Born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Porter attended the Norristown Academy. While he and his two brothers were preparing to enter college, there was a student "rebellion" at Princeton University and many school buildings had been burned. As a result, Porter and his brothers continued their studies in their father's library rather than at Princeton.
Porter was United States Marshall for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1831. Appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1831, Porter served as the Territorial Governor of Michigan[3] from 1832 until his death in 1834. In this role he accompanied Oneida chief Daniel Bread to the White House to ask President Jackson for alternative land arrangements for the Oneida in response to the 1831 Treaty of Washington, which along with the 1927 Treaty of Butte MortsArchived 2015-02-28 at the Wayback Machine had reduced Oneida lands by 90%.[4] The trip was successful in that the president agreed to exchange Oneida lands for "better, more fertile" lands.[4]
A portrait of Porter was unveiled in November 2015 and hangs on the second floor of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing.
Family life
Porter married Sarah Humes of Pennsylvania on October 31, 1816, and had at least four children, one of whom was General Andrew Porter, one of the generals at the First Battle of Bull Run, who married Margarite Biddle of the famous Biddle family.
^ abHauptman, Laurence (2008). Seven Generations of Iroquois Leadership: The Six Nations Since 1800. Syracuse University Press. p. 91. ISBN978-0-8156-3165-1.
