Founders Cemetery, Marker #5

(1818-1843)

William was born in Beaver River in May 1818. He was killed 25 Sept 1843 at a house or barn raising in Beaver River when part of a frame fell across his body. He was the son of Josiah and Edith (Corning) Porter.When his father Josiah died he was buried next to William. Josiah’s grave marker is no longer at the cemetery. We do not know where William’s mother was buried.

William married in Beaver River 27 Jan 1842 Sarah H Goudey who was born in Yarmouth Township in 1821 and died in Port Maitland 25 June 1899. Following William’s death Sarah married Thomas Wilson Curry and is buried Island Cemetery, the active cemetery for Port Maitland and Beaver River.

William and Sarah had two children: William Stayley (known as Stayley) and Almira Agnes. Stayley was apparently born in Cedar Lake in 1842 which would indicate the family may have been living there at that time.

One of Josiah’s ancestors, through his mother, may have been William Knowlton, whose grave marker in Shelburne is among the earliest for any English settler in Nova Scotia—it simply reads “William Knowlton, 1632”.

More about William and his family appears in the Old Stones Family Group Sheet Index.

Please leave a comment if you have any additional information about him, particularly his exact date of birth and more information about the house or barn raising that caused his death at the age of 25.