Recalling the infamous Ira W. Porter

Notorious Randolph County resident Ira W. Porter was born in 1844, the son of James and Hannah Porter.

Ira served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Around 1870, he married Mary A. Porter, and by 1880, he had fathered Nancy (called Nannie), 4, and Rudolph, 1. 

Mary and Ira W. endured fierce spats over his philandering with female hired help. A Richmond newspaper labeled him “a degenerate.” 

A one-time Salvation Army minister in New Lisbon, Porter was fined $500 and served six months in jail in 1889 for assault, betrayal and seduction. He later preached in Randolph and Jay counties on the evils of tobacco use.

The U.S. Census of 1900 listed Ira and Mary living on a Salamonia farm with son Cephas (born 1888), daughter Elsie (born 1886) and Rudolph and daughter-in-law May Porter. 

In 1904, Elsie and Nannie moved to St. Louis, Missouri. Elsie worked as a musician at the St. Louis World’s Fair. According to a Star Press (Muncie) account, Ira was supposed to meet the daughters in November for the fair’s final three days. Supposedly, they were to accompany him from Missouri to Randolph County for a visit.

Ira told the Star Press he never met them. Instead, he claimed to be  attending a neighbor’s funeral. 

Ira claimed he last heard from Elsie and Nannie by mail around Dec. 2, 1904. That communication included a photo of the daughters. A note said: “Papa, we will be there (Randolph County) just as soon as we can get there. It was quite a compliment the way you met us.”

The Muncie paper’s reporter failed to explain why the postcard said Ira “met” them, while he claimed not to have gone to St. Louis.

Mary A. Porter survived a terrible accident in 1905. After an automobile spooked her horse, the animal dragged her. She was hospitalized with cuts and bruises to her head and torso. 

On Jan. 16, 1908, Porter hovered over the bloody corpse of wife Mary Porter in their New Pittsburg farmhouse kitchen. 

His alibi was that his wife accidentally shot herself in the head while bringing him a shotgun to kill a chicken hawk. He claimed to be out in his yard at the fatal moment.

Coroner J. J. Evans did not believe Ira’s explanation. He also observed broken bits of dishes in the kitchen. 

Randolph County prosecutor Fred S. Caldwell filed murder charges. Porter was arrested at his wife’s grave in a New Lisbon cemetery. 

Son Rudolph, living in Ohio, stood staunchly in Ira’s corner during a sensational trial held in Jay County.

Mary’s younger son Cephas testified that his mother planned to leave Ira and move to his farm in Union City, Ohio. He testified that Ira boasted of romantic trysts with hired females. A friend of Mary Porter testified Ira said he’d kill Mary if she left him.

In June of 1908, a jury found Porter guilty of second-degree murder based on circumstantial evidence. Judge John F. LaFollette imposed a life sentence.

Ira served two years in the Michigan City prison and amused himself writing songs.

Upon appeal, the Indiana Supreme Court opined that LaFollette had made errors allowing certain evidence. A 1910 retrial resulted in Porter’s acquittal. 

A free man but dead broke with his farm sold for legal fees, Porter took out a Salvation Army War Cry ad in 1910 stating that he was searching for missing Elsie and Nannie. Porter told a Muncie reporter he believed his daughters had been kidnapped. (This writer found nothing to confirm or deny a kidnapping).

Cephas Porter died Feb. 3, 1971, in a Winchester nursing home at 81. The retired farmer was survived by wife Maude, son Stanley Porter and son-in-law Dr. Jefferson Klepfer of Lynn, a distinguished Richmond State Hospital medical superintendent. Pauline Porter Klepfer died in 1961.

Convinced his father murdered his beloved mother, Cephas never publicly forgave Ira.

The last newspaper clips on Ira in 1910 and ’11 said he pondered living with relatives in Illinois or a friend in Oklahoma. An anonymous letter writer from Ridgeville warned Ira he’d be a dead man if he remained in Randolph County.