WILLIAM E. PORTER, who in the control of real estate operations has substantial measure to El Paso’s growth and development, has also been the owner of ranches and cattle and is thus connected with the important business enterprise of the state. He was born in Caldwell county, Texas, August 9, 1855, and is a son of Asbury Duvall and Catharine (Skaggs) Porter. His parents removed from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to Texas and both died in this state. The father arrived in 1852, settling first in Caldwell county, whence he removed to Hays county in 1857. He was a rancher and cattleman and served in the militia department of the Confederate army during the Civil war.
In his early youth William E. Porter, having been reared in the cattle business, went farther west, working in Coleman county as a cowboy until 1879. In 1881 he made his way to the Rio Grande country, having his headquarters at Del Rio, and the Rio Grande valley remained his stamping ground in the cattle business for many years. He continued at Del Rio until 1885, when he brought his cattle still farther west to Presidio county, where he made his headquarters until 1900. About that time he sold his cattle interests, and in 1902 he opened a real estate office in El Paso, where he has since conducted business. Besides doing a commission brokerage business in real estate, cattle and ranches in the United State and Mexico, he has built and is the owner of several nice residence properties in El Paso, belong one of those who in the past four years have largely pushed forward the wheels of progress and the increased property values.
Mr. Porter was married in Ysleta, El Paso county, to Miss Adella McGinnis, a daughter of Colonel C. C. McGinnis, a well known Texas pioneer, frontiersman and soldier, who served in the Mexican war and was also a member of the Confederate army in the war between the states. Mr. and Mrs. Porter now have one son, William E., Jr.
With all the experiences of cattle raising on a western frontier Mr. Porter is familiar, and his life history if given in detail would present an accurate picture of the conditions which existed in Western Texas when as a cowboy he rode the trail and assisted in the round-up. As the years have gone by great changes have been wrought in the appearance of the county, in business conditions and in the production of improvements, which have made Texas the equal in its advantages of the older and more thickly settled states. In El Paso he has contributed to the material improvements of the city and at the same time his business interests have brought him a gratifying competence.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 360.