Biographical Details
Date of Birth: April 10, 1802
Birth Location: Chester District, SC, USA
Major Study: Theology
Graduation Year(s): 1832
Degree(s) Earned: Bachelors
Date of Death: January 11, 1887
Death Location: Chatham, IL, USA
Josiah Porter
Life Experience
Josiah Porter was born in South Carolina, youngest of eleven children, before his family moved to Kentucky. He was the younger brother of George Gill Porter. He was educated in Paris, Kentucky, and Center College, Kentucky. He studied theology at Lane Seminary in Ohio, where he was a member of its first class. He graduated from Indiana College (now IU) in 1832. His prime occupation was as a minister of the Gospel. He was licensed to preach in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in October 1835, and ordained as an evangelist by the Crawfordsville Presbytery in Waveland, Indiana, in 1838. His brother George was licensed and ordained at the same time and place.
Porter was in active ministry service for twenty years before being honorably retired. For some time, he was an agent of the American Bible Society. During the Civil War, he distributed hundreds of New Testaments to the soldiers. From his boyhood through age eighty-four, he plowed cropland every year. He died on January 11, 1887.
Marriage and Family
Porter was a bachelor until he married Martha W. Thormlow on July 18, 1860. He was age fifty-eight when he married. His wife died twelve days after Porter in 1887. They had one daughter, who died young and was buried with her parents.
Interesting Anecdote
Porter was an early and earnest advocate of the temperance cause. He joined the American Temperance Society in 1829. He also never used tobacco in any form.
References
- Wylie
- Findagrave.com
- sciway3.net/clark/gill/rachelgillporter.html