Peter Buell Porter (1773 - 1844)

Born 14 Aug 1773 in Salisbury, Litchfield, Connecticut

Ancestors

Husband of Letitia Preston (Breckenridge) Porter — married 16 Oct 1818 in Princeton, NJ

Descendants

Died 20 Mar 1844 at age 70 in Niagara Falls, Niagara County, New York, USA

Preceded by 11th Secretary James Barbour

Peter Buell Porter 12th United States Secretary of War 1801—1809

Succeeded by 13th Secretary John H. Eaton

Biography

Peter Porter is Notable.

Major General Peter Porter served in the War of 1812
Service started: 1812
Unit(s): New York Volunteers
Service ended: 1815

Peter Porter was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal in the War of 1812.

The biography of Peter Buell Porter from The Biographical Directory of the American Congress follows:

PORTER, Peter Buell, 1773-1844

PORTER, Peter Buell, (grandfather of Peter Augustus Porter and uncle of Augustus Seymour Porter), a Representative from New York; born in Salisbury, Conn., August 14, 1773; was graduated from Yale College in 1791; studied law in Litchfield, Conn.; was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Canandaigua, N.Y., in 1793; clerk of Ontario County 1797-1804; member of the State assembly in 1802 and again in 1828; moved to Buffalo, N.Y., in the fall of 1809; elected as a Republican to the Eleventh and Twelfth Congresses (March 4, 1809-March 3, 1813); declined to be a candidate for renomination; appointed a canal commissioner in 1811; served in the War of 1812; major general of New York Volunteers 1812-1815; presented a Congressional Gold Medal under joint resolution of Congress dated November 3, 1814, for gallantry and good conduct in the several conflicts of Chippewa, Niagara, and Erie, elected to the Fourteenth Congress and served from March 4, 1815, to January 23, 1816, when he resigned; secretary of state of New York in 1815 and 1816; unsuccessful candidate for Governor of the State of New York in 1817; regent of the University of the State of New York 1824-1830; appointed Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President John Quincy Adams and served from June 21, 1828, to March 9, 1829; moved to Niagara Falls in 1836; presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1840; died at Niagara Falls, Niagara County, N.Y., March 20, 1844; interment in Oakwood Cemetery.

Sources

• Kilbourne, Payne Kenyon. A Biographical History of the County of Litchfield, Connecticut (Clark, Austin & Co., New York, 1851) Page 258-60
• Find A Grave memorial #6911945
• DAB; Grande, Joseph A. The Political Career of Peter Buell Porter, 1797-1829. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1971
• Roland, Daniel Dean. Peter Buell Porter and Self-Interest in American Politics Ph.D. dissertation, Claremont Graduate School, 1990.

• [1] The Cabells and Their Kin: A Memorial Volume of History, Biography, and Genealogy Alexander Brown January 1, 1895 Houghton, Mifflin & Company: Parents, Marriage, Wife, Birth, Death page 487