John Inghram Porter


The following profile was researched and compiled by Candice L. Buchanan and Glenn J. R. T. Toothman III, for www.RainDayBoys.com.


Birth: 6 February 1898 Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Parents: Levi Rinehart Porter and Malinda "Linnie" Bradford

Residence at time of enlistment: Race Street, Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Physical description: Short, medium build, gray eyes, light hair

Death: Influenza epidemic, 29 October 1918 Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Age at death: 20 years old

Last resting place: Green Mount Cemetery, Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania

Military rank: Serial No. 5132629. Private. Company E, Student Army Training Corps.

Additional information:

John was assembling airplanes in Keyport, Monmouth County, New Jersey, before the war, though he still called Waynesburg home. He studied at Waynesburg College for two years before ultimately graduating from the Pennsylvania State School of Aero-Mechanics at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. John enlisted for military service 15 October 1918 and had only barely begun training as a member of the Student Army Training Corps at the University of Pittsburgh, when he was stricken by the influenza epidemic, resulting in his death before the month was out.

John’s brother, Clarence Lee Richard Porter, also served during World War I as a member of the Medical Corps.



SOURCES:

  • John Porter obituary, Waynesburg Republican, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, 31 October 1918.
  • Green Mount Cemetery (Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania), John I. Porter tombstone, Section N Lot 27 W 1/2 Grave 1; read and photographed by Candice Buchanan and Glenn Toothman, 2018.
  • Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906-1963, no. 107614, John Porter, 1918; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.Ancestry.com : accessed 16 July 2018); Pennsylvania Death certificates, 1906–1963 (Series 11.90), Records of the Pennsylvania Department of Health (Record Group 11), Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
  • "United States, World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=6482 : accessed 16 July 2018), John Inghram Porter draft card, serial no. 2722, Local Draft Board, Waynesburg, Greene County, Pennsylvania; citing National Archives microfilm publication M1509, FHL roll 1892940.
  • "WWI Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1948," digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=60884 : accessed 16 July 2018), John I. Porter file (no application for compensation submitted; however, letter from sister Goldie Porter on file); citing World War I Veterans Service and Compensation File, 1934–1948 (RG 19, Series 19.91), Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.