks, and was awarded a teacher's license at the age of 22. He won a two-year scholarship to attend Peabody College at Nashville, Tennessee, and received the Licentiate of Instruction--L.I. degree, recognized as a state license to teach in the public schools. Pipkin married Jennie Compere, daughter of Reverend E. L. Compere, on March 18, 1896. In 1897, he was appointed County Examiner, elected the first Superintendent of Schools for the city of Mena, and served as a petit juror in the United States District Court for Western Arkansas and the Indian Territory. He was admitted to the bar to practice law in 1905. The autobiography contains detailed recollections of several of Pipkin's court cases.