BIO: George P. Porter, Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, PA & NY

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Judy Banja & Denise Phillips

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 229-230.
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  PORTER, GEORGE P., was born in Berwick, Pa., in 1820, and died in 
Cowlesville, N.Y., June 11, 1877.
  He moved to Wilkes-Barre with his parents when about four years old.  
He entered the Moravian Seminary at Nazareth, Pa., in 1831.  At 
seventeen years of age he became a civil engineer and was employed on 
the North Branch Canal.  Having developed considerable artistic taste 
and skill, he, at about twenty years of age, commenced the study of 
painting with John Sartain, of Philadelphia, and acquired considerable 
proficiency in portrait painting in a short time.  John Sartain came to 
this country from England in 1830, and settled in Philadelphia.  He 
introduced mezzotint engraving into America.  He also practiced 
painting in oil, and published not a little upon matters relative to 
art.  The subject of this sketch settled in Towanda, Pa., and opened a 
studio.  While living in this place he was led to Christ, and joined 
the Methodist Episcopal Church.
  He served as a supply on the Northmoreland Circuit in 1847, and 
joined the Oneida Conference in 1848.  At the division of the Oneida 
and the organization of the Wyoming Conference he became a member of 
the latter.  For a season he was a member of Genesee Conference, as his 
pastoral record will show.
  In 1855 he lapsed into infidelity, and in 1856 withdrew from the 
Conference and membership of the Church.  After severe intellectual 
struggles with doubt, and sad experiences with appetite for drink, 
becoming hungry for that which satisfies, he again sought and found 
peace in Christ, and in 1860 renewed his relation to the Church.  In 
1861 he united with the Wyoming Conference on trial.  His religious 
life was one of constant struggle against early acquired habits and 
tastes.  "Of unusual talents, a natural orator, of chaste, ornate 
style, he possessed an imagination and grasp of intellect that enabled 
him to seize and utilize the true and beautiful at will."  His sermons 
against infidelity were exceedingly strong, and his book From Atheism 
to Christianity, is a powerful argument in favor of the latter.  The 
last few years of his life he was in feeble health, and much of his 
time was spent in portrait and landscape painting, many of his 
productions being of more than ordinary merit.
  On July 10, 1848, he married Miss Frances Worthing, daughter of Rev. 
Jonathan Worthing.  At the age of twenty she took charge of the female 
department of the academy at Towanda, Pa., and for a season was 
preceptress of Wyoming Seminary.  She died on December 12, 1872.  Mrs. 
W. S. Harris, of Owego, N.Y., and Burt Porter were the children of this 
union, and both survive.  Husband and wife are buried at Owego, N.Y.
  His pastoral record is as follows:  1848, Montrose; 1849-50, Greene; 
1851, Court Street, Binghamton; 1852-53, Owego; 1854-55, Waverly and 
Factoryville; 1856-60, Lapse; 1861-62, Owego; 1863-66, Presiding Elder 
on Owego District; 1867, Presiding Elder of Wyoming District; 1868-71, 
Genesee Conference, served Grace Church, Buffalo, and Presiding Elder 
on Buffalo District; 1872, transferred back to Wyoming and stationed at 
Scranton (Elm Park); 1873-74, sy.; 1875-77, sd.