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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
NELSON D. PORTER, late editor of the Oskaloosa Union, was born in Fayette County, Pa., Jan. 23, 1838, and is a son of David Porter. He was educated in the common schools and at Waynesburg College, Pennsylvania, and graduated therefrom with honors in the class of 1860. In 1862 Mr. Porter was ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church, in Fayette County, and served as Pastor in Brownsville and in Jefferson County, that State. He was then Pastor of the Union Congregational and Presbyterian Churches in Erie County, Ohio, and then of the First Congregational Church of Carroll, Carroll County, this State. In October, 1875. Mr. Porter came to Oskaloosa and assumed the management of the Oskaloosa Standard, which position he held for ten years. In January, 1886, he became editor of the Oskaloosa Union, which was the outgrowth of a consolidation of the Standard and Messenger, and which position he held until September, 1886. It is a spicy little paper, Democratic in politics, and always found upon the side of morality, and advocating every just cause for the development and the improvement of the country and the elevation of mankind. Mr. Porter was married in Pittsburgh, Pa., June 2, 1864, to Miss Sallie A., daughter of Capt. Elisha Bennett. She bore him two children, both of whom are deceased, and her demise took place in Chicago, Ill., Dec. 22, 1867. Mr. Porter was a second time married, Aug. 4, 1869, to Miss Anna P., daughter of Capt. J. W. Grover, of Cleveland, Ohio. The issue of the latter union is five children. The record is as follows: Harry S., born Sept. 18, 1870, and died aged fifteen years; Chris C., born Dec. 24, 1872; Fred N., April 13, 1875; Ada M., Oct. 1,1877, and Nellie M., May 1, 1880. Mr. Porter is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the G. A. R., belonging to Phil Kearney Post. He was a soldier in the late war, having enlisted in 1863, and served three months as Chaplain of the 58th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy