Page:One of a thousand.djvu/500

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486 POPE. PORTER. Jonathan and Asenath (Wright) Connable. Of this union are four children : Mary Anna, Sarah Hunt, Charles Russell, and Laura Lathrop Pomeroy. Mr. Pomeroy was on the staff of Gover- nor Gardner, with the rank of colonel. He has held the office of sheriff for the county, as well as various minor offices of the county and town. He is a trustee of the Pomeroy parish fund for the Unitarian society. POPE, Charles Greenwood, son of Rufus Spurr and Sarah (Brown) Pope, was born in Hardwick, Worcester county, November 18, 1840. His father was a clergyman in the Universalist denomina- tion. When three years of age his parents moved to Hyannis, one of the thriving villages of Cape Cod, where he passed his boyhood, and attended the public schools and academy. At the age of fifteen he entered Pierce Academy, Middleborough, to prepare for college, and having fitted, entered Tufts College in August, 1857, and was graduated therefrom in the class of 1861. He then taught in the academy and in a private school in Hyannis until 1S64, when he was elected by the school board of Somerville to the charge of the Forster school. In October, 1870, he left this school to accept the place of master in the Bunker Hill school, Charlestown, where he remained until January, 1874, when he resigned. Mr. Pope had been studying law for several years, and was connected with the law office of Sweetser & Gardner. Upon resigning his school duties he entered tiie office of John W. Hammond, of Cambridge, and the following December was admitted to the bar. The law firm of Hammond & Pope continued until the appointment of the senior member as judge of the superior court in 1S86. In April, 1S78, Mr. Pope was appointed a special justice of the Somerville police court, which office he now holds. When Somerville became a city he was elected to the common council from ward 1, and in 1873 he was president of that body, and by virtue of the office, a mem- ber of the school board. In 1876 and '77 he was a member of the House of Repre- sentatives. He has been for many years a trustee of the public library, and a trus- tee of Tufts College for eighteen years, being one of the oldest in point of service in that institution of learning. In December, 1888, Mr. Pope was elected mavor of Somerville. He was married in Somerville, Decem- ber 27, 1866, to Josephine H., daughter of Erastus E. and Harriet N. Cole, of that city. They have one child, Tracy Cole Pope, — born at Somerville in December, 1869. PORTER, Charles Hunt, son of Whitcomb and Susan Bowditch (Hunt) Porter, was born April 3, 1843, in Wey- mouth, Norfolk county. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Quincy, having graduated from the high school of that place. In 1858, at fourteen years of age, he engaged in the insurance business in Bos- ton. He remained in this until he entered the service of his country in 1862. At the close of the war he returned to the same business, in which he is still engaged. In 1862 he was commissioned as 2d lieutenant in the 39th Massachusetts volun- teers. He served three years ; was at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox court-house, and was mustered out with rank of captain. Subsequently he was com- missioned as lieutenant-colonel of the 7th Massachusetts regiment. Mr. Porter has served as selectman of Quincy, and was a representative to the Legislature in 1881-82. He has been a member of the standing committee of the First church ; president of the Adams Lit- erary Association, and is now the mayor of Quincy, being the first to serve under the charter incorporating the same as a city. June 23, 1870, Mr. Porter was married at Quincy, to Hannah A., daughter of Charles S. and Mary (Norcross) French. Their children are : Charles H., Henry W., and Robert B. Porter. PORTER, Vaniah Miller, son of William and Bathsheba (Miller) Porter, was born in Whitingham, Windham county, Vt., April 13, 1S30. His ancestry was oi English and Scotch stock. His father was the son of Rev. Elisha Porter, a profound scholar. Removing from Whitingham, Vt., to Rowe, Mass., when he was six years old, Mr. Porter found his educational advan- tages somewhat improved. A district library was opened about this time, and of this and the district school he took advan- tage until sixteen years of age, when he prevailed upon his father to send him to an academy in Charlemont. His schooling was continued at the Shelburne Falls Academy for several years. He taught his first school in his twentieth year, and for several years alternately