California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
WILLIAM STRATTON PORTER (JR.) There is hardly any position in the business world today to 
which youth and energy, coupled with sound ability and integrity of character may not aspire. 
Possessing these fundamentals, William Stratton Porter, Jr., not yet thirty years of age, has a 
position in the business affairs of Santa Barbara which many older men might well envy.
 
In 1910, soon after completing his university career, he became a clerk in the Santa Barbara 
Abstract & Guaranty Company. This is a business made up of infinite detail. Mr. Porter had the 
systematic mind which enabled him to comprehend readily and adjust himself quickly to every 
problem as it arose, and it was soon recognized that he was turning out his work with a 
finished precision difficult to match. From a clerkship he reached the larger responsibilities of 
the business, and in 1913 was elected secretary and manager of the company, and is now 
entrusted with the direction of this large and complicated business.
 
Mr. Porter was born at Santos in Brazil, South America, October 24, 1887, a son of William S. 
and Martha (Newman) Porter. His father for many years has been in the business of coffee 
buyer and it was that business which called him to reside in Brazil.
William S. Porter, Jr., has spent most of his life in California, attended the public schools at 
Hanford and the high school at Santa Barbara, where he was graduated in 1907. He then 
entered Leland Stanford University, where he was graduated in 1910.
 
Mr. Porter is a director in the Santa Barbara Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the 
Presbyterian Church.  July 24, 1913 he married Ellen Bird.