1905 History of Crawford County Kansas

L. G. Porter, postmaster at Hepler, Crawford county, is an old and esteemed resident and business man of this county, and has lived within the boundaries of the county almost continuously for over thirty years. While engaged in farming he was very successful, as a business man likewise enjoyed profitable trade, and in public office has acquitted himself in an especially creditable manner. He is a genial and popular man among his fellow citizens, and his career from his boyhood days of fighting for the Union until the present has been worthy of the honor and respect which are universally accorded him.

Mr. Porter was born in St. Joseph county, Indiana, October 3, 1846, being a son of L. G. and Eliza J. Porter. His parents moved later to Kankakee county, Illinois, where his father died in 1899, at the age of eighty-four, and his mother in 1901, at the age of eighty.

Mr. Porter received his education in the common schools of Illinois. In 1863, when seventeen years old, he enlisted in Company G, Twenty-third Illinois Infantry, and his company was among the first to enter Richmond during the last days of the war. He participated in several engagements, and received his honorable discharge at Chicago August 2, 1865, when still under age. In March, 1873, he came out to Crawford county, Kansas, and for eight years followed farming in this county. He then bought a farm in Bourbon county, and in 1883 was elected to the office of register of deeds in Bourbon county, which office he held for four years. In 1887 he moved to Hepler, and has since made this his home. His store was burned out in 1893, and he lost his entire stock of general merchandise, in which he had been dealing since moving to the town. He then embarked in the grocery business, but sold out in 1896. October 10, 1899, he was appointed to the office of postmaster, and he has given a most satisfactory administration of the affairs of the office to the present time. He was at one time a candidate for county clerk of Crawford county, but was defeated. He owns a nice farm in Crawford county and one in Bourbon county, and also his residence in Hepler.

Mr. Porter is a Republican in politics, and has fraternal affiliations with the Court No. 1000, M. W. A., at Hepler. He married, in November, 1872, Miss Rosa A. Roe, of Illinois, and they have three children: Jennie, the wife of M. S. Whitehead, of Walnut township, Crawford county; Maud, the wife of Paul McGuire, of Windsor, Missouri; and F. Ross, who conducts a drug store in Oxford, Kansas.