OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

JAMES W. PORTER
VOL. 5, p. 1895, 1896

Though a young man of only thirty years, James W. Porter has for
almost ten years of that time been an active factor in banking
affairs in Western Oklahoma. He is now vice president of the Cotton
Exchange Bank of Leedey, assisted in organizing that and several
other institutions in Dewey and other counties and is also vice
president of the State Bank of Commerce at Trail and vice president
of the Texmo Cotton Exchange Bank at Moorewood.

Born at Newton, Tennessee, December 5, 1885, James W. Porter comes
of a family that originated in Ireland and established itself in
Alabama during the period of early settlement in that commonwealth.
His father, J. W. Porter, who was born at Montgomery, Alabama, in
1839, is now living retired at Shawnee, Oklahoma. From Alabama he
went to Rock Island, Illinois, and later to Newton, Tennessee, in
1893 established his home at Cleburne, Texas, and in 1903 went to
Shawnee. For many years he was in the hotel business. He served
throughout the conflict between the North and the South as a
Confederate soldier, going out with an Alabama regiment, was wounded
and taken prisoner, but subsequently returned to the ranks after
being exchanged. J. W. Porter was married in New York State to Miss
Utica STREETER, who was born in Utica, New York, in 1848.

James W. Porter from the age of eight years lived in Cleburne until
his father removed to Shawnee. He attended the public schools at
Cleburne, and graduated with the high school class in 1903, and from
that year until 1906 was laying the foundation of his business career
as an employee in a department store at Shawnee. In 1906 he became
associated with W. O. HORR and Irving H. WHEATCROFT. These gentlemen
organized at Ray the Cotton Exchange Bank and similar banks in Texmo,
Cheyenne, Crawford and Elk City. In 1911 the bank at Ray was removed
to Leedey, and has since been the Cotton Exchange Bank of Leedey. Its
present officers are; Irving H. Wheatcroft, president; James W.
PORTER, vice president; C. R. FLINT, cashier. The bank has a capital
stock of $15,000 and the present surplus account is $1,500. In 1911
at the corner of Main Street and Broadway a modern and well furnished
banking house was constructed, the banking rooms being on the lower
floor and offices above. It is a cement block building.

In politics Mr. Porter is a democrat, but has given most of his
attention to local affairs, and for two years served as mayor of
Leedey. He still has membership in the First Baptist Church at
Cleburne, Texas, and is affiliated with Leedey Lodge No. 227 of the
Knights of Pythias.

At Texmo, Oklahoma, in 1906 he married Miss Velma HORR, daughter of
C. A. Horr. Mr. Horr is a resident of Leedey and in the real estate
business.

Transcribed for OKGenWeb by Sherry Van Scoy Hall, July 19, 1999.

SOURCE: Thoburn, Joseph B., A Standard History of Oklahoma, An
Authentic Narrative of its Development, 5 v. (Chicago, New York: The
American Historical Society, 1916).