Mr. Commodore Porter of Plainfield, Auctioneer

In the spring of 1900, Commodore Porter of Plainfield, had recently finished his twentieth sale of the season. A Chambersburg newspaper reported that he was “in his sixty-fourth year and is still hale and hearty and hopes to call many more sales.”¹ It was not to be.

Commodore Porter, born in 1836, grew up in Culbertson’s Row, Franklin County, and as a boy worked in his father’s brickyard in Orrstown.² In the 1860s, Porter and his family moved to Plainfield, a thriving village located five miles west of Carlisle and six miles east of Newville.

For the next forty years Porter called hundreds of sales in the area. In 1885, when he wrote to the editor of the Carlisle Weekly Herald asking him to change the address on his newspaper subscription, he said he was thinking of getting a bicycle to get around on, and the editor of the newspaper offered to lend him his bicycle so he could practice.³

Auctioneers promoted their sales in newspapers with lists and ads giving the date, time and location of each sale as well as some of the items to be sold. Carlisle Weekly Herald, February 26, 1874.

In November 1901, Porter suffered his first stroke while husking corn in James Young’s field near Elliott’s Station. Dr. J. E. Van Camp was called to attend him. Porter regained consciousness briefly but relapsed. By the next morning he was well enough to go home.⁴ Four months later, while auctioneering at William Line’s sale, Porter was stricken again with paralysis. He was taken to Line’s home where he spent the night, and again he was well enough to return home the next day.⁵

Porter rallied, and in June 1902 he was on the school grounds celebrating Decoration Day. “Not feeling well, he started for home but fell on the way and was carried into a neighbor’s home.”⁶

From 1903 on, items appeared in local newspapers indicating that Porter was unwell, and several times during the next few years reported that his children were called to his bedside in expectation of his death. Bedridden for several years, Porter died in the early hours of Monday, November 4, 1907. He was buried in the Bethel Church Cemetery in Plainfield,⁷ and on November 30, Porter’s goods were auctioned off.⁸

More than forty years after Porter’s death, an incident in his life was recalled in Newville’s Valley Times Star issue of May 2, 1951 under a column titled “In Old Newville 64 Years Ago.”

“As Commodore Porter was fixing a fence on his lot in Plainfield he discovered a package done up in neat style, secreted under a rail, and covered with leaves and earth. Removing the package and examining its contents, he discovered a quart bottle filled with whiskey. The history connected with it, might, if made known, create a lively breeze. Around the cork and the neck of the bottle, were three slips of paper which gives away the scheme. During the canvas for a county office it was found necessary to supply those who electioneered with whiskey, and these slips contained orders on a Carlisle party for whiskey and ginger brandy to be paid for by the candidates. The names of prominent business men from Carlisle appeared on the sheet.”⁹