WILLIAM PORTER

Again, we’re quoting Pioneers of Macedon, from pages 32 and 33, as we continue to read about William Porter.

“He married Lydia Claghorn of Williamsburg, Mass., who was born in 1780, and came to the township in 1796 with her aunt, Mrs. David Warner, who was formerly Mrs. David White.... In the winter of 1796 they went to Massachusetts with horses and sleigh and Lydia returned with them to their home... In just one year from that time Lydia Claghorn became Mrs. William Porter.  The were married and went at once to live in the house which he had built, and she used often to speak of the town as being full of young men who had come on to take up farms.“

The Pioneers of Macedon continues with this account: “In early times money was not to be had, and in winter William Porter would pile in as many bags of wheat as his horses could draw for a load and drive with it to Albany and sell it for cash, and returning, he would bring back groceries for Joseph Colt and George Beckwith, which would about pay expenses. He built the tavern house and moved into it in 1811. He died in March of 1819 and his wife continued the business until 1835, and after that date the building was used for a dwelling house. The first town meeting of Macedon was held in this house February 11, 1823. Mrs. Porter remained on the farm until 1844. Her death occurred in 1867 at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Salome Lapham of Macedon....”

Why are we focusing the Porter family?  Because this branch of the family is connected to the Laphams who in turn are related to the Bullises, and in our search for our Bullis timeline, we are looking at their extended families.

Also, we find it interesting that the independence, resourcefulness, and work ethic displayed by Mr. Porter are traits that consistently showed up in each generation of the Bullis family.

LAPHAM-PORTER FAMILIES

In 1837, when the Charles H. Bullis family arrived in Macedon, the Laphams had called this area home for almost 50 years. Thus when Charles and Eleanor Bullis’s son Abraham married Lydia Porter Lapham, he married into a well-established family. Perhaps two established families, for Lydia’s middle name (Porter) indicates that she was a member of another long-term Macedon family.

According to Pioneers of Macedon (p. 32, 33), “William Porter came from Cunningham (Massachuettts) in 1793. It is supposed that he came on horseback. He located on what has since been known as the ‘Porter farm,’ which extended from the four corners to Delano’s Lane. He married Lydia Claghorn of Williamsburg, Mass., who was born in 1780, and came to the township in 1796 with her aunt, Mrs. David Warner, who was formerly Mrs. David White.”

We’ve been unable to determine if the Lydia Porter Lapham was a descendant of William Porter and Lydia Claghorn Porter. However, one of their daughter’s (Salome) married John Lapham and it is possible that Lydia Porter was their child. (We’ll continue to research that.)

Whether William Porter was actually connected to the Bullises, his life in Macedon makes for a great story. And we’ll share some of it with you next week.

BULLIS-LAPHAM FAMILIES

The Bullis family connected with the Lapham family when Lydia Porter Lapham married Abraham Bullis and gave her maiden name to their first child, John Lapham Bullis, who was born in 1841.

According to Pioneers of Macedon (The Mail Printing House (compiled by Mary Louise Eldredge, Fairport, New York, 1912, pp. 36-37), the first Abraham Lapham was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island on July 15, 1755. “His father, Joshua Lapham, was a grandson of John Lapham, who came from England when he was a young man and settled in Providence, R.I., and here married Mary, daughter of William and Frances (Hopkins) Mann....Hannah, sister of Abraham Lapham, was the grandmother of the late Susan B. Anthony of Rochester.

“In 1791 Abraham Lapham brought his wife and children, coming then in company with Henry Wilbur and his family. Their new home was located among the Friends in Farmington. The members of that community, though disapproved for their venture and disowned by the parent society in Massachusetts, still held regular services. The meetings were held from house to house, and the home of Abraham and Esther Lapham was soon known as a place of meeting. In 1794 the colony was visited by a committee from Massachusetts and one of them was entertained in the home of Abraham Lapham. The early discipline of that society forbade its members to undertake a new enterprise, especially that of emigration, without the consent of ‘the meeting,’ which had been refused these pioneers, and they had been disowned. The report of the visiting committee was favorable, the disowned members were restored to membership and a meeting was organized in the same year, but a meeting house was not built until 1796....One member of the building committee was Ira, eldest son of Abraham Lapham.”

(Writers of John Lapham Bullis’s millitary experiences sometimes refer to his Quaker beliefs. Here in the Bullis Room, we’ve found no documentation of of that religious connection. We're looking for more information on this subject. If you can  help, please contact us.)

Through the Laphams, the Bullises were connected not only to the renowned Susan B.  Anthony but also to Increase Lapham (March 7, 1811–September 14, 1875), who emigrated from his birthplace in Palmyra, New York to Wisconsin, and is considered the “Father” of the United States Weather Service.

We’ll continue to report on the Lapham-Bullis connection in next week’s post.

FAMILY NAMES

This week in the Bullis Room we concentrated on surnames other than Bullis. While going through Bullis documents, we frequently come across the name Lapham, but we also occasionally find the names Porter, Aldrich, Rogers, Carbone, Hart, Rodriguez, Withers, and Breese. Their family history contributes towards the story of the Bullis family that we volunteers are working to put together.

In the next few weeks, we will post what we know of these nine families. Do you have any information that would add to our research? If so, please contact us.

(PS: Most of these names are middle names of Bullis family members. How individuals get their middle names fascinates us and is another project to add to our list.)

(PPS: Yes, we're still working on John Lapham Bullis's timeline. This research will add to that.)