Rebecca Porter

1824 - 1900  (75 years)

• Name	Rebecca Porter
  Birth	1 Oct 1824	Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland
  Gender	Female
  Death	28 Mar 1900	Allegany County, Maryland
  Notes	The following excerpt is from John Marshall Porter's "Sketches of Maryland Porters", circa 1976. Scott Carter Williams brought it to the attenetion of Michael A. McKenzie in 2018. Rebecca... "Grandma Porter," Oldest daughter of Grandpap Si. As anyone who follows the line of descendants in the Porter genealogy can note, Rebecca and Squire Mike were second cousins, though she was a daughter of Mary Margaret Combs, Grandpap Si's first wife. She was four years older than John S., my Grandfather. I can describe her only from recollection of what Frank wrote of her, and from what my Father, Uncle Mike and the daughters of Uncle Will, and Uncle Si, who grew up very near her told me. From this, I have the impression that she was the very soul of kindness, gentleness and a feeling of love and understanding for all of God's creatures. To quote what Frank Porter wrote of her, "Aunt Becky was small and petite. Never young, yet never old. Plain to homeliness, but lovely as an angel. Her inner goodness and gentleness shone through her physical shape and glorified it." Her life was always hard but she knew no other, and she never complained. It had fallen her lot in life to do and care for many people, young and old. She had cared for Squire Mike in his blind and ailing years. She had the sorrow of caring for her only and beloved daughter, Maggie, with whom she had lost contact in her young life through mental illness. She had the care of Grandfather John in the latter part of his comparatively young life. But she lived life as it was to be doled out to her. She never became bitter and gave way to self-pity, as we can see she might have done. Those qualities of sterling character, she had inherited from the early Porters she descended from, and she stamped them indellibly upon the characters and dispos¬ itions of her offspring. Yes, and almost everyone she came in contact with. The farm on Piney Mountain in Grandma's time was for many years a sort of haven for outcasts. Old bachelors, of which there were always two or three made the place their home. They had come when they were younger and able to work. They stayed until they were old and disabled. They were never turned away. If they needed the services of the family doctor, Porters paid for it. If they died there, and several did, Porters paid for a respectable burial...though there was, at that time a County fund for the purpose. And in addition to this, Grandma Porter took two orphaned nieces, Ida and Matilda Sharp, daughters of her sister Katherine to raise to young womanhood, and marriage. The old log house on Play Place was never large, yet somehow Grandma found food and shelter for many people. Even though the land was steep, rocky and hard to work, there was always abundant food, and such a houseful of residents, visitors and star-boarders consumed huge quantities of it. Some winters they butchered a dozen big hogs, and likely two beeves. They butchered a lamb or mutton from the sheep flock as the need or choice of meats arose. The garden was big, and furnished all the needed vegetables, the cellar was filled with potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables for winter. The cellar shelves x?ere loaded with fruits and vegetables of summer canning. And this was endless toil for Grandma, who did all the canning on a wood stove, in which, just to keep a good fire going was an almost endless task in itself. The school at Eckhart where Grandma's children attended was a three mile walk across fields and over wood paths. Frank, who was two years younger than my father stated that he couldn't go to school until he was twelve. He was too fat to stand the walk. The nearest church was also three miles distance. Yet all the sons of John and Rebecca had attended Sunday School and church regularly enough in youth to instill the custom of attending church all their adult lives. And in turn, instilling the custom of regular church going into their own children. All during my early and middle life my father spoke frequently of "Mother", as he called Grandma. One saying of Grandma's that he repeated countless times was, "If you can't say something good about a person, don't say anything." My father lived religiously to that admonition. When gossip or villification was being indulged in by others, he simply remained silent, no matter how much the criticism or berating was deserved. He retained that practice to the end of his life, even though on many occasions, he would have been justified in returning evil for evil. I have inherited and acquired many traits of characteristics from my father through the years of living and working side by side with him, and I wish I could have acquired complete control of my thoughts by remaining silent. But I have never been able to do that as he did. Grandma Porter had little besides necessities of life...surely no luxuries. Yet she lived a noble, useful life of service to others with a peaceful mind until March of 1900. On the tombstone in Porter graveyard that marks the resting place of John S. Porter, Margaret Porter is inscribed "Rebecca Porter" Born 1824...Died 1900. "She lived for others. Servant of God, Well done." I never learned who composed that epitaph, but assume it was someone who knew and loved her... But who could it have been? It was said that "Everyone who knew her loved her."
  Person ID	I13338	McKenzie Genealogy
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021

  
  

  Father	Josiah M. Porter,   b. 1 Oct 1799, Allegany County, Maryland d. 7 Nov 1880, Claysville, Allegany County. Maryland (Age 81 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Mary Margaret Combs,   b. 3 May 1803, Allegany County, Maryland d. 1836, Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 32 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Marriage	3 Aug 1822	Allegany County, Maryland
  Family ID	F00841	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	John Samuel Porter,   b. 27 Jan 1828, Play Place, Piney Mountain, Allegany County, Maryland d. 1882, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 53 years)
  Marriage	6 Mar 1851	Allegany County, Maryland
  Children	1. William Ward Porter,   b. 15 Jan 1852, Allegany County, Maryland d. 11 Aug 1900, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 48 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. Margaret E. (Margarette E.) Porter,   b. 9 Jul 1853, Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland d. 2 Apr 1880, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 26 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   3. Josiah J. Porter,   b. Oct 1855, Allegany County, Maryland d. 22 Jan 1900, Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland (Age ~ 44 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   4. Michael R. Porter,   b. 19 Mar 1856, Piney Mountain, Allegany County, Maryland d. 4 Nov 1928, Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 72 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   5. John Wesley Porter,   b. 11 Oct 1863, Allegany County, Maryland d. 20 Nov 1947, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 84 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F03993	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021

  
  

• Documents

  Josiah M. Porter's (b. 1799) Distribution to Hiers "Maryland Probate Estate and Guardianship Files, 1796-1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939X-5PD1-1?cc=1542664&wc=34K9-BZY%3A83663101%2C100531601%2C118270301 : 20 May 2014), Allegany > P > Porter, Josiah (P239) > image 7 of 12; county courts, Maryland.