My Genealogy Hound

Hon. William P. Porter, attorney at law, of Dallas County, Mo., and a representative citizen of the county, is a native of Perry County, Tenn., and was born April 20, 1851, being a son of William C. and Matilda (Ledbetter) Porter, who were born, respectively, in South Carolina and Tennessee. The former was a farmer by occupation, and in 1860 immigrated to New Madrid County, Mo., where he purchased a farm, and remained until 1868, when he removed to St. Francois County, and there resided until his death, in 1884. His wife died in 1878, their union having been blessed in the birth of eight children, five of whom are living: Martha, Mary, Henry, Sarah and William P. The latter has resided in Missouri most of the time since he was nine years of age, and received a good education in the schools of Farmington, and when twenty-seven years of age began the study of law under F. M. Carter, being admitted to the bar at Farmington in 1880. Since that time he has been in the active practice of his profession, and has become one of the foremost members of the legal fraternity in Dallas County. In the fall of 1888 he was elected on the Republican ticket to represent this county in the House of Representatives, and has also held the offices of assistant prosecuting attorney and justice of the peace, and was filling the duties of the latter office when he was admitted to the bar. He was married in 1871 to Laura Bradshaw, a native of Illinois, by whom he is the father of eight children: Nettie F., William W., Robert H., Lula B., Maude, Ellis B., Mabel and Mollie. Mr. and Mrs. Porter are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he belongs to the A. O. U. W. When the war closed Mr. Porter’s father had been stripped of all his personal property by the rebels, and he was left a poor man, and the subject of this sketch had a poor show in life. When about eighteen years of age his father turned him loose to do for himself. He at once engaged himself to a stone-mason to labor for money to pay his expenses, etc., at school. In this way he acquired all the means with which he educated himself. In 1874 he moved to Meridian, Tex., and commenced the publication of the Bosque County Standard, an independent paper in politics. Not liking Texas, he returned within a few months after locating there, to Missouri.