From frontier childhood to trailblazing fireman
Sutter’s Mill was a water-powered sawmill on the bank of the South Fork of the American River in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California. In 1848 James Marshall found gold, and Americans began trickling west. Among them were David Arthur Porter and Sarah Ann Graham. They married in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1857 and joined the trickle. By stagecoach.
They made it to Science Hall, Texas, a settlement between Kyle and Buda, where Bob was born on 13 August 1858. When Bob was a year old, this family of three continued the trip to California. Bob may have been the first white child to travel to California by the southern route. His parents placed Bob on a pallet on the floor of a stage coach, and started that long trip over the desert to California. During the trip, Indians at stations along the way bargained with the Porters in an effort to buy the “pale papoose” or even to hold him for a few moments.
When Bob was old enough to understand, his parents told him of his attraction to the Indians and of the efforts to buy him. He never forgot the stories. California was Bob’s first world, for the family spent ten years in California where his siblings Dora, Luther, and John were born. About 1870, the Porters, remembering the friends they had made at Science Hall, returned to Hays County, Texas, where other siblings were born.
Dr. James Gaston Barbee Sr., one of the first physicians in Hays County, was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1832. Sarah Elizabeth “Sallie” Nance was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1840. Barbee and Nance married about 1861. Their first child was Mary Lewis Barbee, born in April 1862. Mary and Bob married on 6 August 1883 in Hays County, probably in Kyle. In 1886, their first child Allie was born, again, probably on the family farm near Kyle.
At the time, Bob was still helping his parents on the family farm. The enumerator who wrote Bob’s name on the 1880 census was Fergus Kyle. A small farm in the San Marcos valley could support only so many people. Bob decided to become a merchant and, familiar with wear and tear on harnesses, he chose to sell harnesses. Today, he might have chosen the auto parts business. Familiarity with harnesses
and with their manufacture are not the same thing. Bob needed a partner, and he found one in William Covington who seems to have had a business in Harper’s Hall. Covington’s wife was Laura Virginia Harper, whose parents were Benjamin Frank Harper and Sarah A. Martindale.
In January 1886, there was a new saddle and harness shop in San Marcos. It was styled Covington & Porter. Bob was energetic and learned quickly. Ads appeared regularly in the newspaper. Bob expanded the business. He paid cash for hides. He strayed out of the pure harness and saddle business to include lap dusters for warmth and protection from the dust in open carriages or wagons. For the ladies, they sold side saddles. Bob may have been the junior partner, but he was clearly in charge, and in June 1886, Bob bought Covington’s part of the business and changed the ads to read “J.R. Porter Successor to Covington & Porter”.
Covington then formed a partnership with Henry Holtz to sell saddles and harnesses. It lasted very briefly. In 1887, J.J. Nolen, constable for precinct 2, resigned. Holtz was appointed to take Nolen’s place. He handily won the election in 1888. Covington returned to farming, in Wilson County which joins the SE side of Bexar County. He died in 1906 and is buried in Martindale.
By 1887, the Covington name had disappeared from the ads. Bob said he’d “sell ‘em low, sell ‘em fast and make up more.” That suggests that his claim on the 1900 census to be a harness manufacturer had some basis in fact. He might, for example, have bought leather straps, bits, and buckles and made up his own bridles for sale.
By 1889, Bob was selling buggies and still running ads, pretty plain ads, in the newspaper. Also in 1889, Charles Hutchins opened a competing buggy business, with much more attractive ads. Bob noticed and his ads improved. And expanded. An 1894 ad mentions saddles, hames, bridles, traces, harnesses, whips, collars, robes, backbands, blankets, carriages, phaetons, jumpseats and buggies.
Keeping up with the market meant attending annual conventions where manufacturers would display new products. Bob regularly attended annual meetings of the Southwestern Retail Saddle and Harness Makers’ convention. At one convention in Fort Worth, Bob led a discussion: “The Drummer and What to Do With Him.” The Drummer was a traveling salesman who moved from town to town taking orders and offering cheaper prices because the local dealer’s overhead and profit was cut out. No doubt that Bob would stress the local dealer’s guarantee and local service. At the convention in Waco in 1904, Bob was elected first VP; he had been president before. And would be elected president again in 1911.
In 1925, Bob sold his two-story brick building on the north side of the square to A.C. Feltner. It was one of the oldest business houses in San Marcos; formerly known as Harper’s Hall; formerly used as an opera house. Bob had owned it for 10 or 12 years and used it for his harness business.
At least one JR Porter saddle survives, right here in Hays County. It was purchased, probably from Bob personally, about 1900. You can see it at https://www.crawfordfamilyhistoricalmuseum. com/ by appointment only.
Just as Cornelius Vanderbilt put the nation on rails, Henry Ford did the same for personal transportation in the early 1900s. In 1909, Bob bought an automobile from the Columbus Buggy Company. Apparently, he was satisfied. In 1914, he began ordering Overland automobiles to sell at his saddle and harness shop. John North Willys bought the struggling Overland company in 1908, reorganizing it as Willys-Overland, and turning it into a major automaker that later produced the iconic Jeep. The Willys-Overland brand eventually became synonymous with the World War II-era military Jeep.
Convinced of the automobile’s utility, Bob was with a group that went to New Braunfels to see their new auto fire truck. New Braunfels bought a Ford Model T touring car conversion as their first motorized fire engine around 1913, a common practice at the time where standard cars were adapted with pumps, making it an early example of a motorized fire truck for the city. Apparently, the inspection was satisfactory. Bob championed a bond issue which was approved by voters in August 1914. That bond issue provided $20,000 to rebuild the city hall - fire station, recently destroyed by fire, and to purchase fire fighting equipment.
San Marcos purchased its first motorized fire truck, nicknamed “Old Faithful,” in 1914, and it went into service in 1915, serving the San Marcos Fire Department (SMFD) for over three decades before being semi-retired and later sold in 1954. In 2023, Old Faithful, an American LaFrance Type 12 pumper truck, was donated back to the SM fire dept. See https://universitystar. com/16451/life-and-arts/firstmotorized- fire-truck-returns-to-smfd/ Bob’s association with the San Marcos fire department was long-standing. Soon after arriving in San Marcos, Bob joined. About 1887, he was elected Chief of the SMFD. In 1890, Chief J.R. Porter attended the State Firemen’s association meeting. In 1896, Bob was elected to the finance committee. In 1900, he was elected second VP, in 1902 first VP, in 1903 president.
On 7 May 1914, the SM Fire Dept. met to present an award to Claude S. Ivey,The SM Fire Dept met to present an award to Claude S. Ivey, former chief and veteran fire fighter. President De Witt Taylor called on W.L. Talbot to make the presentation speech. Talbot said that Judge Gus Cook had begged so hard to make the speech, that Talbot deferred to Cook. Cook said that ex-Mayor Porter had to plead so hard to do it, that Cook deferred to Porter. Porter made one of the best speeches of his long official career. Ivey was so deeply affected by the unexpected tokens of esteem, that his response was barely audible.
After many years of attending State Firemen’s Association meetings in various towns around Texas, Bob invited the association to meet in San Marcos. It accepted and met in May 1923 when Bob was elected to life membership in the San Marcos Volunteer Fire Department.
Bob was heavily involved in local politics. In 1899, a new state law required election of school trustees. W.O. Hutchison was elected president. The other members were Ed J.L. Green, T.C. Johnson, Chas. Hutchings, J.R. Porter, C.D. Lake, and Squire Rucker. These men were all connected. For example, in 1896, Fire Chief Bob had accepted a $25 donation to SMFD for the department’s help in preserving T.C. Johnson’s home and property from fire. Bob served on the school board until 1909 when the Texas attorney general ruled that relatives of school district employees could not serve on the board. Bob’s son Gaston had been hired as a teacher. Bob stayed on the district’s building committee which was evaluating plans for San Marcos’ new central high school.
In 1911, J.R. Porter, A.B. Rogers, C.C. McNeill and Frank Bradley organized the San Marcos Theater Company whose purpose was to build an upto- date Opera House on North Austin Street. In October 1912, the new opera house opened with a performance of “Polly of the Circus.”
In 1914, Bob was elected chairman of a committee to devise ways and means to help farmers hold their cotton by buying bales of cotton and storing them in local warehouses. The problem was the beginning of war in Europe when the European cotton market disappeared and prices collapsed from about 11 cents/pound to about 9 cents/pound with a low of 6.6 cents/pound. To help farmers, politicians and businessmen developed the “buy-a-bale” agreement, where buyers agreed to purchase bales at a flat rate of ten cents per pound and withhold them from the market for at least a year to stabilize prices.
San Marcos had enough warehouses to store the cotton which was weighed and graded and had warehouse receipts issued. The merchants of San Marcos agreed to give one cent a pound above the market price on all cotton paid on account for merchandise as long as the market stays below 10 cents. A committee was appointed: A. Wilson, A.B. Rogers, J.R. Porter. Bob bought a bale, making a total of about 18 such purchases within the past 2 weeks. The article does not specify whether those 18 bales were bought by Bob or by various SM merchants. The Firestone Rubber and Tire company, through its agent J.R. Porter, bought a bale.
Then the U.S. entered the Great War, which resulted in a huge demand for cotton for uniforms, blankets, and other military needs, boosting American textile manufacturing. After initial chaos, cotton prices surged, benefiting farmers in states like Texas, which saw prices jump from around 7 cents to over 29 cents per pound by war’s end. This increased demand and rising prices led to a period of prosperity for cotton farmers and related industries.
The booming economy and war- time opportunities drew rural workers (Black and White) to cities and the North (Great Migration), creating labor shortages for picking cotton. The wartime boom exacerbated the longterm issue of agricultural overproduction, leading to a severe market crash when European production recovered and government orders ceased after the war. In essence, U.S. entry fueled a temporary, significant recovery and boom for cotton, but it also highlighted and worsened structural problems that led to a sharp decline in the 1920s.
Bob was a joiner. If three people formed a club, he would join or, at least, attend the meetings. He was for years on the executive board of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1914, he was on the advisory board for the Good Roads Association of Hays Co. In 1915, Bob was installed as reporter and treasurer for the Knights of Honor which was a secret society that provided sick benefits and death benefits to its members, functioning as an early form of life insurance. It ceased to exist about 1916 because of an unsustainable assessment model. Bob was also a local agent for the Great Southern Life Insurance company. In 1915, the home industry club was formed with Bob as VP. Its goal was to patronize Texas industries, trade at home and eliminate the mail order house or induce it to come to Texas.
In 1916, Bob attended the retail merchants state convention at San Antonio. He was grand marshal of the Loyalty Day parade. Bob’s efforts didn’t always turn out well. In 1920, Bob introduced Judge Greenwood as main speaker at a meeting to promote Joseph Weldon Bailey who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1890, and to the Senate in 1901. A corrupt politician, he resigned from the Senate in 1911 and never held public office again. In 1920, he ran for governor of TX and was defeated. More seemly was Bob’s election as permanent secretary of the Pioneers of Hays County. Bob was on the committee that invited the third district of the Bankers’ Association to meet in San Marcos; it did. A good speaker, Bob was invited to speak many times. He spoke at an American Legion entertainment to promote the new hospital and at the Normal to celebrate enrollment reaching the 1,000 mark. He spoke at the PTA and at the annual firemen’s convention.
In 1887, Hammett Hardy won the office of Mayor of San Marcos and served three two- year terms until 1893 when the fire department urged Bob to run for mayor. Bob won and served one
term 1893-1895. Then Hardy re-entered the race for mayor and won. Hardy then served three more terms until 1901 when Bob re-entered the fray and won, this time serving six more terms in spite of having said in 1905 that he positively declines to be a candidate for mayor; unlike Sherman, he accepted the nomination, was elected without opposition, and served.
The next step up, politically, must have been County Judge with a jurisdiction that covered the entire county. In 1900, Hardy opposed Ed R. Kone for County Judge of Hays County. Kone stayed in office. In 1922 Bob announced his candidacy for county judge of Hays county. In the November election, Bob won and assumed office on 1 January. He ran for re-election in 1924, won, and died in office on 27 August 1925.
Bob lent his expertise to many town issues. Public schools; convincing voters to approve a school tax. A cotton factory. Mayors’ conferences to attend. The Sorosis club organized a village improvement society; Bob was chairman. Promote and facilitate the construction of an electric train line from Seguin to San Marcos. And another electric train from Austin to San Marcos. San Marcos residents were expected to buy $6,000 of the train company stock; start-up money, I suppose. Appoint I.S. James as night watchman. There was a Progressive League that wanted to “bring the city out of the old time ruts that it has been in for the last ten years.” Urge town folks to take as roomers the extra load posed by the 300 students that were expected at SWTN. A railroad crewman had smallpox; Bob had to put the crew under guard awaiting their removal from town. Bob waged war on the Sunday law violators who, under the guise of a restaurant, sold ordinary things on Sunday. The Commercial Club appointed Bob as a delegate to the Intercoastal Canal Convention at Victoria. A new central fire station. Bob called a town meeting to raise relief funds for the San Francisco earthquake and fire. Bob delivered a welcome to a conference of the A.M.E. church, an historically Black, independent denomination. San Marcos finally got a sewage plant; Bob toured and smelled nothing offensive. The Commercial Club wanted the city to build a cotton compress which would require selling $30,000 of stock; Bob chaired the committee.
Post Office receipts would soon reach $10,000 which would entitle San Marcos to free delivery within the corporate limit; Rural Free Delivery RFD had become permanent in 1902, but villagers had to schlep to the Post Office and fetch their own mail. Many wanted to continue that practice because there were government demands: good sidewalks so carriers didn’t have to slog through the mud, mail boxes, house numbers, better lighting. San Marcos dilly-dallied; three years later, Congressman Albert Sydney Burleson warned Bob that if San Marcos didn’t take advantage of the opportunity, it might be lost. Burleson’s voice was authoritative; in 1913 he would become President Woodrow Wilson’s Postmaster General.
Bob tried to convince the Woodmen of the World to build their next orphanage in San Marcos; he failed. The courthouse burned so Bob offered City Hall space to county offices.
In the destruction of the courthouse, Kyle saw an opportunity. Kyle citizens proposed that the county seat be removed to Kyle and the new courthouse constructed there without the issuance of bonds to pay for it. In the bond vote, Kyle opposed it. In San Marcos, not a single vote was cast against it. In the county as a whole, 2/3 of the voters approved. Removal of the county seat would require a 2/3 vote the other way. Thus, reasonable people thought that pursuing the issue was both foolish and wasteful.
An ordinance prohibited keeping more than 10 gallons of gasoline within the city fire limits unless kept in a fire proof vault. The city’s insurance company threatened higher insurance rates unless the ordinance was enforced. Bob instructed the city marshal to file complaints against all violators. The school grounds needed work: sidewalks, walls, leveling, new roof. Bob was chair of another committee to solicit stock subscriptions to build a mill to manufacture corn goods.
The firemen wanted the railroads to offer free or nominal transportation to state firemen’s conventions; which would require a change in state law; Bob went to Austin to urge the governor to sign the bill. The water, light, and sewer system were in receivership and not taking new customers. After much delay, the San Marcos Utilities Company got a franchise from the city. The company resumed providing new buildings with electricity; they’d been going without. Meters were installed.
In recognition of his good work, in 1911 Bob’s salary was increased from $300/year to $40/month.
Finally, in 1913, Bob gave up the mayor’s office and in 1922 moved to the county judge’s office. Different office; similar workload.
In all of that, Bob was still attending the Harness and Saddlery meetings, Retail Merchants Association meetings and speaking to any organization that would have him. He worked himself to death; he died in his second term as County Judge. See findagrave # 82953592.
