Porter, Lyman

Born: 1804-08-29 Vermont

Died: 1859-03-13 Mackinaw, Illinois

Flourished: Mackinaw, Illinois

Lyman Porter of Mackinaw, Illinois, in Tazewell County worked as a merchant in 1850. He was on the Republicans' radar in 1858 when Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for a U.S. Senate seat for Illinois. Lincoln asked Porter for his support and assistance in August of that year. Porter had been nominated for the Illinois General Assembly several times but had declined each time.

Porter married Mary Ann Patterson in April 1832, and the couple had four children who survived to adulthood.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Tazewell County, IL, 79; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, April 1832, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; David Davis to Abraham Lincoln; Gravestone, Mackinaw Township Cemetery, Mackinaw, IL.