6.

William Calvin Porter

1855–1939

BIRTH 6 JUN 1855 • Tuskegee, Macon, Alabama, USA

DEATH 31 JAN 1939 • Brazil

Married:  18 Aug 1891 • Amherst, Massachusetts

Katherine Ives Hall

1862–1941

BIRTH 1862 • Columbus, Muscogee, Georgia, USA

DEATH 10 JULY 1941 • Paraíba, Pernambuco, Brazil

Daughter of George Ives Hall and Mary Eugenia Montague

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in 1884, William Porter went to Brazil's Northeast, where he became one of the Presbyterian church's most successful lay evangelists.  Around 1890, we find William Porter in Santos, the manager of the coffee house of Hard, Rand & co., and still "a blessing to the missionaries and their work."  The Methodist Hugh Tucker sold bibles in the city and preached in the Porter's house "in Portuguese to a goodly number of Brazilians.  He married Katherine Ivey Hall, the daughter of George Ivey Hall.

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(Loosely translated from Portuguese)

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Rev. William Calvin Porter

Dedicated pastor in several Northeastern states William C. Porter was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on June 6, 1855, in the midst of a family that came to experience the harrowing days of the Civil War (1861-1865). James Porter, his father, visited Brazil and decided to bring the family here, once the war. They were not part of any of the immigrant caravans of the day. James had resources, but died of yellow fever as soon as he arrived in Rio de January. A patrician "looked after" his business and left the widow helpless. Advice of compatriots, D. Susan Meggs Porter (1825-1890) went with her children to Campinas,

where he opened a pension for Americans and Englishmen. Contact with the missionaries of the College

International did well to the family. Daughter Susan Carolina studied there and married the Rev. John Rockwell Smith, the Northeastern Presbyterian pioneer. In 1872, his son William ("Willy") professed the faith with Rev. George N. Morton. Studied with the Revs. Morton and Edward Lane at the International College and also lectured at this institution, along with sisters Susan Carolina and Ella Virginia, who were "attached teachers" of the school to girls (Catalog of the Institute of Campinas, 1877). William assisted Rev. Morton in his college in São Paulo, and also provided Portuguese and English exams in the attached course of the Faculty of Law of Largo de São Francisco.

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In 1884, he went to Recife to help his brother-in-law, John R. Smith, in evangelization. He preached as a missionary helper at all points of penetration of the Northeast. Visited Goiana, Paraíba (João Pessoa), São Lourenço da Mata, and other places, experiencing persecution. A young man still haired, he became known as "the missionary of white hairs ". Having arrived in Brazil as a child, he spoke Portuguese

without an accent. He studied for ministry with Rev. Smith. On 20 May 1887, was ordained priest of the Church of Recife. In this condition, he was one of the founders of the Presbytery of Pernambuco, on August 17, 1888, being elected temporary secretary.

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The following month he took part in the organization meeting of the Presbyterian Synod. In this was already a candidate for the ministry. William Porter was ordained to the ministry on the 26th of September 1889, in Paraíba, with his colleague Juventino Marinho da Silva. After ordination, took over the Church of Recife in the absence of Smith, and continued to visit many points inland.

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In 1890, he went to the United States (arrived on October 28), coming to marry Katherine Ives Hall, a native of Georgia, whom he had met as a Campinas, and then returned to his country to study music and religious education. She also belonged to an American family who had emigrated to Brazil and establish themselves in Santa Bárbara. The marriage took place on August 18, 1891, in Amherst, Massachusetts. During his stay in the United States, William wrote articles for the Brazilian Missions. Back in Brazil, the couple worked initially in Recife, whose church was pastored by Rev. Porter until January 1893. Kate

contracted impaludismo and had to go to the United States, where her husband went to look for it after it has been restored. Upon returning, he found the situation changed: he should go to the Ceará and the Rev. George Butler had been removed from Maranhão to Recife. On October 15 of 1893, Porter and Juventino Marinho organized the Presbyterian Church of Areias in Recife. In the same year,  accom-panied by his colleague Juventino, Porter was in Natal for the first time. For eight days, they held services with the help of two local believers, not experiencing any opposition.

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On November 18, 1893, the Porter couple landed in Fortaleza, by Rev. DeLacey Wardlaw. The two missionaries visited the towns of Baturité, Uruburetama, and Quixadá, facing a great flood in the Curu River and some persecution. Wardlaw had been dismissed as a missionary for a breakup with Dr. Matthew Hale Houston, secretary of the Southern Church Missions Committee. During a visit from Houston to Fortaleza, Porter was instrumental in reconciling two workers. Porter's situation improved when Houston was replaced at the secretary's office. the executive committee of the Nashville Committee by Dr. SH Chester. This enabled the missionary to be transferred from Fortaleza to Natal.

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In January 1895 the couple accepted an invitation to visit Natal, where Porter had been for the first time in 1893. Due to the interest shown by the people, the visit ended extending for four months. Despite an epidemic of smallpox in which they died daily from ten to fifteen people, the sermons were very busy, with auditoriums of up to 400 people, and several prominent elements, such as a lawyer, a colonel, and a major. On April 8th there were the first receptions of the church: 33 adults and 18 children. The following month (11-05-1895), Mr. Alexandre James O'Grady donated a plot of land to the temple and the first issue of the Presbyterian newspaper The Century came to light. Rev. Porter was his editor for many years, signing an editorial column titled "Reflections" under the pseudonym "Senex". Later, the newspaper became the organ of the Presbytery of Pernambuco, serving as editor of Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros. On the 1st of February 1909 was published in Garanhuns, and the name changed to North Evangelical . The Porters would end up staying nineteen years in Natal, except for two periods United States (1902-1903, 1909-1910) and a one-year stay in Campinas (1907-1908).

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The official organization of the Church of Natal, with the presence of Rev. George E. Henderlite and

Minervino Lins, from Paraíba, occurred on February 3, with 153 members. Unfortunately, Professor Joaquim Lourival Soares da Câmara, one of the founders of the church, separated with nine members. He accused the Rev. Porter of idolatry because he had seen in his house pictures that seemed to him like saints. In fact, however, of studies by Katherine, who was a painter. The temple was inaugurated in 1898.

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In the same year, João Fernandes Café and his wife Florência Amélia became the future federal deputy and president of the republic João Café Filho. Over the years, Porter also developed intense activity within the state, initiating congregations in Angicos, Arês, Assu, Baixio, Brejinho do Soter, Caiada, Caicó, Canguaretama, Ceará-Mirim, Currais Novos, Curumatau, Flores, Goianinha, Macaíba, Mossoró, New Cross, Penhas and São Miguel. In several of these places, there was intense opposition to work 

evangelical. On January 22, 1900, Porter accompanied the Rev. Juventino Marinho in the act of organization of the Presbyterian Church of Garanhuns.

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In the year that the couple Porter moved to Rio Grande do Norte, Katherine founded, request of believing parents, the American College of Christmas, one of the first schools evangelicals in the north of Brazil. Rev. Porter himself made the kindergarten tables, banks, and blackboards, providing the school with the necessary supplies. The official foundation occurred on January 11, 1897. The first two directors were the missionaries Rebecca Morrisette, who came to marry an elder of the Church of Natal and had to leave school, and Eliza Moore Reed, later founder of the Evangelical School of Recife. Kate Eugenia Hall, Katherine's cousin and future wife of Rev. Alva Hardie. The school became famous for the excellence of its teaching and came to have seventy students, among them the boy João Café Filho. His soul was the

tireless Katherine, who, nevertheless, faced a growing series of difficulties: clerical opposition, lack of resources, and health problems. Without the support of the mission, the school closed its activities in 1907.

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After the brief pastorate of the Rev. João Francisco da Cruz (1901-1902), he assumed the Church of Christmas, on January 30, 1903, the Rev. Jerônimo Gueiros, was recently ordained. The following year he created the Externato Natalense, designed to welcome students who completed their primary studies at the American College. In the first half of 1903, returning from his vacation at home, the Porter couple were welcomed into the port by a large group of believers and friends, followed by a splendid banquet described in detail in the pages of The Missionary. Rev. Porter was still in full swing, helping the church in the capital, publishing The Century, and evangelizing the interior widely. 

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In 1907, for reasons of health, the couple moved to the south of Brazil, leaving Christmas under the care of Jerônimo Gueiros. In the south, Rev. Porter was a member of the West Mission for a year, until his return to Natal in 1908. Later he worked in Pernambuco, in the capital, and in the interior. In Recife,

cooperated in the church and at the Evangelical College. In 1917, the couple went to Paraíba, which is located in João Pessoa. Katherine, very sick with arteriosclerosis, could almost do nothing. Porter surrendered himself to the evangelization of the interior, repeating what he had done in Rio Grande do Sul.

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North. Only in April 1917 did he preach fifty times (his sermons were profuse illustrations). Visited Cabedelo, Junco, Barra de Santa Rosa, Sape, Mumbuca, and other places.  The couple had an adopted daughter, Lila, who was educated in Brazil and the United he always knew how to honor his parents by watching them in sickness. They retired in 1929.  Rev. Porter spent the last years of his life in the capital of Paraíba. He was sad to see that the Mission and the Presbytery were not paying any attention to the work that had begun. The vicar of Caicó, who had fought against him, became his friend and visited him in the last days. In 1938, for the occasion of the Jubilee of the Pernambuco Presbytery, the old missionary read a review historical movement. Deaf and sick, over eighty, said he could still pray by the evangelical people of Brazil. He died on 31 January 1939 and his wife on 21 July 1941. Over the years, they gathered historical documents on missionary work in Brazil, the valuable "Calvin Porter Collection", kept in the Presbyterian Archive, in São Paulo. Ms. Aglaia de Amorim Garcia Ximenes wrote a rich history of this,

a valiant missionary, entitled "WC Porter: The White-haired Missionary."

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Bibliography:

• Lessa, Annaes , 314, 316, 321, 335, 356, 474.

• Ferreira, History of IPB , I: 285, 296-98, 301, 421, 449-52, 548-54, 555-57; II: 42, 100-

103, 210, 329, 360s.

• "A Brazilian Dinner", The Missionary (June 1903), 264s.

• "Rev. William Carver [sic] Porter, " The Puritan (25-02-1939), 2.

• Jones, Soldier Rest , 217s.

• Bear, Mission to Brazil , 41-55.

• Ximenes, "The White-haired Missionary."

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Katherine Ives Hall

Find A Grave

A US citizen, Katherine Ives Hall Porter died aged 79 years. She was the daughter of George Ives Hall and Mary Eugenia Montague (m 1860). She was the granddaughter of George Montague, a retired merchant, and Sarah M. Montague, of Amherst, MA, with whom she was living in 1880. She and her younger sister, Eugenia Montague Hall, were both at their grandparents' home while attending school, their mother having died in 1864. Her father married for the second time in 1874.

Katherine married William Porter in Amherst in 1891. Eugenie married Franklin Lambert Hunt in 1885, also in Amherst.

The widow of William Calvin Porter, a Presbyterian missionary, Katherine was survived by her adopted daughter, Lila B. Porter, of Joao Passoa, Paraiba, Brazil, and by her sister, Mrs. Franklin Lambert (Eugenia Montague Hall) Hunt, of Winchester, Massachusetts, USA.

She was engaged in missionary work while living in Brazil and registered with the US consulate in Natal, Rio Grando do Norte, along with her husband, the Reverend William Calvin Porter, in January 1913.

Information from US Consulate Registration Certificate, Natal, Brazil, 1913; Report of the Death of an American Citizen, American Foreign Service, Pernambuco, Brazil, 18 December 1941.

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