Politics / Law
Augustus Seymour Porter
1798–1872 · lawyer, mayor of Detroit, U.S. senator
Detroit lawyer and city recorder who was elected mayor in 1838 and resigned the next year to go to the U.S. Senate as a Whig.
- Born
Canandaigua, New York- Died
Niagara Falls, New York
aged 74- Also known as
- Augustus S. Porter
- Detroit years
- 1820s–1848
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Augustus Seymour Porter came from a well-connected family of western New York: his uncle Peter Buell Porter was secretary of war under John Quincy Adams. After graduating from Union College in 1818 and studying law, he settled in Detroit and opened a law practice. In 1830 he became the city's recorder, a judicial office, and in 1837 treasurer of the Michigan Pioneer Society. Detroiters elected him mayor in 1838, the year after statehood, but in March 1839 he resigned so he could seek a U.S. Senate seat; Asher B. Bates finished his term. The Legislature sent him to Washington as a Whig, and he served from 1840 to 1845, chairing the Committee on Roads and Canals at a time when internal improvements were central to Michigan's growth. He did not seek re-election, and in 1848 moved to his father's home in Niagara Falls, where he died in 1872.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1838–1839
- Recorder of Detroit from 1830
- U.S. senator from Michigan, 1840–1845
- Chair of the Senate Committee on Roads and Canals