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Porter O. Lamphier City of Troy |
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Porter O. Lamphier City of Troy |
Porter O. Lamphier was born at Berlin, February 26, 1866, son of Hiram P. and Sarah (Peckham) Lamphier. His grandfather was Clark B. Lamphier, who was born at Hoppington, Rhode Island, in the year 1793, and came to Berlin with his family in 1796, at the age of three years. He devoted himself to agriculture when he grew up, and spent his entire life at Berlin as a farmer. He married Lois Potter, who was a native of Brookfield, New York, and had three children: Caroline, who married William P. Green; May, who married Ed Shumway; and Hiram P. Mr. Lamphier's father, married (first) Marion Bates, and (second) Sarah Peckham. His first wife died leaving three children, and his second wife was the mother of five children: Porter O., of this review; Nettie E.; Edwin H.; Maude G.; and Mamie C, who died at the age of eighteen.
Mr. Lamphier received his education in the public schools of Berlin. When his studies were completed, he associated himself with his father in the work of cultivating the home farm. He was accustomed to the sights and sounds of farm life, having been brought up on his father's farm, and found agriculture interesting and agreeable. He remained at home engaged in farm work until 1889, when he decided that it would be advantageous to him to learn a trade and engage in business. Leaving home, he formed a connection with a carpenter and contractor and set himself to learn the builder's trade. He continued at this work until 1905, meeting with great success therein and becoming the owner of an independent business. In 1905 he saw an opportunity to dispose of his contracting business to good advantage and to enter the mercantile business. He decided after careful consideration to do this, and accordingly sold his contracting business and bought his present store from H. F. Brown, in the town of Berlin, opening his shop on October i, 1905. This venture prospered, and before long he added to it by opening departments devoted to the sale of hardware and furniture. Undertaking was one of the original departments of business, and his funeral parlors are among the finest in the town. He still directs the affairs of the store and has won for himself a secure place in the business world of Berlin, where his efforts to maintain the highest standards of trade and business are fully appreciated.
An energetic and far-sighted citizen, Mr. Lamphier has always been tireless in his support of any movement designed to improve living conditions, to increase business prosperity, and to promote public welfare. In 1916 he was elected justice of the peace and this office he still holds. In politics he is a Republican, and is a firm supporter of constructive legislative policies. He takes an especial interest in the movement for better roads, the extension and improvement of transportation systems, and an adequate protective tariff on all imported goods, and especially upon good that may be classed as luxuries. In religious faith he is a member of the Seventh Day Baptist church, to which he has belonged for the past thirty years. He is a member of Berlin Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he has been a member for the past nineteen years, and is a past grand master of that order. He is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, and has been a commander of that organization since 1905, taking the greatest interest in all its activities.
Mr. Lamphier married, at Berlin, on May 6, 1886, Mary Milliard, daughter of Elbertus and Rosilla (Kenyon) Milliard. Mr. and Mrs. Lamphier have six children: Grace; Sarah, who is named for Mr. Lamphier's mother; Mamie, who is named for Mr. Lamphier's sister, Mamie; Ronald; Porter, who is named for Mr. Lamphier; and Iva. All of his children were born at Berlin.
PORTER O. LAMPHIER, justice of the peace at Berlin, and the proprietor of a general store, is descended from the Lamphier family which settled in Rhode Island in the seventeenth century. The family is of French Huguenot descent, Mr. Lamphier's paternal great-grandfather was Rowland Lamfray, that being the original spelling of the name.
