Augustus Seymour Porter

Template:Short description Template:Infobox officeholder Augustus Seymour Porter (January 18, 1798Template:Spaced ndashSeptember 18, 1872) was a U.S. statesman from the state of Michigan.

Early life

He was born in Canandaigua, New York, the son of Augustus Porter (1769–1849) and his first wife, Lavinia Steele.<ref name="Welles">Template:Cite book</ref> His brothers were Albert Howell Porter (1801-1888) and Peter Buell Porter, Jr. (1806–1871), and his uncle was Peter Buell Porter (1773–1844), the United States Secretary of War under John Quincy Adams.

He attended Canandaigua Academy,<ref name = "cong">Template:CongBio</ref> and graduated from Union College, in Schenectady, New York, in 1818, studied law and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Detroit, Michigan.<ref name="NYTObit1872"/>

Career

Porter became the recorder of Detroit in 1830 and was the treasurer of the Michigan Pioneer Society in 1837.<ref name = "cong"/> He was elected mayor of Detroit in 1838,<ref name = "cong"/> resigning in 1839 to run for the United States Senate, and was succeeded as mayor by Asher B. Bates on March 14, 1839.<ref name = "cong"/>

He was elected as a Whig to the United States Senate, and served from January 20, 1840, until March 3, 1845.<ref name="Press">Template:Cite book</ref> He did not run for reelection in 1844.<ref name = "cong"/> He was chairman of the Committee on Roads and Canals, 1841–1845, and was on the Committee on Enrolled Bills, 1841–1843.<ref name = "cong"/>

Personal life

On July 25, 1822, he married Sarah A. Mansfield (d. 1824). Mansfield died a few months after the birth of Porter's only son:<ref name="HPAndrews"/>

• Samuel M. Porter (b. 1824), who died in youth.<ref name="HPAndrews"/>

On September 24, 1832, he married his second wife, Sarah G. Barnard (1807–1885),<ref name="Leavenworth1873">Template:Cite book</ref> his cousin and the daughter of Robert Foster Barnard (1784–1850) and Augusta Porter (1786–1833). Sarah was the sister of Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1809–1889), a Columbia University President, and Gen. John G. Barnard (1815–1882).<ref name="SGPorterObit1885">Template:Cite news</ref> She was also a niece of Senator Henry Clay (1777–1852).<ref name="BuellFamily1881">Template:Cite book</ref> Together, they had:<ref name="HPAndrews"/>

• Jane A. Porter (b. 1833)<ref name="HPAndrews"/>
• Sarah Frederica Porter (b. 1836), who married Stephen E. Burrall (1826–1868),<ref name="Andrews1893">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="HPAndrews"/> in 1863,<ref name="1863Wedding">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="NewEnglandGenea1994">Template:Cite book</ref> and who lived in London in 1885.<ref name="SGPorterObit1885"/>

In 1848, he moved to his father's residence, in Niagara Falls, New York, and died there on September 18, 1872.<ref name="NYTObit1872">Template:Cite news</ref> He is interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.<ref name = "pg">Template:Cite web</ref> Sarah died at Newport, Isle of Wight on April 30, 1885.<ref name="HPAndrews">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="SGPorterObit1885"/>

Descendants

Through his youngest daughter, he was the grandfather of Guy Augustus Porter–Burrall (1865–1890),<ref name="Fairbairns1892">Template:Cite book</ref> a Cambridge University lawyer and Lieutenant in the British Army,<ref name="Venn2011">Template:Cite book</ref> and Stephen E. Porter–Burrall (1868–1896), an 1883 Eton College graduate.<ref name="Eton1900">Template:Cite book</ref> The family assumed the name of Porter–Burrall, by letters patent from Queen Victoria, on August 16, 1886.<ref name="Andrews1893"/>

External links

• Template:Find a Grave