BIOGRAPHY: William W. PORCH, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 266-7
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WILLIAM W. PORCH, the leading musical instrument dealer of Johnstown, and an 
active and successful business man of that place, was born, January 22, 1858, in 
Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of Jacob and Susanna (Harmon) Porch. 
He is of German-English ancestry. His great-great-grandfather, on the paternal 
side of the family, was G. F. Porch, who emigrated at an early day from England, 
and settled in Westmoreland county, where John Porch, great-grandfather, was 
born. In that county, also, was born George Porch, grandfather, in 1801, and he 
died in the same county in 1874. The great-great-grandfather of Mr. Porch on the 
maternal side of the family emigrated from Germany and was killed by the 
Indians. His son, the great-grandfather of our subject, was taken prisoner by 
the Indians, but afterward returned to his Westmoreland county home. Andrew 
Harmon was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was born in 1805, 
and died in 1869. His father first saw the light in Westmoreland county March 4, 
1831. His mother was also born in Westmoreland county February 4, 1837, a 
daughter of Andrew Harmon, who was born in 1805, and died in 1869.
     W. W. Porch was reared upon the paternal acres in Westmoreland county, and 
like many of the successful business men of the day began life on his own 
account as a teacher. He taught four terms in the common schools of Westmoreland 
county, and then took a commercial course in the Iron City Business college of 
Pittsburg, graduating from that well-known institute in 1882. Having directed 
his education with the view of pursuing a business career, he took a position as 
a clerk in a gents' furnishing store of the "Smoky City," where he remained over 
a year. At the end of that period, or in 1881, he began selling musical 
instruments under the employ of the firm of Wilcox & White, of Pittsburg, 
remaining with that firm until 1888, when he embarked in the business on his own 
account in Johnstown, and has continued the same at that place to the present 
time. In addition to the handling of musical instruments he is vice-president of 
the Mendelssohn Piano Manufacturing company.
     On January 26, 1893, Mr. Porch and Lydia Cline, a daughter of William D. 
McClelland, of Johnstown, were united in marriage, and to this union was born 
one child, Ralph, on December 29, 1895.