Brief Life History of William W.
When William W. Porter was born on 5 December 1861, in Utah, United States, his father, Robert Hammill Porter, was 42 and his mother, Eliza Jane Graham, was 36. He lived in Coalville, Summit, Utah, United States in 1870. He died in 1888, at the age of 27.
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Family Time Line
Sources (2)
- William Porter in household of Robert Porter, "United States Census, 1870"
- Legacy NFS Source: William Porter - Individual or family possessions: male
Parents and Siblings
World Events (8)
1863
Abraham Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, declaring slaves in Confederate states to be free.
1863 · The Battle at Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg involved the largest number of casualties of the entire Civil war and is often described as the war's turning point. Between 46,000 and 51,000 soldiers lost their lives during the three-day Battle. To honor the fallen soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln read his historic Gettysburg Address and helped those listening by redefining the purpose of the war.
1870 · The Fifteenth Amendment
Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It was the last of the Reconstruction Amendments.
Name Meaning
English and Scottish: occupational name for the gatekeeper of a walled town or city, or the doorkeeper of a great house, castle, or monastery, from Middle English and Older Scots porter(e), port(o)ur ‘doorkeeper, gatekeeper’ (Anglo-Norman French port(i)er, portur, Latin portarius). The office often came with accommodation, lands, and other privileges for the bearer, and in some cases was hereditary, especially in the case of a royal castle. The name has been established in Ireland since the 13th century. In North America, this surname has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other languages, for example German Pförtner (see Fortner ) and Poertner .
English: occupational name for a man who carried loads for a living, especially one who used his own muscle power rather than a beast of burden or a wheeled vehicle. This sense is from Middle English port(o)ur, porter ‘porter, carrier of burdens’ (Anglo-Norman French portur, porteo(u)r).
Dutch: variant, mostly Americanized, of Poorter, status name for a freeman (burgher) of a town, Middle Dutch portere, modern Dutch poorter. Compare De Porter .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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