Bishop Garvin Porter, Sr.
United States Army, World War I
Artillery Park – V Corps
July 1, 2024 - Bishop Garvin was born on Saturday, August 25, 1894 in the far east Texas town of Center that serves as the country seat of Shelby. He was the third child of six born to John Amos and Emma Bishop Porter. His parents had been married in Shelby County on October 30, 1890 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. G. N. Burroughs and the family then lived on a farm that their father worked, and their mother taught school for 43 years. His siblings were Jewell (1866), Marie (1891), Perry (1897), Mable (1905) and Ula (1907).
The United States entered the World War on April 6, 1917 and the first military draft registration was held two months later on June 5. Bishop now age 22 completed his registration card (Form 1) at the county seat on the required day and it noted: address as Tenaha; natural born citizen; self-employed as a farmer; single; Caucasian; two years prior military service as an infantry corporal at Texas A&M College; and no exemption to the draft was claimed. Physically he was described as of medium height and built with dark brown eyes and black hair (not bald). Later that year, December 16, he and Miss Mary Lou Smith were wed in Shelby County.
On Friday, June 14, 1918 Bishop took the oath of enlistment in Center and became US Army Private Porter, serial # 1034370. The Champion newspaper published in Center ran the following article in their June 19 edition that contained his name.
Shelby County Soldiers to A&M for Special Course:
Last Friday seven Shelby County boys left here for A&M College where they will take special mechanical training for military service. Yesterday morning The Champion received the following letter from them, the letter being signed by each one of the above mentioned:
College Station, Sunday Eve, Editor Champion:
“We reached College Station Saturday morning at 1 o’clock. Picking them up along the way we had 59 more, making a total of 66. We lay over in Silsbee three hours and Navasota one hour.
We were met at the train by two officers who marched us to our barracks and assigned our rooms. We were lined up at 7 o’clock and marched to the mess hall which seats two thousand people. We are twenty four hundred in number now. After mess we were marched to the medical board where we were examined, then to headquarters where we signed up for service. After our evening mess marched to the medical board where we received our first serum for typhoid in the right arm and vaccinated in the left.
We are well pleased with our branch of the service, so pleased that we have all about decided we wouldn’t swap jobs with the president. We are anxious to get started after the kaisers goat. In signing up, our musical talent was questioned and Frank Neal, Obie Andrews and Clim(sic) Black had to report for duty at the band. We have all the modern conveniences the high school boys have in fact we occupy their quarters. A big lot of framed barracks are under construction for use after the school starts in the fall.
To the Home Folks: You should be glad to send us, if we are glad to give our service for the sake of humanity and ‘Old Glory.’ None of us would come back now if we had the opportunity until victory is won. When you think of the vacant chair, think why it is vacant and that your sons will help fly ‘Old Glory’ in Berlin”.
Following his training at A&M Bishop found himself assigned to Truck Company A, Fifth Corps Artillery Park that was used for the transportation and handling of ammunition. Following a furlough home to say goodbye to the family Bishop and his unit departed the port of New York on September 23, 1918 aboard ship # 591 bound for the war in France. His wife Mary who was residing in Dallas was listed as the next of kin. Arriving some eleven days later via Liverpool, England the war would end the following month on November 11, 1918. Following the end of hostilities Bishop and his unit remained in France until February 28, 1919 when they departed Bordeaux aboard the troopship Panaman for the journey home to the United States. His wife Mary who was now living in Tenaha was again named next of kin. On March 13 the Panaman docked at the port of Hoboken, New Jersey with 2,153 officers and men. They were then transported to nearby Camp Upton for physicals, pay and discharge processing. After ten months of military service Private Bishop Porter was honorably discharged April 7, 1919 and for that service awarded the World War I Victory Medal.
Following the war he returned to his wife Mary and the life of farming in Shelby County. Sadly Mary died of Bright’s disease at the early age of 24 in 1922 and was buried in the Newburn Cemetery. The following year he married Grace Snyder who had three children from a previous marriage, Lois, Betty and Carl. They were then blessed with the birth Bishop Garvin, Jr. in 1924. By the census of 1940 they had moved to Kermit, Winkler County, Texas where he worked as a laborer and later for the county. On May 30, 1942 he again registered for the military draft and although not called to serve at the age of 47, Bishop would see the beginning and ending of a second world war.
Around 1950 the family moved to 1403 Fifteenth Street, Lubbock, Texas where he worked highway construction. On November 29, 1955 at the age of 61, Bishop died at the Methodist Hospital in Lubbock of heart disease. The Shreveport Journal, December 2, 1955 reported “Funeral services were held December 1 in the Mangum [Funeral Home] Chapel in Center with the Rev. J. Carroll Chadwick and the Rev. Robertson officiating. Interment in the Fairview Cemetery in Center. Mr. Porter was a member of the Sam Samford Masonic Lodge No. 149 and also a Shriner. Survivors are his wife, Mrs. Grace Porter, Lubbock; son Bishop Porter, Jr., Houston; two daughters, Mrs. Lois Wilkinson and Miss Bettie Snider, Lubbock; another son, Carl E. Snider also of Lubbock; two sisters, Mrs. Edward Rogers, Center and Mrs. Carlton Mayden, Tenaha; one brother, Perry Porter, Inglewood, California.” Day is done, God is nigh.
SOURCES:
(1): Shelby County Historical Commission, History of Shelby County, Texas 1988.
(2): Registration State: Texas; Registration County: Shelby County
(3): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 380
(4): The National Archives at College Park; College Park, Maryland; Record Group Title: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General, 1774-1985; Record Group Number: 92; Roll or Box Number: 240
(5): "Texas, World War I Records, 1917-1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89MN-CNN3?cc=2202707&wc=334L-MNL%3A1560656702%2C1561106301 : 26 March 2015), Enlisted men > Piquero, Caesar R-Price, Sidney, 1917-1920 > image 1836 of 4353; Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin.
(6): Year: 1940; Census Place: Kermit, Winkler, Texas; Roll: m-t0627-04167; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 248-6
(7): Texas Department of State Health Services; Austin Texas, USA
