George Bryan Porter (February 9, 1791 – July 6, 1834), was a U.S. statesman in Pennsylvania and Michigan Territory.
He was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the brother of David Rittenhouse Porter, Pennsylvania Governor, 1839–1845, and James Madison Porter, Secretary of War, 1843–1844, and the uncle of Horace Porter, U.S. Ambassador to France, 1897 - 1905. His father, General Andrew Porter served in the U.S. Revolutionary War.
Porter was a major in the United States Army during the War of 1812. He also went to law school in Litchfield, Connecticut and had a practice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before becoming a Democratic party member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1827.[1]
He was appointed Governor of Michigan Territory by President Andrew Jackson in 1831. He died while in office in 1834 during a cholera epidemic in Detroit, Michigan. He is interred at Elmwood Cemetery, in Detroit.
He was married to Sarah Humes of Pennsylvania, and had at least four children.
One son, General Andrew Porter, married Margarite Biddle of the famous Biddle family. During the American Civil War, he was one of the generals at the First Battle of Bull Run.
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Lewis Cass |
Territorial Governor of Michigan 1831–1834 |
Succeeded by Stevens T. Mason |
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