I Finally Found Matilda Biddle Porter's Obituary!

A couple years ago I posted some plans to research my 3rd great grandmother Matilda Biddle's obituary.  Thankfully Newspapers.com beat me to the punch and I found two variations of her obituary last week.  I may eventually see if I can find Newport, Oregon newspapers mentioning her death, but for now at least I have something!

Unfortunately, most of the information given in the obituary is about her father and her ex-husband, not her.

Corvallis Gazette-Times (accessed from Newspaper.com)
(Corvallis, Oregon)
27 Aug 1927, Sat  • Page 6

Mrs. Porter Dead
Member of Pioneer Benton Family Dies at Home at Newport
Mrs. Matilda Biddle Porter, wife of Orville T. Porter, one of Benton county's early residents, died late yesterday afternoon at the family home at Newport.  The body was brought to Corvallis and prepared for burial and the funeral will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the grave in the I. O. O. F. cemetery.  Rev. E. J. Harper of the Madison street Methodist church will officiate. 

Mrs. Porter was born February 22, 1846, in Springfield, Ill., but apparently came west during her childhood.  She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin R. Biddle, pioneers of Benton county.  From meagre information that could be obtained, it is believed Mrs. Porter's father was Dr. R. B. Biddle, a prominent dentist in Corvallis in the early '70s, who after retiring to Pleasant Valley, 1 1/2 miles south of Philomath, established a short course in dentistry which was probably the first dental college in Oregon.  George Biddle, a brother, is said to have become a leading dentist in Eugene. 

Mrs. Porter was aged 81 years.  She is survived by a daughter who resides in Albany and a son in Seattle.  No definite information regarding the family could be obtained.

Corvallis Gazette-Times (accessed from Newspapers.com)
(Corvallis, Oregon)
30 Aug 1927, Tue  • Page 3

Was of Pioneer Family - The remains of the late Mrs. Matilda Biddle Porter, widow of Orville Porter, were interred Sunday in the I. O. O. F. cemeteryq [sic] where a brief service was conducted by Rev. E. J. Harper.  Mrs. Porter died Friday at the family home at Newport where she had resided in late years.  She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin R. Biddle who crossed the plains to Oregon in 1850, and rode in a wagon with W. B. Carter, and early editor of the Gazette, as driver.  The Porters lived in Corvallis a number of years and Mr. Porter was a teacher here.  He organized bands, was editor of a Republican paper in Albany for a time and later was a member of the Indian commission in Alaska.  He died 15 years ago.  Dr. Biddle, father of Mrs. Porter, was a prominent dentist of the 70's.  There is a brother, Dr. E. W. Biddle of Hillsborough, Cal. A daughter residing in Albany and a son in Seattle survive.

Related posts for Matilda:

Monday Is for Mothers: Matilda Biddle (1846 - 1927)
Hat Tip to Those Relatives Who Wrote Their Stories Down, Part 2
Monday Is for Mothers: Maria Evans (1814 - 1899) Part 1
Working on Wednesday: Orville Tracy Porter (1838 - 1916) North to Alaska
52 Ancestors in 54 Weeks: Week 5: Tracy Darrow Porter
Orville Tracy Porter: Divorce and Marriage
Monday Is for Mothers: Sarah Emma Biddle Spencer (1842 - 1868)

© 2019 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Barbara Hoadley Porter (1916 - 1978) Historian

Barbara Porter and her twin sister Betty were born in Seattle, Washington, in 1916. Here are their senior pictures from Garfield High School, Class of 1934. (Barbara is on the left)

[Ancestry.com - U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1990]

According to U.S. Census records Barbara was still living with her parents in 1940. By 1953 she was married to Ernest V. Elkins, which seems to have been a second marriage for both of them. 

Barbara is one of my paternal first cousins, twice removed; the ancestors we share are B.R. Biddle and his wife Maria Evans.

[Ancestry.com]

I just learned about Barbara from these index cards in the State of Oregon's Biographical and Other Index Card File. So far I haven't been able to find out much more about my cousin's life, but it's clear she was very proud of her descent from Oregon Pioneers. (Note that the reference to scrapbooks--I wonder what's in them?)

[Ancestry.com. Oregon, Biographical and Other Index Card File, 1700s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors. Original data: Oregon, Biographical and Other Cards. Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.]

© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Memento Mori: Oak Mound Cemetery - Healdsburg, California

Early Oregon pioneers Benjamin R. and Maria (Evans) Biddle, a pair of my paternal three-times great grandparents, are buried in this shaded plot. One of their sons (Edwin Webber Biddle 1849-1928), his wife Delora and their son Chester Edwin Biddle are also buried there.

[Courtesy of Nick Juran]

This photograph was taken by a friend who lives in Northern California and kindly volunteered to visit their graves and take some photos.

My direct ancestor, their daughter Matilda Biddle Porter (1846-1928) is buried in Corvallis, Oregon.


© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

First Settlement of Elijah Evans' Estate

Claiborne County, Tennessee. Will Book "A" (typewritten 1938 copy), "First Settlement of the Estate of Elijah Evans Decd," typewritten p. 228 (original p. 396); digital image, "Tennessee Probate Court Books, 1795-1927," FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:2:77TV-TKYZ?cc=1909088&wc=M6QQ-2NP%3A179637401%2C179857801 : 31 Jan 2017), image 259.

My fifth great grandfather Elijah Evans (1786-1842) died due to injuries from a fire at his house in Claiborne County, Tennessee.

I was pleased to find the blurry but thankfully typewritten 1845 first settlement of his estate yesterday on FamilySearch in the Tennessee Probate Court Books (Wills, 1837-1846, Vol. A), and the document included some names I had not seen before, in particular a John Brabson.  My mom has two moderate Ancestry DNA cousin matches to people with this likely John Brabson in their direct upline--I wonder what that means, if anything?  I hope this might help break down some walls on Elijah's wife Rutha "Ruthey" Holt's ancestry.  I have some work to do with this document!

© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Maria Evans (1814 - 1899) Part 1

Because her granddaughter Esther Moreland Leithold wrote a book about them based on family stories, we know more about the personal life of my paternal great-great-great grandmother Maria Evans (and her husband B.R. Biddle).

[Maria Evans Biddle, page 12, from "..And This Is Our Heritage."

Courtesy of the Hathi Trust Digital Library (original from University of Wisconsin).]

Maria was born in Claiborne County in northeast Tennessee in 1814 and was named her for one of her father's sisters, Mary Evans Conway, who had no children of her own. Her parents Elijah and Rutha (Holt) Evans owned an inn on the south bank of the Clinch River on the route from North Carolina to Kentucky, via the Cumberland Gap.

[Map of Kentucky And Tennessee Compiled from the Latest Authorities. Published by S. Augustus Mitchell Philadelphia. 1831. J.H. Young Sc. List No: 3884.010. David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

Maria met her future husband, Robert Biddle* as a young girl during a visit to relatives in Grainger County where his family lived. The acquaintance was continued years later after Robert apprenticed himself to a tailor in Middlesborough, in what is now Bell County, Kentucky, staying at her father's inn on his way between there and Grainger County and Maria and Robert formed an attachment.

After his apprenticeship was over, Robert opened a tailor shop in Tazewell, the county seat of Claiborne County but the couple faced opposition to an engagement from Maria's family who considered him an undesirable mate because he was a tradesman with what Leithold terms "parents who would always be a financial burden to him."**

In what proved to be a futile attempt to distract her from her attraction to Robert, Maria was sent to Knoxville Female Academy in 1831-1832. Leithold describes her studies there.***

"Her father thought that the expense was too great for such an unnecessary thing as an advanced education for a girl; but Aunt Mary was determined that Maria should go, and insisted on paying all of the expense herself, which was considered a large amount, at that time. The tuition, alone, was ten dollars for each session. There was no charge for room rent, but the price of board, fire wood, and candles amounted to one dollar and a half each week. Maria also took ornamental needlework, on lace and muslin, which was five dollars extra each session. All students had to recite, once a week, on the Sacred Scriptures; and Maria, who always stood at the head of that class, became so interested in Bible-study, she continued it through the rest of her life. 

The first year, at the Academy, she studied Arithmetic, and Geography (with the drawing of maps and "the solution of the problems of the terrestial Globe", Rhetoric, Astronomy, and the History of Natural Philosophy. 

The next year she had the same studies with an advanced teacher, and an additional five dollars tuition. The second year Astronomy, included "the solution of the problems of the Celestial Globe." There were also lectures on "Good Manners and Proper Behavior in Polite Society." Maria also took a course in Fancy Weaving and Rug Making. 

The school year was divided into two sessions. The winter session of five months, began on November first and continued until March 31st; and the summer session started on the first of May and continued until September 30th; so Maria had vacation during the months of April and October, when she could visit her family and Aunt Mary."

Near the end of her school days in Knoxville Maria promised to marry her sweetheart and the couple were able to carry on a clandestine correspondence with the help of her older married sister Matilda Evans Garrett.

Robert's father Benjamin decided to move to Illinois at about this time and bought some public land in Sangamon County so Robert sold his business in Tazewell and followed his parents there, opening a tailor shop in Springfield in 1833. By the following year his business was doing well enough that he felt he could support a wife and returned to Tennessee with his mother and sister Angeline.

After his prospective son-in-law asked for permission to marry his daughter, Elijah Evans tried to persuade Maria to reconsider.****

That night Elijah Evans asked Maria if she really planned to marry Robert Biddle, and when she told him that she did, he said, "Well, Maria, I reckon Robert is a likely young man, and he has good manners; but you are a little mite of a girl, and should never have to lift and carry, like the Yankee women do. We've always had slaves to do all the hard work, and you've never even had to ready up your own room, lest you felt like it. I've heard tell that the Yankee women out there in Illinois even do their own washin' and ironin', and I don't like to think of you'r goin' there. The Biddles are great spenders too,
and people like them are most always poor. You don't know what it's like to be poor, and I don't want you to have to find out. I only want you to be happy, and the Biddles aren't our kind of folks. So I calculate you'd be better off if you'd stay here amongst your own kin. We all'd like to see you marry Jesse Hirst. He's a fine young man and could give you a good home, near your own folks, but if you won't have him, why can't you take one of the other men who've asked if they could court you? They're our kind of people, and any one of them would make you a good husband."

Maria told him that Jesse Hirst was just like one of her own brothers, and she could never think of marrying him, even though he was really no blood relation, and most of the other men he spoke of were almost as old as he, and she couldn't marry a man as old as her father. Even though most girls married men much older than they were, she was sure she would be happier with some one nearer her own age. At last he said, "Well, Maria, my little one, you are past eighteen and can do as you please. I want to see you happy, and will never give my consent for you to marry Robert Biddle, for I'm sure you'll be sorry if you do."

With her father away from home, on May 3, 1834, Maria and Robert were married by the local preacher in the presence of her mother and sister. Later that day the bride and groom set out for Illinois and their new life together.

To be continued.


*Benjamin Robert "B.R." Biddle (1808-1882)
**And they were right. His parents, Benjamin and Polly Capell Biddle had already squandered a considerable estate in Southampton County,Virginia, before moving west to Tennessee. Benjamin's paltry inheritance from his mother is discussed here.
***And this is our heritage, page 32.
****And this is our heritage, page 41.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Overview

The first Monday post I dedicated to my female ancestors featured a portrait of my great great great grandmother Elizabeth Taylor Tomlinson who died about 1863. Since then I've written 82 posts on the topic including ones about my two mothers--birth mother Alta Mae Slater and Bernice Evangeline Grenfell Currey, the mother who raised me. I have looked more closely into the lives of my paternal grandmother Letta Estella Porter Warren Williams Turnbull,* and all of my great and great great grandmothers. Only one of my third-great grandmothers (Maria Evans Biddle) remains undone and, looking over the list, it appears the time has come to address the lives of my fourth-great grandmothers, since I've only written about seven of them out of a potential 32 women. Farther back in time than that it's more difficult to find enough information to write about some of my grandmothers but I have written about some including a paternal ninth-great grandmother Catherine Gookin Warren who died in Kent, England, in 1640.

[Elizabeth Taylor Tomlinson, courtesy of Olive Slater-Kennedy]

*We're hoping to hear more about her life from my first cousin who knew her.


© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Mary Ann "Polly" Capell (1782 - After 1840)

The only daughter of Patty (Roberson?) and Sterling Capell, this paternal fourth great grandmother was born in Southampton County, Virginia.

[Detail from The State of Virginia from the best Authorities, By Samuel Lewis. Smither Sculpt. Engraved for Carey's American Edition of Guthrie's Geography improved. (1794-1795) Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

With the consent of her father, in 1799 Polly married Benjamin Bittle (Biddle), the son of Kirby Bittle and his wife Lucy Westbrook, and the young couple settled in Southampton County.

[Southampton Records: Marriage Registry 1750-1853. Source The Brantley Association]

When Sterling Capell died in 1803 he left all of his estate to his wife for her lifetime and thereafter to be equally divided among his children.

[Southampton Records: Will Book 5. Source The Brantley Association]

When Kirby Bittle died in 1809 Benjamin, as his oldest son, acted as administrator of his estate.*

In the 1810 U.S. Census Benjamin's household in Southampton County included himself, his wife, their four children** and four enslaved persons.

[Ancestry.com. 1810 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Third Census of the United States, 1810. (NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls). Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

By the 1820 U.S. Census the family had moved east to Amhurst County, Virginia, and there are no longer any slaves in their household.

[Detail from Virginia. Drawn & Published by F. Lucas Jr., Baltimore. Sam Harrison, Scl. Philada. (1822).

Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

And the 1830 U.S. Census found them living in Grainger County, Tennessee.

[Detail from Tennessee. Published by A. Finley Philada. Young & Delleker Sc. (1831) Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

The final U.S. Census where Polly and Benjamin appear was in 1840 in Illinois in Maucopin County Benjamin died in 1848 but we haven't been able to find a date of death for Polly.

[Detail from A New Map of Illinois with Its Roads & Distances from place to place along the Stage & Steam Boat Routes by H.S. Tanner (1842). Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

And that's all the official records we have for Polly but we're fortunate to know more about her through stories passed down to a descendant through her daughter-in-law Maria Evans Biddle*** who doesn't appear to have been her biggest fan.

[Page 29 from the online copy of "And This is Our Heritage", courtesy of the Hathi Trust Digital Library (original from University of Wisconsin).  Accessed 25 Jan 2016.]

 *And something he did in this capacity appears to have caused his mother Lucy to leave his younger brother the bulk of her estate upon her death in 1816.
**My three times great grandfather B.R. Biddle was their second son.
***Esther Moreland Leithold (1872-1959), author of  the saga of her maternal grandparents, Maria Evans (1814-1899) and Benjamin "B.R." Biddle (1808-1882) ""..And This Is Our Heritage"

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Monday Is for Mothers: Matilda Biddle (1846 - 1927)

As Esther Moreland Leithold (1872-1959) wrote in "And this is our heritage," a recounting of the family stories she heard from her grandparents Benjamin R. and Maria (Evans) Biddle, this paternal great great grandmother was always known as "Puggie," a nickname bestowed on her as an infant.

She was born in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois, on February 23, 1846, and the first public record of her is in the 1850 U.S. Census. Puggie's mother Maria was listed as the head of the household and Aunt Angeline (Biddle) Atkinson and her son Henry were staying with them. (Her father B.R. was still in California, having traveled overland to the gold fields in 1849 with several partners in order to open a store selling goods to the miners.*)

["United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M859-2M7 : accessed 9 November 2015), Matilda Biddle in household of Mariah Riddle, Springfield, Sangamon, Illinois, United States; citing family 714, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).]

B.R. returned to Illinois determined to take his wife and five children, including six-year-old Puggie, to the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Territory where his sister Harriette and her husband Hamilton Campbell had settled some years earlier. They left Springfield in April of 1852 and several months later a little brother, Arthur Platte Biddle,** was born at a camp on the west side of the Platte River.

["North Platte, 1859" Daniel A. Jenks (1827-1869) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.]

The Biddles and the rest of their party had arrived at their destination by October and B.R. bought land in Marysville (now Corvallis).

[A Diagram of a Portion of Oregon Territory. Surveyor General's Office, Oregon City, October 21st, 1852. Surveyor General, J B Preston. Lith. by A. Hoen & Co. Balto. Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection]

By the 1860 U.S. Census another daughter (Alice) had been added to the family.

[City : Corvallis. Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

Two years later a local teacher named Orville Tracy Porter began to court the 16-year-old Puggie.

 

[Leithold, E. Moreland. (1944). And this is our heritage. Woodland, Calif. pages 156-7]

By the 1870 U.S. Census, Orville and Puggie and their three children*** were living in Waitsburg, Walla Walla County in the Washington Territory.Orville was still working as a school teacher.

[Township : Waitsburg.  Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Minnesota census schedules for 1870. NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

The 1880 Federal Census found the Biddles (with seven children by then) back in Oregon, living in Harrisburg. Orville's occupation was listed as "Editor," of a weekly newspaper.

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

This is the last census that shows Orville and Puggie living in the same household. Their youngest child, Chester Arthur Porter, was born in California in 1884**** so they may have still been together as late as then, but in 1889 Orville was appointed as U.S. Marshall for Alaska and married a second time the following year.

Since the 1890 census was destroyed, the next record we have for Puggie is in the 1900 U.S. Census for Albany, Linn County, Oregon, where she described herself as a widow with her youngest child still at home, although Orville and his new wife were living in the same town.

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.:

National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

Albany City's directory for 1905 lists both Puggie and her ex-husband.*****

[Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Title : Albany, Oregon, City Directory, 1905]

Puggie was still styling herself as a widow in the 1910 U.S. Census and she was living with her daughter Alice and her family in West Albany.

[Enumeration District : 0198; Description: West Albany Precinct including Albany City (part), Ward 1 Ward 2. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Original data: Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910 (NARA microfilm publication T624, 1,178 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.]

By the 1920 U.S. Census, Puggie was living by herself in a rented house in Newport City on the Oregon coast. (Whether or not she and Orville ever divorced, describing herself as a widow was more accurate now since he had died in 1916.)

[Enumeration District : 0276; Description: Pacific Precinct including part of Newport City (part). Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA.]

Matilda Biddle Porter died in Lincoln County, Oregon, on August 26, 1927, and is buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery (also known as the Pioneer Cemetery) in Corvallis, her first home in Oregon

[Ancestry.com. Oregon, Death Index, 1898-2008 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000. Original data: State of Oregon. Oregon Death Index, 1903-1998. Salem, OR, USA: Oregon State Archives and Records Center. Oregon Death Indexes, 1903-1970. Salem, OR, USA: Oregon State Library.Oregon Death Indexes, 1971-2008. Salem, OR, USA: Oregon State Library.]

Because Matilda was among the early settlers of Oregon there are several cards for her in the Pioneer Index maintained by the Oregon Historical Society.

[Ancestry.com. Oregon, Biographical and Other Index Card File, 1700s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.

Original data: Oregon, Biographical and Other Cards. Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon.]

*He is enumerated as a "Merchant" in Shasta, California, in the same census.

[Year: 1850; Census Place: Shasta, Shasta, California; Roll: M432_35; Page: 333A; Image: 648. Ancestry.com. 1850 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M432, 1009 rolls);

Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

**Sadly, little Arthur died on November 29, 1852.
***My direct ancestor is their oldest child Tracy Darrow Porter.
****Chester was born in Healdsburg, California, two years after her father died in that town and her mother was still a resident there.
*****No record of a divorce between Puggie and Orville has appeared yet.




© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Working on Wednesday: Orville Tracy Porter (1838 - 1916) North to Alaska

The son of Martha Shepard (1800-1875) and William Porter (1796-1868), this paternal great great grandfather Orville Tracy "O.T." Porter was born in Mexico (Oswego County, New York) on November 23, 1838. The 1850 U.S. Census listed him as attending school, and by the 1855 New York State Census, 17-year old Orville was described as a "Farmer" in the household of his older brother Charles Dixon Porter.*

[Ancestry.com. New York, State Census, 1855 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

Original data: Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York.]

O.T. must not have found farming the life he wanted to dedicate himself to because in 1860 he traveled to Oregon, although sources are divided whether he arrived via Panama or around Cape Horn.**

In her book  "..And This Is Our Heritage," Esther Moreland Leithold gives a brief description of Orville in 1862 when he courted and married my great great grandmother Matilda "Puggie" Biddle (1846-1927)*** who was living in Corvallis with her parents.

"Puggie was then sixteen; and, as she was living in a country where eligible young men outnumbered young women, of their own class, almost six to one, she had many admirers with matrimonial designs. Among those who saw Puggie most frequently was a handsome young teacher named Orville Porter, who had alluring brown eyes and an engaging manner. He was very intelligent, and was always employed; but he lacked the accumulative instinct,--the ability to spend less than he made;--and, while Robert liked him personally, he did not consider him a suitable husband for his daughter; and was very glad to have her at the Agency (the Indian Agency) where should would not see the charming Orville for awhile."

But parental objections didn't stop the pair from getting together.

"Each day she walked down to town to get the mail and the needed supplies for the house; and if she went at the right time (which she usually did) Orville Porter would walk home with her, and stay, to sit on the front porch, until time for him to return to his work. Then on Sunday afternoons he would stay until time for the evening Church Service and walk, with her, to the church. No one thought seriously of their friendship: but, on the morning of August 26th, he drove up to the house in a buggy; and Puggie went out, carrying a hat-box, to join him. She did not tell anyone where she was going: but, before the day was over, the secret had leaked out, and the family learned that they had gone to Albany to be married: and there they remained for a wonderful two day's honeymoon at the St. Charles Hotel."

In the 1870 U.S. Census for Waitsburg, Walla Walla County, Washington Territory, O.T.'s occupation was listed as school teacher and the household includes Matilda and three children, the youngest of which was born in 1868 in the territory so the family must have moved there sometime after Walter's birth two years earlier in Oregon.

[Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. Original data: 1870 U.S. census, population schedules. NARA microfilm publication M593, 1,761 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.]

The Porters didn't remain in Washington and were living in Harrisburg, Linn County, Oregon, where O.T. began publishing a weekly newspaper, The Nucleus, amid high hopes for the area.

"The centennial year of 1876 saw the birth of journalism in Harrisburg, when O. T. Porter started the Nucleus, a four-page Saturday weekly, Republican, 22x32, for which he charged $2.50 a year.

Like a good many other newspapers of the period, the Nucleus had a mission and frankly proclaimed it. In Pettengill’s newspaper directory for 1878 the publisher, announcing a circulation of 400, and proclaiming that “it will soon . . . possibly treble its circulation,” declared that “portions of Linn, Lane, and Benton counties are destined, at no distant day, to be separated and form a new county, with Harrisburg as the county seat. The Nucleus will be THE newspaper of Nucleus county. . . . Circulation in six incorporated villages.” In Ayer’s for the same year Porter asserted that the Nucleus “circulates as the local journal of Brownsville, Halsey, Junction, and Harrisburg, none of which has a smaller population than 300, all incorporated.” 

The ambitious dreams of Mr. Porter failed to save his little paper. Brownsville and Junction proceeded at once to establish their own papers, and within three years the Nucleus was not."****

O.T.'s occupation is listed as Editor in the 1880 U.S. Census when he and his expanding family were still living in Harrisburg.

[Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Original data: Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.]

According to his Oregon Biographical Index Card File 1900-1986, over his newspaper career had papers not only in Harrisburg, but also Albany,***** Waitsburg (Washington), and Healdsburg, California, probably where his youngest child was born. His editorial support during the 1888 election must have been the reason he was given a juicy political appointment, that of U.S. Marshall****** and Surveyor General (ex officio) of Alaska, by newly-elected Republican President Benjamin Harrison in 1889.

[Official Register of the United States ..., Volume 1, U.S. Government Printing Office 1892, Google Books]

[United States Congressional serial set, Issue 3089, Google Books]

We don't know at what point O.T. and Matilda's marriage ended but he married Carrie Delph****** in Sitka in 1890. She had come to Alaska a year earlier to teach at a missionary school sponsored by the Presbyterian Church.

[Detail from photos of Sitka in Alaska and Polar Regions Collections, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks]

As the only U.S. Marshall for all of Alaska, O.T. kept busy not only professionally but also personally. He was elected Treasurer of the Alaska Historical Society in December of 1889, co-authored a book of poems about Alaska, and collected Native Art. Some of his actions made the national news.

[Date: Wednesday, May 14, 1890   Paper: New York Herald (New York, New York)   Issue: 134   Page: 7 . This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.Source: GenealogyBank.com]

[Date: Friday, January 12, 1894   Paper: Santa Fe Daily New Mexican (Santa Fe, New Mexico)   Volume: 30   Issue: 275   Page: 1. This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

Since it was a political appointment, it must have been clear to O.T. that when Harrison lost the 1892 election to Democrat Grover Cleveland his job as Marshall was in jeopardy and he was replaced by Louis L. Williams in 1894.

By the 1900 U.S. Census O.T. and Callie were living in West Albany, in the same ward and enumeration district of the city as the "widowed" Matilda Porter and their youngest child Chester A. Porter, a 15-year old student.

[Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Original data: United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.:

National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.]

The 1905 Albany City Directory gives their addresses; note that O.T. had become a Justice of the Peace by then.

[Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1989 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

Original data: Title : Albany, Oregon, City Directory, 1905]

And O.T. and Carrie were still living in the same area as the "widowed" Matilda who was now residing in the household of her daughter Alice's family in the 1910 U.S. Census.

Orville Porter died on January 30, 1916.

[Date: Monday, January 31, 1916   Paper: Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)   Volume: LV   Issue: 17220   Page: 4   Piece: One of Two. This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004

Source: GenealogyBank.com]

As an example of how obituaries are not always accurate, of the eight children O.T. and Matilda had together, five survived him. Somehow his oldest child, my great grandfather Tracy Darrow Porter, another newspaperman, who was alive and well in Mississippi at the time wasn't mentioned at all.

Matilda survived him by 11 years, Carrie by 17.


*Although Charles is listed as head of household, both parents and two elderly aunts are living there too.
**Orville's obituary states that he came by way of Panama; the Oregon Biographical Index Card File 1900-1986 says via Cape Horn.
***She was the daughter of Benjamin Robert "B.R." Biddle (1808-1882) and Maria Evans (1814-1899).
****Source for this quote from Linn County Roots here.
*****Linn County Roots names him as a partner in the Albany Herald by 1883 here.
******You can read more about Carrie on a blog post by a member of the Delph family here.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.