370 



HISTORY OF STEUBEN COUNTY, NEW YORK. 



Judge Porter was a successful agriculturist, as were liis 

 two sons after him. He delivered the addresss before the 

 first agricultural society at Bath. He possessed a fine lit- 

 erary mind. While in the prime of life, he began to feel 

 the effects of a steadily-increasing paralysis, which eventu- 

 ally rendered him almost helpless. For many years it af- 

 fected only his physical organization, leaving his mental 

 faculties apparently as clear and active as before. It would 

 seem as if it must have been a crushing blow for one so 

 active and buoyant as was Judge Porter to be thus sud- 

 denly stricken down, but he received it as a chastisement 

 from his heavenly Father and yielded to it with submission. 

 He died, Aug. 20, 1847, aged seventy-four years. The 

 work of his hands, and the influence of his life, made an 

 impression on the village and people of Prattsburgh which 

 will long be gratefully remembered. 



Mrs. Roxanna Porter, wife of Judge Porter, was a woman 

 of much intelligence and piety, — a fit helpmeet for her hus- 

 band. Her labors and strength were most freely given for 

 the comfort and good of her family. She died, greatly 

 beloved and mourned, Oct. 24, 1835, aged sixty-one years. 



Judge Porter had four sons and two daughters. Belinda, 

 born Oct. 15, 1802 ; William L. born Feb. 23, 1805 ; 

 Edward R., born Aug. 7, 1806 ; Robert L., born April 8, 

 1810; Thomas, bctrn July 5, 1813 (died in infancy), and 

 Mary A., born May 20, 1815. 



Belinda attended school for several years at Litchfield, 

 Conn. She was a lady of unusual intelligence and culture. 

 She was married, Dec. 26, 1824, to Judge Z. A. Leland, of 

 Bath. They had six children : Amelia, Robert P., Mary, 

 Adeline, Belinda, and Charles. The latter died in his third 

 year. Mrs. Leland died at Bath, March 26, 1842. Her 

 daughter, Amelia, married Rev. Charles L. Adams, Oct. 

 1, 1850. Mr. Adams died at Neenah, Wis., Oct. 23, 1852, 

 leaving a son, Charles, who has nearly completed the course 

 of study at Hamilton College, and is at present studying 

 law at Watertown, N. Y. Mrs. Amelia Adams was again 

 married, to Rev. P. Barbour, April 10, 1862, and has four 

 children, Harriet, Amelia, Sarah, and Robert P. Barbour. 

 Her present residence is at Malta, Saratoga Co., N. Y. 



Robert P. Leland, second child of Mrs. Belinda P. Le- 

 land, was married to Caroline Burch, March 5, 1851. He 

 was killed by the accidental discharge of his gun while 

 hunting, Sept. 1, 1853, aged twenty-five years. He was 

 educated as a civil engineer, and was a young man of un- 

 usual promise and abilities. He left a daughter, Lue Le- 

 land, who was married to Mr. R. F. Bloomer, in 1876. 



Mary, third child of Mrs. Belinda Leland, is unmarried 

 and living at present at Mechanicsville, N. Y. 

 - Adeline, fourth child of Mrs. Leland, was married Sept. 

 20, 1854, to Frank A. Fitzgerald, of Syracuse, N. Y. She 

 has four children, — Amelia, John, Cornelia, and Louise. 

 Her son John is now in his third year at Union College, 

 in the class of civil engineers. Mrs. Fitzgerald, who is at 

 present visiting her son at Schenectady, goes soon to her 

 home at Nassau, Bahama Isles. 



Belinda, fifth child of Mrs. Leland, was married Dec. 

 26, 1861, to Warren Hunt. They have five children, 

 Mary, Ephraim, Warren, Charles, and Adeline. 



Judge Leland died Aug. 26, 1872, aged eighty years. 



William L. and Edward R., second and third children 

 of Judge Porter, were both farmers, and the farm of their 

 father was divided between them. As members of church 

 and society, they both stood in the first rank, and they 

 were both for many years trustees of Franklin Academy. 

 William married Olive L. Parmalee, of West Bloomfield, 

 N. Y., Nov. 8, 1826. They had five children,— Mary, 

 William, Harriet, Robert, and Belinda. Mrs. Olive Porter 

 died Feb. 6, 1848, aged forty years. Mr. William L. 

 Porter married again, Mary T. Chamberlain, March 6, 

 1849. In 1853 he removed from Prattsburgh to Penn 

 Yan, where he soon became as widely known and honored 

 for his humble and faithful discharge of every duty, as at 

 the home of his earlier years. For the last six years of his 

 life he acted as deacon and elder in the Presbyterian 

 Church of Penn Yan. He died Oct. 19,- 1869. 



His oldest child, Mary, graduated at Mount Holyoke 

 Female Seminary, in 1853. She afterwards taught for 

 several years at Philadelphia, and was married at Penn 

 Yan, Oct. 14, 1858, to Rev. James F. Taylor. They have 

 three children, — William, Grace, and Mabel. They reside 

 at present at Saugatuck, Mich. 



William, second child of William L. and Olive L. Por- 

 ter, was drowned while bathing, June 27, 1848. He was 

 sixteen years of age. 



Harriet, the third child of William L. Porter, for sev- 

 eral years a teacher at Penn Yan and at Milwaukee, Wis., 

 was married, June 1, 1869, to Mr. E. W. Mills, of Penn 

 Yan, at which place she now resides. 



Robert, the next child, died at Prattsburgh, in 1841, 

 aged four years. 



Belinda, the youngest child, was for several years a most 

 beloved and acceptable teacher in Penn Yan. She died at 

 the age of thirty-five, July, 1877. She was greatly en- 

 deared to all who knew her. 



Edward R., third child of Judge Porter, was married to 

 Lydia C. Van Yalkenbaugh, of Auburn, Sept. 17, 1828. 

 He owned and occupied a portion of the farm of his father 

 up to his death. He was for several years deacon in the 

 Presbyterian Church of Prattsburgh, and his life and char- 

 acter were such that his sudden death was mourned as the 

 occasion of a loss to the whole commtinity. He died Aug. 

 1, 1857, aged fifty-one years. Mrs. Lydia C. Porter, wife 

 of Edward R. Porter, died Aug. 23, 1868. They left three 

 children, — Charles, Catherine, and Edward. 



Charles graduated at Amherst College, in 1852, was 

 admitted to the bar in the State of Illinois, in 1858, and 

 married Nellie Y. Penny, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1862. 

 Their daughter, Annie, died in 1867, in her second year. 

 Mrs. Nellie Porter died in 1871. Charles was married 

 again in 1872, to Miss Emma D. Blanchard, of Wheat- 

 land, Iowa. 



Catherine, second child of Edward R. Porter, graduated 

 at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, in 1852. • She was 

 married to Charles R. St. John, Sept. 19, 1860. They have 

 four children, — Charles, Edward, Emma, and Robert. Mr. 

 and Mrs. St. John reside at the old homestead of Edward 

 R. Porter. Her father and she and her children are the 

 only descendants of her grandfather, Judge Porter, who 

 now reside at Prattsburgh. 



