BIO:  Benjamin Franklin Porter, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2005.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/york/
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Chanceford Township, Pg 91

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PORTER, M. D., son of Benjamin and Ruth (Wilson) Porter, was 
born in Mill Creek Hundred, Newcastle Co., Del., May 19, 1827, being the fourth 
of a family of seven children.  His father removed to New Garden Township, 
Chester County, when the subject of this sketch was three years of age, where 
they continued to reside until their removal to York County.  His father had no 
brothers and but one sister, who died early in life, and his grandfather Porter, 
who was an officer in the Continental army, died about the year 1790.  His mother 
was the eldest daughter of John and Elizabeth (Beverley) Wilson, and his 
grandmother, Elizabeth, was the daughter of Samuel and Ruth (Jackson) Beverley, 
of Kennet and East Marlborough Townships, Chester Co., Penn.  Samuel and Ruth 
Beverley had two daughters, Elizabeth, as above mentioned, and Mary, afterward 
married to William Gause.  They had six sons and five daughters.  The early life 
of Dr. B. F. Porter, the subject of this sketch, was divided between attendance 
at school and his duties as a farmer’s son, until his fifteenth year, when he 
entered the academy of his friend and neighbor, the late Enoch Lewis, where his 
advancement was very rapid.  Mathematics was his delight, and when he left school 
to enter Delaware College, his preceptor considered him fully prepared to do all 
kinds of civil engineering.  Having to depend upon his own resources in a great 
measure, for his further advancement, he taught in the common schools of Chester 
County, and in Newcastle County, Del., the last year being in a select school.  
In the spring of 1851 he entered the office of Dr. J. R. McClurg as a medical 
student.  After more than the usual course of study  - for under the advice of 
his friend, the late Dr. Porter, of Wilmington, Del., he devoted considerable 
time to hospital training and experience – he graduated with the degree of doctor 
of medicine from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, on March 10, 
1855.  Immediately after graduation he came to Chanceford Township to treat and 
care for a sister who was in feeble health, and finally made it his permanent 
home; and from the day on which he was vested by the State of Pennsylvania with 
the powers “exercendi, docendi, et scribendi, ubi rite cocati fueritis,” and that 
too, “inter nos et ubique gentium,” he practiced his profession among all 
classes, faithfully, earnestly and circumspectly, and has always enjoyed a large 
patronage.  Always an ardent friend of popular education, and believing that the 
heritage of liberty, as bequeathed to us by the fathers of the republic, is 
dependent for its perpetuation upon the intelligence of the people, he served his 
township twelve years in succession as a school director, in which he gave his 
time and energies freely to the improvement and elevation of the people’s 
colleges – the common schools.  In 1868 he was elected a member of the house of 
representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and in 1869 was re-elected 
to the same position, and as an evidence of the acceptability of his services, at 
the expiration of his second term his fellow-members presented him with a 
handsome gold-headed cane, as a testimonial of esteem and regard.  On August 20, 
1861, he married – Sarah Jane Bigler becoming his life partner.  They have one 
son living:  David B. Porter, who is just entering his twenty-third year.