Detroit Public Library

PORTER, Augustus Seymour, (nephew of Peter Buell Porter), a Senator from Michigan; born in Canandaigua, N.Y., January 18, 1798; attended Canandaigua Academy, Canandaigua, N.Y.; graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1818; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Detroit, Mich.; recorder of Detroit 1830; mayor of Detroit 1838; elected as a Whig to the United States Senate on January 20, 1840, for the term beginning March 4, 1839, and served until March 3, 1845; was not a candidate for renomination; chairman, Committee on Roads and Canals (Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eighth Congresses), Committee on Enrolled Bills (Twenty-seventh Congress); moved to his father’s residence in Niagara Falls, N.Y., in 1848; died at Niagara Falls, N.Y., September 18, 1872; interment in Oakwood Cemetery.