Porter. Pleasant

Surname Index
Updated: 08 Sep 2009

Daily Oklahoman, The
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
July 12, 1918, page 5

Pleasant Porter(1840-1907), was a respected American Indian statesman and the Principal Chief of the Creek Nation from 1899 until his death. He served with the Confederacy in the 1st Creek Mounted Volunteers, as Superintendent of Schools in the Creek Nation (1870), as commander of the Creek Light Horsemen (1883), and was many times the Creek delegate to the United States Congress. He was also President of the Sequoyah Statehood Convention in 1905 during the attempt to acquire statehood for the Indian Territory.

Early in life Pleasant Porter exhibited a remarkable capacity for business and became prosperous. He ran a store at Hillabee for a brief time. afterward establishing a general store at Okmulgee which he sold out in 1869. He soon therearfter moved from Okmulgee to Wealaka where he built a home and continued to reside until 1889, when he removed to Muskogee which remained his home until his death

When death closed the eventful service of General Pleasant Porter at Vinita on September 3, 1907, statehood for his people stood at the threshold.

The years of childhood and of adolescence of Pleasant Porter, oldest child and son of Benjamin Edward and Phoebe Porter, were spent upon the old plantation near Clarksville, where he was born September 26, 1840. His life appears to have been eventful from its inception. The present village of Clarksville and in what is now Wagoner County, Oklahoma. Here he built a log cabin, surveyed a plantation and engaged in farming and stock-raising.

Benjamin Edward Porter, son of Captain Porter, was born at the old home in the Creek Nation back in Alabama about 1818 and came as a child with his parents to the west. He lived until his death upon the old plantation and was a farmer and stockman. He married Phoebe, a daughter of Tah-lo-pee Tust-a-nuk-kee, a Creek Indian town chief. He died sometime shortly before the Civil War and was buried by the side of his father in the old burying ground near Clarksville. His wife died June 6, 1883, aged 63 years and is buried in the family burying ground at Wealaka, in the southeastern part of what is now Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

It is a sad commentary to note that the graves of both Captain Porter and Benjamin Porter are now unknown. The crude markings were removed years ago and time has wholly effaced the ancient burying ground where they rest. The old plantation was segregated into allotments and the plow has furrowed the soil where they sleep. above their forgotten graves—but in the thought of Victor Hugo, "God knows where to find the soul."

Pleasant Porter was a member of the bird clan and early in life received the somewhat euphonious Indian name of Talof Harjo a name which means Crazy Bear. The enrolling officers placed number 6220 opposite his name on the approved rolls of the Creek tribe. He spent five years in the Presbyterian Mission School at Tullahassee, receiving there a common school education which was to be the foundation upon which his own habit of home study built a finished structure of learning. After leaving school, he clerked in a store for a brief period and in 1860, together with Sam Brown, drove cattle in New Mexico During his absence in New Mexico, war between the states was brewing and, learning of impending hostilities, he hastened home and on August 19, at the Creek Agency, enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army in Company A of the First Creek regiment under command of Col. D. N. McIntosh. This regiment was attacked to the brigade commanded by Col. Douglas H. Cooper.

In the fall of 1872, Pleasant Porter made his initial trip to Washington as a representative of his people. It was on this occasion that he married Mary Ellen Keys, at St. Louis, Mo., on November 25, 1872. She was a daughter of Judge Riley Keys, who for twenty-five years was chief justice of the courts of the Cherokee Nation. She was born in the Cherokee Nation on April 6, 1854 and died at Wealaka, Indian Territory of January 15, 1886. Three children were born of this union, William Adair, Pleasant and Annetta Mary, the latter two of whom are now deceased. The son William Adair Porter resides with his family at Tulsa, Oklahoma. On May 26, 1886, Pleasant Porter married Mattie Leonora Bertholf, a cousin of his first wife. She was born August 18, 1861, and died July 10, 1829, leaving a daughter, Leonora, now the wife of Ed. C. Bothwell of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

General Porter was a man of commanding presence, standing six feet and weighing perhaps 225 pounds. He was polished in dress and clean in thought and habit. His spiritual affiliations were with the Presbyterian Church. He was a member of the Masonic fraternities, including the 33rd degree. A gracious personality enriched his life with the charm of a wide circle of personal friendships. He was a fluent speaker in both the Creek and English languages. He was well read in the classics.

Pleasant Porter was a natural born leader of men. This leadership was of the tolerant and generous type.

When death closed the eventful service of General Pleasant Porter at Vinita, on September 3, 1907, statehood for his people stood at the threshold He rests in the old family burying ground at Wealaka.

PLEASANT PORTER CEMETERY

Location: Leonard, OK - go north on S. 145th E. Ave. off highway 64 to cemetery signs (between E. 151st and E. 161st). Take first right onto gravel road and follow to the end. Cemetery is at rear of the house.

PORTER, Mildred F. 1875 - 1968

PORTER, William A. 1874 - 1950

PORTER, Pleasant (Chief of the CREEKS) 1840 - 1907

//sites.rootsweb.com/~okohs/tcem1.html

[note: included is other Porter burials but no photos]

20. PLEASANT PORTER GRAVE SITE
Located near Bixby. Grave site of Pleasant Porter, Principal Chief of the Creek Nation from 1899-1907.
http://www.muscogeenation-nsn.gov/history/historysites.htm [note no other information and no links]

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/chronicles/v009/v009p318.html

Indian Pioneer History Interview - Name: William Porter

Finally in 1889, Congress made the decision, for the first time, to place a federal court within Indian Territory. Pleasant Porter, who served the Creek Nation in Washington, D.C., convinced Congress to place the new court in Muskogee.

http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/local/local_story_272224612.html

Sources: good faith fair use of sources stated above

Contributed by Marti Graham, September 2007. Information posted for educational purposes for viewers and researchers. The contributor is not related to nor researching any of the above.

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