George Porter and Katie Thropp

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Husband George Porter ¹

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           Born:  - County Armagh, Ireland
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         Father: James Porter (      -Abt 1872) 1
         Mother: Rachel Alexander (      -Aft 1890) 2

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Katie Thropp ²

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         Father: Isaiah Thropp (      -      ) 3
         Mother: 

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Children

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1 F Katherine A. Porter ²

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2 F Caroline V. Porter ²

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General Notes: Husband - George Porter

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The youngest son of his father, he was reared in the strict doctrines of the Covenanter church and enjoyed the best educational advantages which could be procured in a country district. At the early age of fourteen, having conceived the idea of marking out his own career, he came to the United States, under the care of his kinsman, David Gregg, who was returning to Pittsburgh, where he had amassed a large fortune in the mercantile business. Mr. Porter went immediately to the home of his cousin, a merchant in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where he remained for several years assisting in his store. In 1864 he came to Oil City, then booming with the oil excitement, and obtained a position as clerk in the hardware store of Robson & Company, then one of the largest and wealthiest firms in the oil regions. One year after he was taken into the firm as junior partner and manager. A few months after this advance in his prospects, the destructive fire which laid the infant city in ashes occurred, and Robson's store with its extensive stock was entirely destroyed, Mr. Porter losing in the conflagration all the means which by economy and strict attention to business he had acquired. With the indomitable energy which characterized the fathers of the city, the business portion of the town was speedily rebuilt, Mr. Porter being one of the first to help organize the volunteer fire department of the city. For years this company did good service in the many fires which occurred, saving much valuable property for their neighbors, expecting and receiving no remuneration. The senior partner and principal capitalist of the firm of Robson & Company, Charles Robson, resided in Cincinnati, Ohio; the second partner, Frederick Geigle, was engaged constantly in the machine department connected with the store, and as Mr. Robson only visited Oil City once a year for a few weeks at a time, the entire management of the financial interests of the firm devolved on the young partner. Securing trade, collecting bills, etc., were matters which required great tact and firmness in a business which depended entirely on speculative custom and patrons who were rich one week and poor the next. Honorable, generous, and fearless in all his dealings, he was in the absence of the senior partner practically the head of the firm in everything that required executive ability and business enterprise. Devoted to his business, he managed its interests with untiring energy, and the firm of Robson & Company was for years one of the most successful in the oil regions.
In 1874 the firm of Robson & Company having been dissolved, Mr. Porter entered the oil business in Butler County, Pennsylvania, in partnership with R. M. Waugh, the new firm being known as Waugh & Porter. His efforts in this new field were crowned with success, and he was one of the owners of the Great Leather well, which opened up considerable territory. When oil was discovered in McKean County, he removed thither, and for some years experienced the vicissitudes of the oil business, and the hardships of a pioneer in that bleak mountain region. Having thoroughly mastered all the details of field work, he conducted his new business with his usual enterprise, until, owing to the depressed state of the oil business the shut-down movement was inaugurated by the producers, the firm of Waugh & Porter stopped drilling, although still retaining their field interests. Mr. Porter then obtained a position in the fuel department of the Standard Oil Company, and for some years traveled extensively in the northeastern and western part of the United States in the interests of that company. He later engaged in superintending their field work in the neighborhood of Oil City.
Mr. Porter was a member of the Second Presbyterian church of Oil City, in politics he was a stanch Republican, and while no aspirant for political honors himself, always worked zealously in the interests of his party. For over twenty years he was a member of Petrolia lodge in Oil City, and assisted the brethren in many an unostentatious act of charity known only to the great Master above.

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General Notes: Wife - Katie Thropp

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Like her sister (Mrs. Mary Elvisa Cone), she had commenced to write for the press in childhood and attained considerable literary reputation.

1 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 892.

2 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 893.

3 —, History of Venango County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk, & Co., Publishers, 1890), Pg 845.