Sargent, Porter

Born: 1801-01-26 Massachusetts

Died: 1873-06-03 Rock Island, Illinois

Flourished: Savanna, Illinois

Sargent Porter was a mill owner, postmaster, railroad executive, and state legislator. Born in West Amesbury, Massachusetts, Porter was resident of Carroll County, Illinois by 1839 when he constructed mills there. In 1844, he purchased almost forty acres in Carroll County and acquired about 160 more acres in 1852. Porter was appointed to a committee to establish a poor house in Carroll County in 1850 and the following year he was on the first board of directors of the Savanna Branch Railroad Company. He served as postmaster of Savanna, Illinois, 1850 to 1853 and 1861 to 1866, and represented Carroll County in the Illinois House of Representatives, 1855 to 1856. A contemporary described him as a Free-soil Whig in 1854. Porter married Emma Cordelia King in 1842 and the pair had two children.

The History of Carroll County Illinois (Chicago: H. F. Kett, 1878), 226, 241, 263, 323; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Carroll County, IL, 17; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Rock Island County, 26 September 1842, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Carroll County, 713:98, 99, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Savanna, Carroll County, IL, 363; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:18; 1855-1865, 20A:12; 1865-1878, 32:36, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 221; Elihu B. Washburne to Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Savanna, Carroll County, IL, 202; The Rock Island Daily Argus (IL), 4 June 1873, 4:2; Gravestone, Savanna Township Cemetery, Savanna, IL.