Charles James Porter

PORTER, THOMPSON, SYKES, TODD, HALL, FLEMING, FELKNER, GOOD, MEYERS, SCOTT, CARR, WARNKE

Posted By: Deborah Gilbert (email)
Date: 9/9/2016 at 13:53:25

Maxwell Book: 1883-1983

Charles James Porter was born in Scott County, Iowa on September 27, 1855, the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Sykes Porter. His father was an Irishman by birth and his mother was a native of England. Both came to this country after reaching maturity. His mother was a widow when she married Mr. Porter having been married to a Mr. Todd with whom she had lived in New York City.

Charles was the oldest of six children born to Samuel and Elizabeth Sykes Porter: Charles, Samuel, Joseph H., George W., Minnie H. and John Edward.

The father, Samuel, died on their farm in Indian Creek Township in 1882 and the mother, Elizabeth, died in Des Moines at the age of 93 years-old in 1914.

On September 10, 1886, at Maxwell, Iowa, Charles married Nancy Ella Hall Thompson who was the daughter of Noble and Margaret Felkner Hall, early settlers of Story County. Nancy Ella had a daughter by her first marriage, Rose Ethel, who married John Fleming. Charles and Nancy Ella had one son, Kurt Chipman Porter.

Kurt Chipman Porter was born in Maxwell on July 26, 1887 and spent his entire life in the same vicinity. He died June 19, 1962. On September 18, 1909, he married Bertha Iola Meyers, daughter of Urias and Elizabeth Good Meyers. They had four children: Arthur Kurt, who married Sarah Elizabeth Scott and lived in Des Moines; William Urias, who married Genevieve Carr and now lives in Zephyrhills, Florida; their third child, a daughter, died in infancy; and their last child, Vera Coleen, married Lawrence W. Warnke and moved to LaPorte, Indiana, where she died May 18, 1974. Bertha Meyers Porter died at the home of her daughter in LaPorte, Indiana on July 18, 1968. Kurt and his wife, Bertha, are both buried in the Brethren Cemetery.

There are six great grandchildren and ten great great grandchildren surviving Charles and Nancy Ella Porter. Charles died February 9, 1943 and his wife died in Omaha on March 21, 1946. Both are buried in the Maxwell Cemetery.