Judith Ann Porter

Edward + Katherine Edith Church. Katherine died in UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He died on 22 Oct 1951 at the age of 73 in Cumberland, Allegany Co., Maryland.

Harry Robert Porter, 73, of Ellerslie, died yesterday in Memorial Hospital. His parents were the late Norman and Sarah (Stair) Porter. He is survived by his widow, the former Miss Lydia Lowery; four children, Mrs. Erma Burkett; Mrs. Hazel Griffey and Robert B. Porter, Ellerslie, and Rev. Edward H. Porter, Kensington, and two brothers, John and James Porter, Ellerslie. Mr. Porter was a member of Ellerslie Methodist Church, where services will be conducted Thursday at 2:30 p.m. by Rev. J. L. Moore, pastor. Interment will take place in Palo Alto, Pa., Cemetery. He also held membership in the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen. The Cumberland Evening Times, October 23, 1951

Harry + Lydia Grace Lowery. Lydia (daughter of Lewis K. Lowery and Emma Something) was born on 15 Apr 1884 in Hyndman, Londonderry Township, Bedford County, Pennsylvania; died on 24 Oct 1971 in Cumberland, Allegany County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She died on 24 Oct 1971 at the age of 87 in Cumberland, Allegany Co., Maryland.

Ellerslie - Mrs. Lydia Grace Porter, 87, died Sunday at Sacred Heart Hospital. Born April 15, 1884 at RD 1, Hyndman, she was a daughter of the late Lewis and Emma Lowery. Her husband, Harry R. Porter, preceded her in death in 1951. Mrs. Porter was a member of Christ United Methodist Church, Ellerslie, a member of WSCS of the church, and the Dorcas Class of the Sunday School. She was also a member of Cumberland Chapter 56, Order of Eastern Star and the Ladies' Auxiliary of Railway Trainmen and Ladies' Auxiliary of the Ellerslie Volunteer Fire Department. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Clarence Burkett and Mrs. Quentin L. Griffey, both of Ellerslie; two sons, Rev. Edward H. Porter, Wheaton; Robert P. Porter, LaVale; two sisters, Mrs. Herbert Myers, Ellerslie, and Mrs. Mae Reighard, LaVale; eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. The body is at the Zeigler Funeral Home, Hyndman, where friends will be received from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. Services will be conducted tomorrow at 2 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church, Ellerslie, by Rev. Milton W. Benny, Jr., pastor. Interment will be in Palo Alto Cemetery. The body will be taken to the church at 1 p.m. tomorrow. The Cumberland News, October 26, 1971

Notes:

Notes sent by Phyllis Rosley from Gary Porter on January 10, 2015

Norman was orphaned in 1855 at age 4 and, with his three sisters, raised by relatives.

About 1870, he married Anna Stair (1850 - 1875), the daughter of Augustus Stair (originally spelled Stohr, immigrants from Hesse, Germany) and produced sons Oscar Howard and William Augustus and two daughters who apparently died at or near birth. Anna herself died prematurely of pneumonia in 1875 and two years later Norman asked Anna's sister, Sarah Stair, to marry him. She is reported to have said "not until you get a headstone for my
sister," which apparently was speedily done. Norman's marriage (on December 18, 1877) to "Sarah E. Stoer" (sic) is recorded in records of the Wellersburg Reformed Church, Somerset County, Pa. A fee of $3.00 was paid. Earlier that year (August 28) Norman's Uncle Thomas Jackson Porter and Aunt Rebecca Porter had left him 39 acres of land in Londonderry Township, Pa., including all the buildings and improvements. Later in 1877 he sold some of this land to his sister Sarah (Porter) Clites. He sold additional land to Daniel Clites (Sarah's husband) in 1890 and to Shannon Brant in 1891. Norman and Sarah produced sons Harry Robert (1878), John Ross (1882) and James Vernon (1884) and a daughter, Anna M. Porter who died in 1882 at age 2. When Sarah also died (in 1890) Norman is said to have farmed out the boys to various families, taking son John Ross to live on the Cook farm in Ellerslie, Md. Norman worked as a hosteler on the Pennsylvania Railroad and when each of his boys turned 15 he also got them jobs on the railroad. Norman served as president of the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America Lodge located in Ellerslie. He lived in a house just below the present Porter Cemetery near Stringtown, Pa. and donated the land used for the cemetery. In August 1917, Norman was living with son John Ross at John's farm in Ridgeley, West Virginia, when he fell from a peach crate onto a stake. Although treated at the Western Maryland Hospital, peritonitis set in from a lacerated bowel and a hernia, causing his death at age 66 years, 6 months, 9 days. Louis Stein was his undertaker. Norman's will, which had been signed April 11, 1907, named James Vernon as Executor and divided Norman's estate into fifth's, a fifth for each of his four living sons (Oscar, Harry, John and James), and a fifth to be divided by Clara (Lowery) Porter, (by then the widow of William Augustus) and their daughter Mildred Viola Porter.

Norman married Sarah Stair on 18 Dec 1877 in Wellersburg, Southampton Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Sarah was born in 1855; died in 1890. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Lewis + Emma Something. Emma died in UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]