Thomas W. Porter
Hon. Thomas W. Porter, mayor of Steubenville, O., is efficiently serving in this highest municipal office and is giving his fellow citizens a clean, business administration that is winning the approbation of all who have the best interests of this beautiful city at heart. He was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, August 29, 1861, and is one of a family of four children born to his parents, who were Joshua M. and Rachel (Williams) Porter. The father of Mayor Porter died at Steubenville in 1872. He was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he learned a trade and continued to work at the same long after he settled in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1857.
Thomas W. Porter obtained his education in the public schools of Jefferson County and when he reached manhood came to Steubenville and entered the rolling mills, where he continued an employe until 1887. In that year he embarked in the retail grocery business and continued in that line until called upon to assume the duties of his present office. Mayor Porter may be described as a man with no frills or fancies, his life having been a very practical one and this fact makes him a most satisfactory mayor, at a time when the city's needs are insistent and a clearheaded, courageous and honest man is needed at the helm of public affairs. In politics Mayor Porter is a Republican and his election on the Republican ticket to his present office, on November 4, 1907, was by a majority of 467 votes. He is fraternally identilied with both the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.
From 20th Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio, by Joseph B. Doyle. Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910