The Descendants of Moses and Sarah Kilham Porter of Pawlet
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Gc 929.2 1641130 REYNrLOS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION ALLEN COUNTY PUBUC LIBRIivRY 3 1833 01419 5157 r> H d a •i ^-^ rsC o 11\? i^ THE DESCENDANTS OF Moses and Sarah Kilham Porter of Pavv^Iet, Vermont, •with some notice of their ajicestors end those of Timothy Ilatch, Aniy axid Lucy 807x110 oi- Hatch. Mary Tiav-xence Porter axtA X.iicretia iBu.shnell Porter. Complied bv JOFIN S. I^WHENCE 4 T Chj^mT> Rapujs, MiCHiaA^N, 1910 CONTENTS List of Descendants _ Ancestors of Moses Porter _ _ _ „.. 109 Ancestors of Sarah Killiam Porter. 125 Appendix: 1. Militarv record of Moses Porter __ 136 2. Genealogy of the Hatch family „ 141 3. The Hatch and Pierson children ....._ 146 4. Ancestry of LiicretiaBushneil, wife of Jos- eph Porter _ „ _ _ _ 14S 5. Ancestry of Maiy Lawrence, wife of Elijah Porter _ _ _.._ _ 151 6. Seynionr ancestry _ _..._ 154 7. Memorial of John P. Hatch _ 157 8. Memorial of John K. Porter _ _„ 159 9. Obituary of J^[rs. Cornelia Porter Lawrence... 161 10. Society of Colonial Wars. (List of ancestors on whose records membership has been granted) „ _ _ 164 11. D-vjghters of the American Eevoliition _ 165 12. College graduates _ 166 13. Military sei-^ices _ _ _ 168 14. Index L_ _..._ 171 : PREFACE. In 1893, Henry Porter Andrevv-s of Saratoga vSprings, New York, published a work in two large volumes, entitled '-'The Descendants of John Porter of Windsor, Conn. 1835-1639." It was a painstaking accnmnlation of facts and, as I am told, cost Mr. Andrews his ejesight. Our ancestor, Moses Porter, is No. 857 and his pedigree is shown to go back to John Porter, through Ex|)eriGnce Port:^r, No. 21-2, Experience Porter, No. 49, and Samuel Porter, No. 5. Mr. ^Vndrews states the wife of John Porter to have been Rose Porter. At that time it had not been ascertained that the mother of John Porter's cliildren was a first wife, Anna Yv'hir.e, daughter of Robert White and granddaughter of William Allgar. As respects John Porter himself, no more is known at this time tiian what Mr. Andrews set doTNm in his book. Mr, Andrews' work is one of the most valuable gene- alogies we have. Apparently he invited all his eorrfit-- spondents to furnish him their pedigrees, whether in the Porter line or otherwise, with the result that there is no other such compendium of American pedigrees in print. It is true that he seems to have printed everything that was sent him and many discordant accounts of the same family appear; but yet, if examined wifh discriminaiion, the work is a very valuable mine of genealogical informa- tion. I owe to it the starting point, at least, of many a successful research and much useful information re- specting Moses Porter's descendants. It is to supple- ment ^fr. Andrews' book with a full list of these latter that I publish what follows Moses Porter had seven children; Abigail, Sarah, Elijah, Joseph, Solomon, Moses R., and Hervey, Solomon died in boyhood. A few of the descendants of Sarah (^'itch), Elijah, Joseph and Moses R. were set down by Mr. .Andrews, but he does not seem to have got into touch with any member of the family of Abigail (Hatch), the most numerous of all, or the family of Hervey. In what be did sot dovm, he went only a generation or so and the information furnished was inaccurate and un- reliable. Nevertheless, in view of the large task he V, attempted to aocomplisb, it is remarkable that ne did so well with our particular branch of the family. The de- scendants of John Porter as given in Mr. Andrews' book include many names of importance in American history. Amongst them are two Presidents of the United States, General Grant and Mr. Cleveland, Bishox)S Goxe and Huntington of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Judges Selden and Porter of the New York Court of Appeals; William E. Dodge, the merchant philanthropist of New York City; ex-Governor Baldvviu of Michigan; Chief Justice Waite of the United States Suprem.e Court; President McKinley's private secretary, John Addison Porter, and many other men of prominence. If Porters were given to boasting, and they are not, they might well regard their family as one of exceptional dis- tinction. My own assembling of the descendants of ]\[o5es Porter was an undertaking which grew as the work pro- ceeded. A member of the Joseph Porter family, who found my sister's name on the roll of the Daughters of the Eevolution with a statement of her descent froDJi Moses Porter, wrote to her for information as to the family. The letter was turned over to me and, after replying, I searched the various books of the Kevolu- tionary societies and found the names and addresses of two ladies of the Abigail Porter Hatch descent who had obtained admission to the D. A. E. through the record of Moses Porter. I wrote to these ladies and, then, without the slightest notion how large the task might be, con- ceived the idea of getting the names of all my great grandfather's descendants through correspondence. One letter led to another; the field increased alarmingly, but with it my interest; when families seemed untraceable, a certain detective zeal was aroused; and there was pleas- urable satisfaction in solving a difficult problem when some chance shot brought large and unexpected returns. After a great deal of such correspondence I realized that I had compiled a list of practically all the people who belonged to it, except the possible members of one or two small families who have become lost to their nearest relatives, and a very few people who practically refuse to have anything to do "-^vith me or my undertaking. I doubt, however, whether so many as ten to fifteen names ha.'7e escaped me, aiihongh there are besides a few dates that I have been unable to obtain. vi. If I do not mistake, there is more feeling of kin?liip in families like ours' now, than there was seventy-five or a hnndred years ago. Moses Porter was a Vermont fa.rmer, whose children had to look out for themselves as soon as they could. It was a matter of necessity rather than of choice. His eldest daughter, Abigail, married Timothy Hatch, and forthwith went West with her husband. They were at Le Eoy, Genesee county, New York, as early as the second decade of the last centuiy and there they both Lived out their useful lives and are buried. The second daughter, Sarah, married Ephraim Fitch at the early age of sixteen years and three months, and died at Pawlet, her father's residence, before she was twenty-one; leaving, surviving her, three children, whose descendants number a little over three hundred persons. Ephraim Fitch,, her husband remained at Pawlet and remarried. Two of his three children by Sarah Porter, Hubbard and Sarah (who married Judge Doolittie), went ^V'^est. Dorastus Fitch remained his lifetime through in the old home, but his children, in turn, scattered. The eldest son of Moses Porter, Elijah, studied medicine, and crossed the state line into Saratoga county. New York, where he married and founded a family of his own. He however kept in close touch ^nth his relatives at Pawlet, both through correspondence and frequent visits. Joseph Porter succeeded his father on the home farm. His letters to his brother, Elijah, indicate that the land afforded only the most meagre support to his family, and owing to the distance from the nearest market to^vn, wliatever surplus he had to sell cost him nearly all it was worth. Nevertheless he and his family lived cheerful and God-fearing New Elngland lives. His granddaugh- ter, Miss Ann S. Chapin, of Manchester, Vt., writes to me, "He lived and died on the same farm his father had. I think he was eight years old when they came. He took his father's place as Deacon of the Church. He was active in the church and with his worthy vvdfe, who sang in the choir, kept up a typical New England home, hospitable for all; a ministers' tavern, some called it. He had a dairy of forty cows, making cheese, butter; sr>inning, weaving. Thanksgiving days the table fairly groaned wi.th roast chicken, turkey, pork, cliickeii pie, vii. vegetables, pies, puddings. All the children had part in the fnDiily work as well as an adopted daughter, older, but lo\dng and loved like the rest." Joseph^ Porter cared for his mother until his death in 1S40. She died in her one hnndred and first year, forty years after her husband. His descendants are very few in number and are almost all Vermont people. Moses R. and Hervey Porter went to Oswego connty, New York, probably directly after their respective marriages. Hervey founded a family there; while his brother, physician and farmer, soon went on to Trum- bull county in northeastern Ohio, where still reside the greater pta.rt of his descendants. It is not strange that these diverging branches of the Moses Porter family lost sight of each other. The two older brothers it is true kept trade of each other as apparently the two younger brothers did; but so nearly as I can find out the' H:atche3 and the Fitches, after they once left the old home were lost to their relatives and to each other, at least in the second generation.