Contra Costa-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Porter, Charles Bruce 1817 - 
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Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882)

HON. CHARLES BRUCE PORTER.—The subject of this sketch was born in Taunton,
Bristol county, Massachusetts, November 29, 1817. From nine to thirteen years of
age he was a pupil of the Franklin Public School in Boston, and in after boyhood
he had a five years' maritime experience as a seaman; then learned and followed
a branch of the engraving business for calico printing. February 20, 1849, he
sailed from New York for California with the first party (the Gordon
Association, numbering one hundred and twenty persons,) that attempted the
passage of the Nicaragua route, by way of the San Juan river, Lake Nicaragua,
and the port of Realijo on the Pacific. After a detention of four months in the
country, awaiting a vessel, the party sailed from Realijo in the small
Guatemalean brigantine Aun, on or about the 20th of July, and arrived in San
Francisco on October 5, 1849, after a tedious voyage, most of the time on short
allowance of poor provisions and water. After two or three years of mining
experience and a like term of residence in San Francisco, Mr. Porter, in 1855,
became a resident of Contra Costa county, settling in Green valley, and followed
the business of farming. In 1860 he was elected as the candidate of the then
young Republican party to represent the county in the State Assembly, and was
re-elected the following year. In 1862 he was elected to the State Senate for
the district composed of Contra Costa and Marin counties for the term of two
years, as then provided by the Constitution; but, by the adoption of amendments,
the terms of Senators, with biennial sessions of the Legislature, were extended
to four years, and Mr. Porter was re-elected to the Senate in 1863 for the term
of four years. His continual service in the two branches of the Legislature thus
comprised the period from January, 1861, to December, 1867. Since July, 1865,
the subject of this sketch has been identified with the county as editor of the
Contra Costa Gazette, and still continues that relation. Mr. Porter married,
November 24, 1857, Miss Annie Williamson, a native of Bantry, Ireland, by which
union there are six children, viz.: Harriot, Miriam, Ileen, Margaret W., Edmund
Bruce, Charles B. and Robert C. A portrait of Mr. Porter will be found in these
pages.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.

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