Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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HON. GEORGE K. PORTER 
 
is a pioneer in the full acceptance and California meaning of the word. He came 
here in the year of the Argonauts, and since that time he has in fact been 
persistent in industry. As success came to him with passing years it brought out 
all the best qualities of the man.  Generous, candid in speech and action had he 
been before, but with greater scope and wider knowledge of men, these qualities 
came more into play. He is thus the reverse of not a few, and success had a 
different effect on him from its effect on many who, the more they succeed, the 
more does self become prominent. In 1849 the subject of this sketch left his 
home in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, to seek a fortune in the far West. He 
was then a youth of sixteen, and a son of Dr. John Porter. As far back as 1864 
Mr. Porter went into the
tanning business in Santa Cruz County. He also engaged in the manufacture of 
boots and shoes, which he carried on in connection with the tannery for a period 
of twenty-five years. Not only was he successful in business here, but he was 
honored by the people in being chosen on the Republican ticket as Senator from 
Santa Cruz County, and in this capacity he served during 1861�'62 and 1862�'63. 
In 1876 George K. and B. F. Porter and Charles Maclay bought 56,000 acres of 
land, embracing the old Spanish Mission in the beautiful and fertile San 
Fernando Valley. On this vast ranch they have raised wheat, barley, horses, 
cattle and hogs. The ranch was subsequently divided, and our subject took the 
central part. Reserving 2,000 acres for himself, he has since sold his interest 
to the Porter Land and Water Company. On this ranch, one mile west of San 
Fernando, they have erected a fine hotel, at a cost of $40,000. The structure is 
three stories high, and is known as the Mission Hotel. It has about sixty rooms, 
with all modern improvements, and it would be a credit to any city. Mr. Porter 
is the local manager of the Mission Ranch, having entire charge of the vast 
interests connected with it, and in which he is the principal stockholder. He 
also has other and important interests in other parts of the State, and in San 
Francisco, where he is a member of the firm of Porter & Sessinger, manufacturers 
and wholesale dealers and importers of boots and shoes. Mr. Porter's record as 
the leading business man in the northern part of Los Angeles County is well 
known to all business men through this and other counties of the State. He 
married Miss Kate A. Caystile, in Los Angeles, and has two children: George K. 
Porter, Jr., and Estelle C. Porter.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 600
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler