Biography

01/06/1793 - 11/11/1862

PORTER, James Madison, a Representative from Monroe and Northampton Counties; born, January 6, 1793 in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pa.; attended, Norristown Academy; attended, Princeton College; colonel, United States Army (1812-1813, War of 1812); law clerk; lawyer (1813-1862); proprietor, Northampton Slate Quarry Company; appointed, Deputy Attorney General, Northampton County (1818); founder and trustee president, Lafayette College (1826-1852); proprietor, Pennsylvania Slate Company; professor, jurisprudence and political economy, Lafayette College (1837-1852); elected, delegate, Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention (1838-1839); appointed, president judge, 12^th Judicial District (1839, resigned); appointed, United States Secretary of War (1843, resigned); president, Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad (1847-1852); president, State Democratic Convention (1848); elected as a Democrat to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for the 1850 term; not a candidate for reelection to the House for the 1851 term; president, Lehigh Railroad (1853-1856); president, Belvidere Delaware Railroad Company (1853-1856); appointed, president judge, 22^nd Judicial District (1853-1855); president, Easton Delaware Bridge Company; founder, Dime Savings Bank of Easton; died, November 11, 1862 in Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania; interred, Easton Cemetery, Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania.