William Trotter Porter (24 December 1809-19 July 1858), editor and journalist, was born in Newbury, Vermont, and died in New York City. One of five brothers, he was the son of Benjamin and Martha (Olcott) Porter and was descended from the Samuel Porter who arrived in Plymouth in 1622. His father, a close friend of Daniel Webster, who often visited in the Porter home, died when William was nine years old, and the family moved to Hanover, New Hampshire. Unhappy in school, he was apprenticed to a printing firm in Andover, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, his oldest brother, Dr. Thomas O. Porter, traveled and taught in the South, where he became friends with Mirabeau B. Lamar, later president of the Republic of Texas. Thus at an early age, Porter heard much of the South and of the world of sporting and horses; in addition, he deliberately chose the practical education of printing.

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