George Ford Porter, the youngest of Curtis’s children, was born when Curtis was 40. His stepsister, Betsey, was already 19 and his step-brother, David, was 16. His brothers, Robert and Henry, were nine and eleven. George
was born while Andrew Jackson was president, five years before Michigan became
a state. We know nothing of his boyhood years, but when he was eleven or twelve
there was [undoubtedly] great excitement in the family. His brother Henry, 22,
with his wife and 18-month-old baby daughter, set off for the new state of
Michigan. [See Curtis Porter history.] Three years later, in 1847 when George
was 15, Curtis decided to make the move to Michigan as well. Henry
had five sons and five daughters, Robert had four of each, and George had
twelve children—eight sons and four daughters, over a span of 36 years.
However, six of George's children died in infancy. [We have only limited information
on Henry’s and Robert’s living to maturity.] STARTING OUT George
“began life on his own” at age 21 as a farmer. At 23 he married 15- or
16-year-old Delilah Champlin, also from New York, but another county
(Delaware).. Two years later, George bought 80 acres in Chester Township and
“by courage and tireless industry created this piece of wilderness into a
beautiful farm home.”[1] THE DELILAH YEARS We
can piece together the following chronology of the 27 years that George and
Delilah had together. For a fuller accounting of how it may have been, see
letter to Delilah. 1855 married 1856 Adelbert
F. born 1857 Adelbert
died; bought property and began building large home on it 1858 Edmond
M. born 1859 Edmond
died; Delilah turned 20 1860 Eugene Adlaide. born (d. 1924) 1861 Moved into home which George had finished constructing on what is now Truman Road, west and a little
north
of Sparta, MI (see White
House) 1862 Elbert
born and died 1863 Mary Ellis born (d. 1947) 1866 Ferdinand
W. born (d. 1944) 1868 Edith E. born and died 1872 Effie May born and died 1882 Charles Glen born (d. 1950);
Delilah, aged 43, died 1884 George remarried 1885 Baby
Earl born and died 1890 Mila
born (d. 1946) 1893 Gaylord
Ford born (d.1976) At
the time of her mother’s death, 19-year-old Mary was engaged, but she delayed
her own marriage and cared for baby Glenn until her father remarried sixteen
months later[2]. SECOND MARRIAGE On February 3, 1884, George married Mary Ann Batson, sometimes called “Monty,” of Big Springs, Michigan. She was 33 at the time, nineteen years younger than George.
A record in the Grand Rapids Library indicates that a
baby named Earl died in June of 1885. The Lisbon Cemetery records report he was
born June 19 and died June 26, though a search of the cemetery did not locate a
stone for him. Apparently no other child was born until
1890, when a daughter was born whom they named Mila (later Mrs. E.M. Levine). On
February 5, 1893, six months after George’s 60th birthday, his twelfth child
was born, a son whom he named Gaylord Ford, thus passing on once again his
grandmother’s maiden name. This last child became the renowned Ford Porter who
wrote the God’s Simple Plan of Salvation
tract, a well-known, world-traveled minister of the Gospel. (Story in a booklet
entitled The Berean Miracle.) THE LATER YEARS Before
George died in 1908, the entire family posed for a wonderful picture in front
of an unidentified (by us) home, possibly in Sparta. In the family history
written by wife Mary Ann in 1923, she says of him, “Mr. Porter served his
township as Supervisor for 17 years and was elected state senator [for one
term] in 1891. Although his early Christian training was in the Episcopal
church, he was for years a faithful attendant at the Baptist churches of North
Chester and Sparta.” From the Porter Reunion notebook we know that George read
John 15 on the morning of the day he died. He was 76 years old and Ford, his
youngest child, was fifteen. LONG GENERATIONS George’s
last child, Ford, whose grandfather Curtis was born in 1792, lived until 1976,
making three generations span 184 years. Six of Curtis’s great-grandchildren— Beth Porter Cobern and Jane Porter
Driver (Glenn); Mary Jane Levine Ensign and Porter
Levine (Mila), Robert Ford Porter and Mary Louise
Porter Gibbs (Ford) —were
still alive in 1992 for the 200th anniversary of Curtis’s death, making a mere
four generations spanning 200 years! [1] Quoted from Mary A. Porter family history. [2] Personal account of her granddaughter and namesake, Mary Ellis Schoenborn. |