William Hayden Porter

William Hayden Porter (1818-1888)

"Col. William H. Porter, Jr. was born in Morgantown, Sept. 15, 1818, and was educated in that place and Russellville, under the principal ship of Marmaduke Morton of Logansport, who was President of the bank in the same town, and now Clerk of the Court in Russellville.  He was a surveyor thirty years and county surveyor eight years. He married, December 20, 1838, to Hannah Lee, daughter of William and Sarah Lee, the latter one of the first settlers in Ohio County, and was some time in the old Hartford Fort.  Col. Porter’s grandfather was Col. John Porter, who came to America from Ireland and settled in Morgantown in 1787. He became a popular and leading citizen and twice represented his county in the Kentucky Legislature.  Col. Porter served his country faithfully all through the Mexican War, being a member of Company F, Fourth Kentucky regiment, Capt. D. C. McCrary – Col. John S. Williams – and was all through the campaign with Gen. Scott as Sergeant.  In the Civil War he served seven months with the commission of Major in the Twelfth (FED) Cavalry.  He was crippled at that time, but saw much service afterwards in the Home Guards, first as Captain and finally as Colonel of the Regiment. He now owns a farm of fifty acres one mile and half from Cromwell, and is well known throughout the county.  He is a fine scholar, both Latin and English.  His uncle, Oliver Cromwell Porter, built the first house in Cromwell in 1835, when the town was called Porter’s Landing. This uncle represented Butler County in the Kentucky Legislature."

Added notes:

The foregoing item was found by Judith Wilson and sent to me for this blog. It was originally posted on Ancestry.com by Joe Taylor (deceased), who was a wonderful Ohio County researcher. It is thought that Joe's posting was an excerpt from the 1885 biographies published by Battle, Perrin & Kniffen.

Col. Porter was the son of William and Nancy Porter. Col. Porter died 5 September 1888 in Cromwell. Census records do not show any children of this marriage.  A nephew, Hayden Porter, was the subject of an item on this blog on April 21, 2013.

In Fogle’s Papers, A History of Ohio County, Kentucky, published in 1981, at page 319, it is stated that the town of Cromwell was named after Oliver Cromwell Porter, an uncle of Col. Porter, mentioned above.