Michael R. Porter

1856 - 1928  (72 years)

• Name	Michael R. Porter
  Birth	19 Mar 1856	Piney Mountain, Allegany County, Maryland
  Gender	Male
  Death	4 Nov 1928	Frostburg, 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. Michael R. Porter... Third son of John S. and Rebecca Porter. Uncle Mike was the only one of my father's brothers I ever knew. He was a short, thick bodied man that could be called "roly-poly". He had unusual strength and athletic skill. In his young manhood, he would wrestle with any man, regardless of size, who challenged him, and rarely if ever did he lose in the match. He was never known to pick or start a fight, but he was never known to run or back down from a bully who went looking for a fight. In those days, any man who had won the reputation of whipping a number of bullies had to defend himself frequently because there was a bully or two in every small town or community. The urge to get into fights was always more prevalent when the men were drinking, and drinking was an evil in those days as it is in these days. But such bullies never picked a second fight with Uncle Mike. It could be said of Uncle Mike that he didn't have the qualities of refine¬ ment that his brothers had. But the charactertistic of treating everyone with respect, he had. Everyone liked him, even those he had to throw or whip. He never held a spite or grudge against anyone. When Uncle Mike married Aunt Lizzie, he left the Piney Mountain farm and rented a Company farm near the Porter Graveyard. He was a good farmer, and prospered in a small way. Aunt Lizzie was a good housekeeper and a good helpmate. Both of their daughters, Miranda and Geneva were pretty well grown up when I was a small boy. But it was around the time the girls were becoming young ladies and going out to parties and square dances that Aunt Lizzie began going out with them. Uncle Mike didn't like that, and when he objected to it they all turned against him and continued going out, and Uncle Mike began drinking, which in turn made more to cause disagreement. Miranda, the oldest daughter got married around that time, and before long Geneva got married. Aunt Lizzie left and went to live with her daughters. Then Uncle Mike sold his livestock and equipment, and came down on our farm and lived with us that winter. But he drank a lot, hoping to drown his sorrow and troubles. I was hardly six years old then but I remember it well. The next spring Uncle Mike divided the money he got from his sale, half and half with Aunt Lizzie. Then he bought a house in Eckhart and lived alone. He worked at odd jobs. He was a fair veterinary, or stock doctor for having had no schooling in the profession, and at that time almost everyone in Eckhart kept a cow or two and many kept a horse. And when an animal got sick, Uncle Mike was called to doctor them. He made a good living, but he continued drinking. On his visits he often told us "It ain't a home. It's just a place to stay." He and Aunt Lizzie never went back to live together, and within just a few years, she died. I still remember how he cried when he came to our home on a snowy day ond told us about Aunt Lizzie's death. There were no telephones then, and the only way to get messages abroad was to carry the Over the years after that, Uncle Mike often came on Saturday evenings and spent week ends in our home. He and my father would talk for hours on end about their young life on the Piney Mountain farm. How I have wished since that I had taken notes of their conversations. I would have had a much longer and more interesting story about the Maryland Porters. While I was growing up, I often worked in the fields with Uncle Mike when he would come almost every spring to help with the planting. And in the fall when he would come and help with the apple picking, grain seeding and corn husking. He was always agreeable, and had a lot of paf'ence with children. Like Uncle Will, he was handy in a shop, but never did such fine finished work. He continued to drink some. Then the time came that perhaps because of having no where else to live, his daughter Geneva, her husband and their four small children moved in with him. Geneva had never had a very pleasant life because her husband was addicted to drinking. And during his drinking spells he was mean to his family... so mean in fact that a few years later, Uncle Mike bought another house near by, and after giving his son-in-law a good thrashing, left Geneva and her family in his house and moved into the other and lived alone again. He continued working at odd jobs and stock doctoring, and spent most of his earnings to support Geneva and her children when her husband got on a drinking spell. Geneva s husband was a good worker, and a good provider when he was sober, and he would stay sober for months at a time. But when he went back to drinking, he would come home and run his wife and children out of the house, and they would have no money to live on until the next pay day. On these occasions, the family would move in with Uncle Mike again until the drunk was over. Geneva and her first four children lived under such conditions for several years. Then on the Saturday night before Easter of 1917, her husband came home drunk and ran the family out and went to bed. The family went up to Uncle Mike's to spend the rest of the night. No one ever knew for certain how it happened, but supposed that the drunken man went to bed smoking a cigarette and went to sleep. The house burned to the foundation that night, and the drunk's body was burned beyond recognition. He left his widow and four children without a penny for support. Uncle Mike became a totally changed man. It was during the work boom of World War I. He got a job on the Eckhart branch railroad maintaining track for the coal boom that followed. He took it upon himself to support Geneva and her children whom he loved dearly. On one of his many Sunday visits with his newly acquired family to our home, he told us, "I have wondered a thousand times why I have been left here to waste my life away, but now I know. I was left to support these children." He became religious, and never drank after that. After a few years, Geneva married again... a man much younger than herself. For a number of years the new husband seemed industrious and a good family man. Four more children were born. It seemed he was accident prone, because he was seriously injured in mine and automobile accidents several times. And in time, he began drinking. He was never as mean as the first husband, but no drinking man is pleasant to live with. Uncle Mike always had a housekeeper, (of sorts) and never went back living alone after that. The older and younger children were a joy to him. He loved them, and they loved him. But his life was never as pleasant as one who had not had that much family trouble. Geneva's health began to fail, and she died when her youngest child was quite small. By that time the older children from the first marriage were growing up. Loretta, who was around fifteen took over as housekeeper and care of the younger children. The older boys found work, and the family stayed together, the second husband staying with them. After several heart attacks, and frequent spells of illness, Uncle Mike, who despite his strength, had, like his brothers, been an ailer all his life died in November of 1928.He was 72. He is buried in Porter Graveyard. Geneva's children scattered after they grew up. Most of them married well, and several of them hold good positions in the new areas of which they located. After the children were grown and left home one by one, the second husband became a drifter. He went from job to job, and got himself drowned while drinking with a gang of cronies while on a fishing trip. "NOTE: Since I began writing this, Sophia has passed away, May1976.There are but two of the descendants of Squire Mike's son, John, still living, my sister Pearl and I. Buried in Porter's Cemetery in Frostburg, Maryland.
  Person ID	I13376	McKenzie Genealogy
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021

  
  

  Father	John Samuel Porter,   b. 27 Jan 1828, Play Place, Piney Mountain, Allegany County, Maryland d. 1882, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 53 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Rebecca Porter,   b. 1 Oct 1824, Eckhart Mines, Allegany County, Maryland d. 28 Mar 1900, Allegany County, Maryland (Age 75 years)
  Relationship	natural
  Marriage	6 Mar 1851	Allegany County, Maryland
  Family ID	F03993	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Engle   d. UNKNOWN
  Marriage	6 Apr 1881	Frostburg, Allegany County, Maryland
  Children	1. Laura Margaret Miranda Porter,   b. Sep 1881, Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland d. 5 Jun 1965, Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland (Age ~ 83 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]   2. Geneva Mary Elizabeth Porter,   b. 12 Aug 1891, Eckhart, Allegany County, Maryland d. 23 Jan 1930 (Age 38 years)  [Father: natural]  [Mother: natural]
  Family ID	F06463	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	29 Oct 2021