Ramona’s Judge Came with Experience

Hampton P. Sloane lived in many places around the country before settling in Ramona around 1895. Here, he was a rancher but brought with him a vast background from various occupations. He had been an army captain, newspaper reporter and editor, mail carrier, orchard farmer and controversial judge.

Sloane was named justice of the peace of the judicial court in Ramona in 1901. He was the first man to come into this office with experience. At that time, judges were not required to have a background in law, but Sloane had been a justice of the peace in Missouri.

The court was known as the Nuevo Township when Sloane first became judge here. It held that name since it was founded in 1890 until 1902, when it changed to Santa Maria Township Court. Seven months later, the name was changed to Ramona Justice Court.

Born May 10, 1824, in Highland County, Ohio, to James and Nancy Sloane, he was named for his maternal grandfather, Hampton Pangborn. He stayed on in Ohio as a farmer until he was 26. He married Adeline E. Grandgirard, originally from France, in 1848 in Ohio. They had three children: John was born in 1849 in Ohio; Sarah in 1850 in New York; and William in 1854 in Illinois.

Research did not determine what happened to his wife, but Sloane married again in 1857, to Delia Grippen in Illinois. They had six children: Charles was born in 1865 in Illinois; Samuel and Lydia in Iowa in 1866 and 1867 in Iowa; James, Nancy and Bessie in 1870, 1873 and 1877 in Missouri. 

It was in Rockford, Ill., that Sloane tried his hand at journalism as assistant editor of the farm department for the Rockford Register. He helped to establish the Winnebago County Agricultural Society, one of the first organizations of its kind in the state.   

During the Civil War, Sloane was instrumental in forming Company C, 74^th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and became its captain. He saw action at the battles of Perryville and Stone River before contracting typhoid fever and resigning his military post.

He was living in Missouri in 1868 where he was appointed justice of the peace. He earned the reputation as a controversial judge when he gave the right to vote to 60 Confederate soldiers. Workers at the local registration office began carrying guns to protect themselves and the Southern sympathizers.

Sloane branched off into the mail business in 1874 with a four-year contract to carry mail from Lamar to Carthage, Mo., where he also ran a stage line.

In 1868, he returned to his career as a journalist and became a reporter and assistant editor for the Carthage Banner newspaper. He stayed there four years before moving on to Arkansas and starting a fruit orchard.

Next move was to California in 1890, arriving in Sweetwater Valley in San Diego County. Five years later, he moved to Ramona and bought a ranch. He died on Feb. 6, 1911, in Ramona at the age of 86 and is buried at , along with his wife, Delia, who died two months later. She was 74.

Research for the Hampton P. Sloane history was done at First Congregational Church of Ramona and Nuevo Memory Gardens, with special thanks to Susan Ruputz. It was also researched in the book Ramona & Round About, by Charles R. LeMenager.