This file contains correspondence between Stewart and John Franklin Porter, 2329 Raven Dr, Rock Hill, SC, 29732-9388, telephone: (803)329-1901; 803-328-3895 x102 daytime. Email: Frank.Porter@ASSOCDATA.COM
Porter REUNION
From: Frank Porter 14 May, 1998
Subject: James Tillet Porter
......GRANDDAUGHTER of John Washington MARTIN (11/2/1860-1/2/1930) and CHOCTAW Indian descendant Eugene PORTER (12/1/1857 in Union County-7/3/1921).....(4/8/1833 near Cherokee Falls, York Co.-2/14/1912) AND OF James Tillet PORTER and Margaret VINCENT,
Actually, Cherokee Falls is in Cherokee County, not York County. Tillet and Margaret are buried at the Nazareth Baptist Church in an old cemetary by the paved road. The church is in Cherokee Co, about .2 miles from the 99 Island Damn on the Broad River.
I am the Gr Gr Gr Gr Grandson of James Tillet Porter and Margaret Vincent. Where did you find information about the Choctow Indian?
I have never been able to establish Tillet's connection with the other main line of Porter's in York/Union/Cherokee County of the late 1700's and early 1800's.
Frank Porter
June 9, 1998 email from Stewart
To Mr. Frank Porter, Gr Gr Gr Gr Grandson of James Tillet Porter
and Margaret Vincent.
Dear Cousin Frank Porter,
Thank you for sending me email and genealogical information (which I have added to my webpage at http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5463/index.html).
Do you wish me to give your email address to others who write me about the Porter family, or to post your email message on my webpage, so that those who read my webpage may contact you, and perhaps help you with your research?
FP> Where did you find information about the Choctow Indian? I was also told the Indian was Cherokee and Catawba.
WS - I know of no documentation which supports that information, which came to me via Beatrice Martin Stewart (deceased), and may have been confused with some other ancestral line, but my own physical characteristics have persuaded me that I have some Indian ancestry, as do most other descendants of old SC families.
Sincerely,
Stewart
From: Frank Porter 15 May, 1998
Subject: Bea Stewart
I interviewed Bea Stewart years ago when I first started my study. She mentioned her grandfather John Martin was nicknamed "Cracker", ran a grits mill and could jump up in the air and click his heals together three times before landing. John(Cracker) Martin's father, Thomas Martin, was a silversmith.
This from my notes from 1970.
Frank Porter
Always hunting for the relatives of James Tillet Porter
From: Stewart June 10, 1998
To: Frank.Porter@ASSOCDATA.COM
Subject: Re: Bea Stewart
Dear Cousin Porter,
According to my webpage, Morgan Martin was (also?) a silversmith. Might there be some confusion?
Sincerely,
Stewart
From: Frank Porter June 10, 1998
Subject: Re: James Tillet Porter
Please post my address and share with anyone working on the Porter family line. You may certainly post my Email to your WEB page. I could go with Cherokee not Choctow. The Cherokees were in Union/Cherokee County and the Catawbas in York and Lancaster. I would have to researh the location of the Choctow.
It's odd you said your personal appearance lends credance to the Indian blood. You should see the older generation of Porter's. My granddaddy, John Robert Porter, had a distinct Indian profile. At his funeral, you could easily pick out his cousins: black wavy hair, large frame, heavy noses.
Bea Stewart was up in years when I interviewed her. I am sure her Great Grandfather could have been the silversmith.
There is a Porter reunion in Blacksburg, SC on June 28 at the old Porter farm. This for decendants of Tillet Porter. If you are near, please join us.
Frank Porter
From: Stewart June 10, 1998
To:Frank.Porter
Subject: James Tillet Porter
Dear Cousin Porter,
Thank you for your response and information about our mutual ancestors.
FP wrote:> Please post my address and share with anyone working on the Porter family line. You may certainly post my Email to your WEB page.
I intend to do so. I could put a link on my webpage to yours. Would you like me to set up a webpage for you, which you could edit whenever you like?
FP wrote > I could go with Cherokee not Choctow. The Cherokees were in Union/Cherokee County and the Catawbas in York and Lancaster. I would have to researh the location of the Choctow.
Please do so; I agree with you.
I usually tell others that I have Cherokee and Catawba ancestors, as I was always told. I know nothing about Choctow. I wonder if both Cherokee and Catawba are categorized as Choctow.
FP> It's odd you said your personal appearance lends credance to the Indian blood.
Only anthropologists say so; hardly anyone else has ever guessed. People say I have "high" cheek bones and yellowish skin.
FP> You should see the older generation of Porter's. My granddaddy, John Robert Porter, had a distinct Indian profile. At his funeral, you could easily pick out his cousins: black wavy hair, large frame, heavy noses.
I would love to see them; I want to know exactly who my Indian ancestors were.
Did you know that anthropologists have found 9,000 year old "Caucasian" skeletons in the United States?
FP> Bea Stewart was up in years when I interviewed her. I am sure her Great Grandfather could have been the silversmith.
I was told the silversmith was a Jew (after so many millennia, all Europeans must have a little Hebrew blood), and Bea's first Martin ancestor to immigrate to America (as written on my webpage). Would land surveyors' names be in County Plat Books?
FP> There is a Porter reunion in Blacksburg, SC on June 28 at the old Porter farm. This for decendants of Tillet Porter. If you are near, please join us.
Thank you for your kind invitation, which I would love to accept, but I live in Columbia, SC, with only a bicycle for transportation. Could you send me a map, just in case I find a way to attend?
I am glad to have found a kinsman who seems intelligent, responsible, and interested in genealogy.
Sincerely,
Stewart
From: Frank Porter June 11, 1998
Subject: Reunion, Indians, WEB Pages, and such
CC:HDP020537@aol.com
I have access to putting a WEB page on the net but am just to lazy at this time.
I''m going to have to put my son, age 12, to work this summer.
The indian question is fascinating and we will be lucky if it is ever determined the origin of the "Porter Look" of the last several generations.
It is clear though that Tillet was not Indian, that Margaret Vincent his wife could be, that the possibility of more than one wife for Tillet exist.
I find the name of surveyors mentioned most of the time on deeds.
If Hershell Porter would send you directions I think that they would be more accurate than mine. Why a bycycle? Are you a student or just a role model for the rest of us?
Columbia is a great research center with the SC Archives housed there. Hershell and I are both jealous.
I will be off line while attending Boy Scout Camp next week. I am going to be on the staff for the first time without a troop of my own to manage. I will let you guys continue the search without me.
I will read EMail through Sunday morning.
I am John Franklin Porter
s/o Johnny James Porter b 22 Dec, 1922
s/o John Robert Porter b 25 August, 1902 d 21 January, 1980
s/o John James Porter b 15 February, 1881 d 22 July, 1941
s/o Benjamin Franklin Porter b 19 December, 1855,in SC, d 21
October, 1921 and Martha E. Neal b 21 January, 1857 York Co SC, d
6 October, 1924
s/o James Tillet Porter who died in 1893 in Cherokee County, SC
and Magaret Vincent d 1895 in Cherokee County.
Frank Porter
803-329-1901
803-328-3895 x102 daytime