Troy Porter, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetTroy Porter
Date of Birth: 15-Apr-1855
Place of Birth: Fayette County, Kentucky, United States
Date of Death: 25-Sep-1929
Zodiac Sign: Aries 
About Troy Porter
- Troy Porter was a plumber, politician, and civil rights leader in Paris, Illinois. Troy Porter was born in Fayette County, Kentucky April 15, 1855.
- His parents were Winnie Porter, who had been born a slave, and a man whose name may have been Troy or John Porter.
- The elder Porter enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and died at the Battle of Perryville.
- Winnie escaped to Camp Nelson in Kentucky, and then to Ripley, Ohio.
- In 1865, through the influence of Rev.
- Granville Moody (a Union Army officer), they moved to Paris, Illinois.
- At the age of eleven he began to learn the trade of plumbing, gas and steam fitting.
- On November 21, 1876, he began to work for himself.
- He became an important member of the local Republican Party and in 1882 he was appointed superintendent of the Paris Water Works.
- In 1885 he was elected town clerk of the township and was reelected to the position in 1887.He was a prominent member of a number of social societies.
- He joined the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in 1877 and was district secretary from 1881 until August 1886.
- In 1895, Porter was a leader in an Illinois branch of the National Afro-American League which organized to improve the condition and support the civil rights of blacks.
- It was particularly concerned with black miners who were victims of the 1895 Spring Valley, Illinois race riots.
- Porter was a member of the executive committee.
- Porter remained involved with civil rights and was a member of the Afro-American State Protective League of Illinois and was a delegate to the 1898 convention of African Americans coincident with the 1898 World's Fair in Omaha, Nebraska.
- In July 1914, Porter was a delegate to the Negro National Education congress in Oklahoma City.Winnie Porter, Troy's mother, died at a reported age of 101 in 1909.
- Porter married a woman named Cora and died August 25, 1929 in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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