William G. Porter Biography


	This biography appears on pages 624-626 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. I (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	A photograph of William G. Porter faces page 624.

        WILLIAM G. PORTER. - Among the distinguished members of the bar 
of South Dakota is Mr. Porter, who is the senior member of the well-
known and leading law firm of Porter & King, of Sioux Falls, and who is 
at the present time incumbent of the office of assistant United States 
attorney for this state.  

        William Gove Porter is a native of the old Green Mountain 
state, having been born in Thetford Center, Orange county, Vermont, on 
the 4th of September, 1858, and being a son of Amost Phelps Porter and 
Mercy (Eastman) Porter, the father having devoted his life to 
agricultural pursuits. The genealogy of our subject in the agnatic line 
is of distinguished order and is authentically traced back to the 
eleventh century and to a Norman knight, William. de la Grande, who was 
a member of the army of the great Norman duke, William the Conqueror, 
who effected the conquest of England in 1066. His son, Ralph de la 
Grande, became "grand porteur" to Henry I, King of England, in which 
capacity he served from 1120 to 1140, and from his office was derived 
the present family name of Porter. In 1630 the family was founded in 
New England, the original progenitors in America settling in 
Dorchester, Massachusetts, at the time of its foundation. It should be 
noted that the family in England retained possession of valuable realty 
in or near Kenilworth, in Warwickshire, where the original ancestor, 
William de la Grande, had acquired large tracts of land. Hezekiah 
Porter, grandfather of the subject of this review, was born in Hebron, 
Connecticut. whence he removed to Vermont about the year 1800, settling 
at Thetford Center, Orange county, where he developed a farm, and it is 
pleasing to note that on this ancestral homestead still reside the 
venerable parents of the subject, his father having been there born in 
the year 1818. The maternal ancestry is of Scotch-Irish extraction and 
the name has been identified with the annals of American history from 
the colonial era to the present.  

        William G. Porter passed his boyhood days on the ancestral New 
England farm and received his early educational discipline in the 
common schools, the while contributing his quota to the work of the 
farm. He has always delighted in study and reading, standard novels, 
biography and Shakespeare being his favorites, while he has also had a 
great fondness for history and the classics. He continued to work on 
the home farm at intervals while preparing himself for college, and 
subsequent thereto, while he earned the funds to defray his collegiate 
expenses by teaching, while after his graduation he followed the same 
vocation to enable him to further prosecute his literary studies and 
his course in the law. He first taught in a district school at 
Bondville, Windham county, Vermont, where he presided as pedagogue 
during the three months' winter term, receiving in compensation a 
stipend of fifty dollars and his board. In June, 1878, he was graduated 
in St. Johnsbury Academy, in the Vermont town of that name, and in 
June, 1882, he completed the classical course and was graduated in 
famous old Dartmouth College, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 
while in 1888 his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Master of 
Arts. Mr. Porter came west in 1882, soon after his graduation in 
Dartmouth, and for one year was professor of Latin and Greek languages 
in Havges Seminary, at Red Wing, Minnesota. He then entered the law 
department of Drake University, in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, where 
he was graduated in June, 1884, receiving his degree of Bachelor of 
Laws and being admitted to the bar of the state, by the supreme court, 
in the same month. He was the valedictorian of his class, and after 
leaving this institution he was for one year principal of the high 
school at Center Point, Linn county, Iowa. In 1889 Mr. Porter came to 
South Dakota and took up his residence in Custer, Custer county, where 
he engaged actively in the practice of his profession, meeting with 
gratifying success from the initiation of his efforts. He served as 
state's attorney of the county from November 10, 1890, to January 20, 
1895, being elected each time on the Republican ticket and making an 
enviable record as a public prosecutor. On the 19th of February, 1891, 
while he was serving his first term as state's attorney, occurred the 
execution of John B. Lehman, at Custer, this being the first judicial 
hanging in the state after its admission to the Union and being the 
fifth execution of the sort in Dakota as originally constituted. 
Lehman, who was convicted of murder in the first degree, had three jury 
trials, the case having been once appealed to the supreme court and 
affirmed in this tribunal, while it was once brought before the state 
board of pardons and twice before the governor of the state, while the 
defendant was twice sentenced to death. Many attorneys were concerned 
in the case, but Mr. Porter alone tried and prosecuted on the third 
jury trial, whose result was the execution of the prisoner.  

        In March, 1898, Mr. Porter was appointed assistant United 
States attorney for the district of South Dakota, of which office he 
has since been incumbent, having transferred his residence to Sioux 
Falls upon entering upon the discharge of his official duties, and 
having since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession 
here, controlling a large general legal business in the state and 
federal courts. He has been engaged as a prosecuting attorney, in the 
several counties, for ten years, and prepares and tries the majority of 
cases appearing in the United States court for this district, his 
success having been pronounced. He is senior member of the firm of 
Porter & King, his coadjutor being John King, and their offices are 
located in the Minnehaha building. In September, 1901, Mr. Porter was 
appointed attorney at Sioux Falls for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
Railway, to succeed Hon. A. B. Kittridge, upon his appointment as 
United States senator. In politics he has never wavered in his 
allegiance to the Republican party, nor has he been deflected by any 
party heresies or followed after false political idols. He is a 
prominent figure in the party councils of the state, was elected 
secretary of the Republican State League of South Dakota in 1898, and 
was chosen its president in 1900 and re-elected in 1902, being thus 
incumbent of the office at the time of this writing. Mr. Porter is 
identified with numerous fraternal and social organizations, and among 
his affiliations may be noted the following: He is a member of the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and was an officer of its grand lodge 
in the state in 1897-8; he is past master of Custer Lodge, No. 66, 
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Custer, and is at present 
affiliated with Unity Lodge, No. 130, in Sioux Falls, also with Sioux 
Falls Chapter, No. 2, Royal Arch Masons, and Cyrene Commandery, No. 2, 
Knights Templar, and with El Riad Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the 
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in this city; while on the 24th of 
November, 1894, he received the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite 
Masonry at Deadwood, being a member of the Black Hills Consistory.  

        At Center Point, Linn county, Iowa, on the 27th of June, 1888, 
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Porter to Miss Jessie M. Yost, who 
was graduated in Ferry Hall, Lake Forest University, at Lake Forest, 
Illinois, on the 25th of June, 1879, and she is a talented musician, 
being most popular and prominent in the social and musical circles of 
Sioux Falls. Mr. and Mrs. Porter have no children.