The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-12-17
JOHN ADDISON PORTER.
Former Private Secretary to Presiecnt
 McKinIey-A Sketch of Ills Career.

John Addison Porter, formerly private
 secretary to President Mckinley, died
 at his home in Putnam shortly before
 o'clock Saturday afternoon. He had
 been sick for many weeks with ma liguant intestinal disease. An opera
 tion which was performed nearly two
 months ago served to stay the progress
 of his malady, but could not entirely ar-
 rest it, and it had been evident for a 1 long time to his family and near friends
 that he was slowly growing weaker.
 His condition, however, was such that
 he was able to sit about the house, and
 on last Wednesday he went for drive. i On Thursday he was attacked with a
 severe sinking spell and never rallied 1 from it, being unconscious much of the time until his daaIh. Shortly before the
 end came he recognized the members of his family who were at his bedside and bade them farewell.
 John Addison Porter was born in this city on April IF, 1856 He was the eld- est sen of Professor John Addison Por- ter, a noted scientist, first dean of the Sheffield Scientific school of Vale unl-
 Versity, and Josephine Earl Sheffield,
 daughter of the late Joseph F. Sheffield,
 the founder of that institution He was
 educated at General Russells Collegiate and Commercial Institute, former not
 ed school here, the Hopkins grammar
 school and Yale university, where he
 was gradua ted from the academic de-
 partment in the class of '7S with honors in literature After leaving college he studied law in Cleveland, Ohio, in the office of his uncle, William J. Board- man, afterWard leaving the profession to engage in newspaper work in this city and later with the Hartford Cour- ant. In 1880 he made an extended tour in the west Subsequently he pursued a postgraduate course in American-his- tory at Vale Tn 1883 he became liter ary editor of the New York Observer, holding the post a year The following year he went to Washington to engage in the publishing business, and he serV- ed as secretary to his uncle, William Walter Phelps, then a member of the house, and was clerk of a senate com mittee in the Forty-ninth congress. In
  go south for the winter, and on his re- turn he purchased an estate in Pomfret, this state, where he afterward made his permanent home, Tn 1888 MT. Porter purchased an interest in the Hartford Post Two years later he secured con- trolling interest in that paper and be- came it's editor-in-chief, post he held for ten years.
 He represented the town of Pomfret in the popular branch of the Connecti- cut general assembly in 1891 and was elected delegate to the republican na- tional convention at Minneapolis in 1892. On two occasions he was a candidate for the nomination for the governorship of Connecticut, in each instance receiv- ing a large majority of the votes cast at the primaries, but failing to carry the convention by a narrow majority.
 In the presidential campaign of 1896 MT Porter was an earnest advocate of the nomination of MT Mckinley, and as a result largely of his energetic work in Connecticut two-thirds of the vote of that state in the St. Louis conven- | tion was cast for the Ohio candidate. [ plurality in Connecticut the < November was upward of 55,- | poo. MT. Porter without solicitation on ! his part, was chosen for secretary to the president in February, 1897, and as- sumed office on March 4, 1897. His | health was seriously impaired by se- we're attack of sickness in the spring of | 1899 He continued to act as secretary to the president for a year longer, but, failing to regain his health he was con- strained to resign last April, The pres dent reluctantly accepted his resigna- .ion on May 1. Since that date MT Porter spent considerable time in New York city under physicians care.
 MT. Porter was member of numer- 1us social and fraternal organizations md clubs, including the Masonic order, he Sons of the American Revolution, he Hartford club, the Pomfret club, the club of Washington and he Connecticut Press club. His liter ,ry works included Sketches of Yale life" "The City of Washington; Its Origin and Development" and many articles in leading magazines and liter try weeklies. He was married in 1883 o Miss Amy E. Betts, daughter of George F. Betts of New York city, and hey had three children, one of whom lied in infancy.