Solomon Porter

Solomon Porter was born in East Windsor, Connecticut, in 1758. He was the son of Eleanor Dodd Porter and Nathaniel Porter. He graduated from Yale College in 1775. In the summer of 1776, Porter was a tutor in Danbury, Connecticut, serving in the absence of Reverend Ebenezer Baldwin, who was the Chaplain of the Revolutionary Army. Porter served as Private Secretary to General Lafayette during his stay at the house of Nathaniel Porter in East Windsor in 1778, and he was the bearer of dispatches for General Washington at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Solomon Porter married Rebecca Dodd in 1782, and they relocated to Hartford, Connecticut. Their oldest child died at age two in 1785, and their second also died at age two, in 1788. Their two remaining children survived: Colonel Solomon Porter (1789-1863) and Rebecca Porter (Mrs. William Connor) (1791-1872), both of whom lived in Hartford. Solomon Porter was a merchant on State Street in Hartford for many years. He was the master of the Hartford Grammar School from 1791-1792. He held the office of City Clerk from 1796-1804, and he was the Inspector of Revenues & Surveyor of the Post at the time of his death in 1821.