Eliza Emily Chappell Porter
Encyclopedia
Eliza Emily Chappell Porter (November 5, 1807 – January 1, 1888) was the first public school teacher in Chicago
, at Fort Dearborn
. She established normal schools, educated settlers and American Indians at Mackinac Island
, aided the wounded during the American Civil War
as a member of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and taught freedmen.
. Porter's father, Robert Chappell, was supposedly the descendant of "Huguenots banished from France under the Edict of Nantes in 1688, who found refuge, with their persecuted brethren, in England." Robert moved to Franklin County, New York; then to Geneseo
, Livingston County
, New York. Eliza Chappell was the eighth child born to Robert and Elizabeth Kneeland Chappell. She was described as a "bonny child, plump and fair, with curling auburn hair, and bright grey eyes."
Robert Chappell was widowed shortly after Porter's birth. Burdened with seven young children at home, he sent Porter to live with her niece, Mrs. Bower of Franklin County, New York. Bower wanted to adopt Porter, but Porter insisted on living with the family as a "little cousin". Porter "easily [distanced] her boy cousins in study, she was ambitious to rival them in outdoor sports." By age twelve, Porter returned home; at age fourteen, she joined the Presbyterian church.
Porter boarded with a reverend's family in Rochester, New York
at the age of fifteen and attended school. By age sixteen, Porter took charge of a neighboring school as a teacher. She eagerly read any books that were available to her. Porter felt it was important to educate toddlers. "I am more and more convinced that parents and those who have the care of children do not regard with sufficient interest the first three years," she wrote in her journal.
, who desired a teacher for their family. Stuart was a partner of John Jacob Astor
at the American Fur Company
in Mackinac Island
, Michigan. Porter studied the Infant School
system, and departed for Mackinac Island in June 1831.
At the age of 22, she began teaching the Stuart children, as well as other children on the island and at the mission. Porter struggled with the responsibilities of a new teacher, writing in her journal "my time is not my own". She saw the need for teachers as well as laborers, mechanics, and farmers to populate the frontier. She made a trip to New York to secure more teachers, and established schools in St. Ignace, Michigan
. On June 19, 1832, Porter remarked on her teaching:
Porter had a serious illness before teaching in Mackinac; many believed it was a miracle that she survived. Porter credited this miracle to her strong religious beliefs.
Even among all the good Eliza was accomplishing, she was still a product of the prejudices of the time.
, the spread of cholera
terrified the residents of Mackinac Island. On July 7, 1832, Porter wrote:
in June 1833 with the prospects of opening a school by September. The school was established in a small log house formerly used as a store. There were 25 students; they furnished their own chairs, "but those who were unable to do so had primitive seats supplied them." There were no desks. Some students paddled their canoes across the Chicago River to and from the school. The only teaching tools Porter had were "maps, a globe, scriptural texts and hymn books, and illustrations of geometry and astronomy."
In 1834, the school was moved into the first Presbyterian Church in Fort Dearborn
, on the southwest corner of Lake and Clark Streets. The school was rented from the church for nine dollars a month. That year, Porter established a normal school for future teachers, located on the future site of LaSalle Street, for 12 girls who lived on the prairie.
After the Porters were married, they left Chicago for Farmington, Illinois
. They moved to Peoria, Illinois
before settling in Green Bay, Wisconsin
on January 4, 1851; they remained there until 1858. The Porters returned to Chicago when Jeremiah became pastor of Edwards Congregational Church.
Porter was always a thin, frail woman. She was able to overcome neuralgia
and lost most of her teeth, but not her sense of humor. When Eliza traveled to New York to meet her future in-laws, her mother-in-law remarked "Oh! What can such a poor little hand do?"
; they promptly entered the service. As early as the summer of 1861, Porter visited Cairo, Illinois
, organizing hospitals, distributing supplies, escorting volunteers, and seeing to the sick or wounded. In October 1861, Eliza became the office manager of the Chicago (later Northwestern) U.S. Sanitary Commission, which solicited food, medical dressings, and other supplies for use in frontline military hospitals.
After the Battle of Shiloh
in early April 1862, Porter recognized that she would be more useful in the field. In July 1863, she returned to Chicago to act as associate director of the Chicago branch of the Northwest Sanitary Commission with fellow humanitarian Dorothea Dix
. Most of 1862 was spent in field hospitals at Ft. Pickering where Jeremiah was stationed. Following the Battle of Vicksburg
, Porter traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee
, where she worked side by side with Mary Ann Bickerdyke
. Porter and Bickerdyke directed all manner of volunteer field-hospital work, such as cooking, laundering, distributing relief supplies, and—in emergencies—nursing the wounded.
Porter followed the U.S. Army to the Battle of Atlanta. Jeremiah served as Chaplain in Battery A of the First Illinois Light Artillery at Ft. Pickering. Porter secured nurses from Chicago, and on orders from medical director Dr. Charles McDougal, escorted the nurses to Savannah. The Porters followed the Union Army through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Porter worked closely with Bickerdyke distributing supplies and caring for the sick. Eliza helped treat the wounded in Memphis from the Battle of Vicksburg
. After the battle, Porter went through Louisville to Nashville, then on to Alabama, where she assisted Lincoln Clark
's wife at Huntsville Prison
. She continued her relief work up until Sherman’s Campaign.
for an anti-slavery convention, and Porter educated children and veteran freedmen during and after the Civil War. She established a school in Memphis for African-American children. She participated in founding a school at Shiloh, Tennessee for former slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation
.
In Austin, Texas
, Porter established a Sunday school for freed slave children. "She [Eliza] would have a multitude of little black children packed close as their little wriggling bodies would permit. I seem to see her standing before them in that rude room upon that rough floor her beautiful eyes beaming her whole face illuminated with love while every eye was fastened upon her face as she taught them of God and His laws, of Jesus and His love." She went on to establish a kindergarten for African-American children in a missionary settlement in East Austin, Texas.
Porter and Jeremiah were active in the Underground Railroad
. She regarded it as a "secret service before the Lord". When a fugitive slave and his three small children arrived at the Porters' doorstep in Green Bay
in the middle of the night, Porter suggested housing the family in the church. For four days, the belfry served as a refuge until a sailboat could be procured to carry the passengers to a steamboat bound for Canada.
In addition to her medical assistance, Eliza made appeals to many politicians about obtaining speedier recovery of convalescent soldiers—especially sending those soldiers home to northern hospitals. Porter even appealed to Abraham Lincoln
in Washington, D.C.
in 1863:
. By this time it had been five years since the Porters has settled into a home of their own. In 1868, the Porters returned to schoolwork in Brownsville, Texas
when Jeremiah became pastor of the Presbyterian Church there. In Brownsville, Eliza reopened the coeducational Rio Grande Seminary. After about a year in Brownsville, they returned to Chicago
.
, Texas, on the north side of the Rio Grande. In January 1874, the Porters went to Fort Sill
in the Oklahoma Territory, among the Comanche
and Kiowa tribes, because Jeremiah was the chaplin for Ulysses S. Grant
's command. Porter "taught the children of the garrison in a day school [Rio Grande Female Institute], gathered the laundresses for instruction and made herself the special friend of everyone in need."
Jeremiah was transferred to Ft. Russell, Wyoming
in 1875; by this time, Porter's health started to deteriorate. After a bout with malaria
and pneumonia
, her lungs were never the same, making frontier living intolerable. She spent much time away from her husband, because she couldn't venture out in the cold. Porter was torn between wanting to be near her sons in Chicago
and avoiding the harsh winters; she found any permanent resting place impractical. She spent summers in Wisconsin or Michigan, and winters in Florida, Texas, or California. Even though her health failed her, she kept busy with correspondence and "read with keen interest".
. Memorial services were held in Chicago on January 17. People from all walks of life shared recollections of Chappell. Mary Livermore
—a fellow member of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, journalist, and women's-rights advocate—remarked of the "uniform gentleness and untiring diligence that characterized her", noting "What a power she was in the hospitals" and "It seems to me that her biography, like that of our Lord, may be condensed into one phrase 'she went about doing good.'"
Jeremiah remained active, giving lectures to large crowds up until just before his own passing in 1893.
Porter is buried at Rosehill Cemetery
in Chicago.
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, at Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of...
. She established normal schools, educated settlers and American Indians at Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
, aided the wounded during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
as a member of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and taught freedmen.
Early years
Porter was born on November 5, 1807 in Geneseo, New YorkGeneseo, New York
Geneseo is the name of a town and its village in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, USA, outside of Rochester, New York. The town's population is approximately 9,600, of which about 7,600 live in the village...
. Porter's father, Robert Chappell, was supposedly the descendant of "Huguenots banished from France under the Edict of Nantes in 1688, who found refuge, with their persecuted brethren, in England." Robert moved to Franklin County, New York; then to Geneseo
Geneseo
Geneseo is the name of several places in the United States:*Geneseo, California, earlier name of Genesee, California*Geneseo, New York - home to the State University of New York at Geneseo*Geneseo, Illinois*Geneseo, Kansas*Geneseo, North Dakota...
, Livingston County
Livingston County
Livingston County is the name of several counties in the United States:* Livingston County, Illinois* Livingston County, Kentucky* Livingston County, Michigan* Livingston County, Missouri* Livingston County, New York* Livingston Parish, Louisiana...
, New York. Eliza Chappell was the eighth child born to Robert and Elizabeth Kneeland Chappell. She was described as a "bonny child, plump and fair, with curling auburn hair, and bright grey eyes."
Robert Chappell was widowed shortly after Porter's birth. Burdened with seven young children at home, he sent Porter to live with her niece, Mrs. Bower of Franklin County, New York. Bower wanted to adopt Porter, but Porter insisted on living with the family as a "little cousin". Porter "easily [distanced] her boy cousins in study, she was ambitious to rival them in outdoor sports." By age twelve, Porter returned home; at age fourteen, she joined the Presbyterian church.
Porter boarded with a reverend's family in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
at the age of fifteen and attended school. By age sixteen, Porter took charge of a neighboring school as a teacher. She eagerly read any books that were available to her. Porter felt it was important to educate toddlers. "I am more and more convinced that parents and those who have the care of children do not regard with sufficient interest the first three years," she wrote in her journal.
Frontier work
Porter was friends with a Mr. and Mrs. Loomis, missionaries from Rochester, who introduced her to Mr. and Mrs. Robert StuartRobert Stuart (explorer)
Robert Stuart was the son of Charles Stuart, a partner of John Jacob Astor who as one of the North West Company men, or Nor'westers, enlisted by Astor to help him found his intended fur empire...
, who desired a teacher for their family. Stuart was a partner of John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...
at the American Fur Company
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
in Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island is an island and resort area covering in land area, part of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located in Lake Huron, at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac, between the state's Upper and Lower Peninsulas. The island was home to a Native American settlement before European...
, Michigan. Porter studied the Infant School
Infant school
An Infant school is a term used primarily in the United Kingdom for school for children between the ages of four and seven years. It is usually a small school serving a particular locality....
system, and departed for Mackinac Island in June 1831.
At the age of 22, she began teaching the Stuart children, as well as other children on the island and at the mission. Porter struggled with the responsibilities of a new teacher, writing in her journal "my time is not my own". She saw the need for teachers as well as laborers, mechanics, and farmers to populate the frontier. She made a trip to New York to secure more teachers, and established schools in St. Ignace, Michigan
St. Ignace, Michigan
Saint Ignace, usually written as St. Ignace, is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,678. It is the county seat of Mackinac County. From the Lower Peninsula, St. Ignace is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.St...
. On June 19, 1832, Porter remarked on her teaching:
- "This day closes my third term, have had an examination in which the parents and friends of the school have evinced great interest. Could my dear friends at home have seen me surrounded by 54 (the present number of pupils) precious immortals, many of whom within nine months have learned to read and recite passages of scripture—could you have looked in upon us this morning, and followed us in our exercises I doubt not your hearts would have filled to overflowing."
Spiritual life
Porter's moral fortitude could best be seen in the list of personal rules she adopted:1. To rise with or before the sun.
2. To devote one hour to reading, meditation and prayer before leaving my room.
3. Should this precious season ever seem irksome and tasteless to remain until God manifests Himself.
4. To inquire with regard to all my movements: will this be for God’s glory?
5. To examine carefully the motives which through each day have influenced my conduct.
6. To endeavor in my intercourse with all to do as I would wish to be done by.
7. To speak evil of no one. To do good to all.
8. To observe one day of each week as a season for private fasting and prayer.
Porter had a serious illness before teaching in Mackinac; many believed it was a miracle that she survived. Porter credited this miracle to her strong religious beliefs.
Even among all the good Eliza was accomplishing, she was still a product of the prejudices of the time.
23rd [June 1832] on my return from the mission accompanied by one of the sisters I called at some of the Indian lodges. We had a copy of St. John's Gospel and attempted to read to them but such indifference! Oh! When shall all this wandering miserable race believe the report? Soon! For the day of the Lord is at hand.She also commented on Catholic families on the frontier.
19th [June 1833]. Last week after Miss O's arrival, went to the Point, four miles from Mackinaw to see if a school could be opened there. Never have I witnessed such scenes of wretchedness and want. About one hundred and eighty inhabitants. All Catholics except one or two families. French and Indian languages alone spoken there. Every man in the settlement a confirmed drunkard.
Black Hawk War
During the Black Hawk WarBlack Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....
, the spread of cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
terrified the residents of Mackinac Island. On July 7, 1832, Porter wrote:
Mackinaw is now greatly perplexed. Fear and alarm take hold of many. The cause is not the movements of the Indians. We have not had any serious, perhaps I may say any fears from them. […] Three steamboats filed with troops are now on their passage. […] They spent one night in our harbor and left behind them two sick soldiers, whose disease has proved to be the dreaded scourge cholera.
Chicago
Porter arrived in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in June 1833 with the prospects of opening a school by September. The school was established in a small log house formerly used as a store. There were 25 students; they furnished their own chairs, "but those who were unable to do so had primitive seats supplied them." There were no desks. Some students paddled their canoes across the Chicago River to and from the school. The only teaching tools Porter had were "maps, a globe, scriptural texts and hymn books, and illustrations of geometry and astronomy."
In 1834, the school was moved into the first Presbyterian Church in Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn
Fort Dearborn was a United States fort built in 1803 beside the Chicago River in what is now Chicago, Illinois. It was constructed by troops under Captain John Whistler and named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. The original fort was destroyed following the Battle of...
, on the southwest corner of Lake and Clark Streets. The school was rented from the church for nine dollars a month. That year, Porter established a normal school for future teachers, located on the future site of LaSalle Street, for 12 girls who lived on the prairie.
Marriage
Porter married Rev. Jeremiah Porter, the youngest child of Dr. William Porter and Charlotte Porter, on June 15, 1835. Porter and Jeremiah first met on Mackinac Island during discussions about establishing a school.After the Porters were married, they left Chicago for Farmington, Illinois
Farmington, Illinois
Farmington is a city in the northeast corner of Fulton County, Illinois, United States. It is north of Canton and Lewistown, west of Peoria and Bloomington, and east of Galesburg and Macomb. The population was 2,601 at the 2000 census. The public school system is Farmington Central Community Unit...
. They moved to Peoria, Illinois
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. It is named after the Peoria tribe. As of the 2010 census, the city was the seventh-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 115,007, and is the third-most populated...
before settling in Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
on January 4, 1851; they remained there until 1858. The Porters returned to Chicago when Jeremiah became pastor of Edwards Congregational Church.
Porter was always a thin, frail woman. She was able to overcome neuralgia
Neuralgia
Neuralgia is pain in one or more nerves that occurs without stimulation of pain receptor cells. Neuralgia pain is produced by a change in neurological structure or function rather than by the excitation of pain receptors that causes nociceptive pain. Neuralgia falls into two categories: central...
and lost most of her teeth, but not her sense of humor. When Eliza traveled to New York to meet her future in-laws, her mother-in-law remarked "Oh! What can such a poor little hand do?"
Civil War
The Porters were living in Chicago at the outbreak of the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
; they promptly entered the service. As early as the summer of 1861, Porter visited Cairo, Illinois
Cairo, Illinois
Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The rivers converge at Fort Defiance State Park, an American Civil War fort that was commanded by General Ulysses S. Grant...
, organizing hospitals, distributing supplies, escorting volunteers, and seeing to the sick or wounded. In October 1861, Eliza became the office manager of the Chicago (later Northwestern) U.S. Sanitary Commission, which solicited food, medical dressings, and other supplies for use in frontline military hospitals.
After the Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
in early April 1862, Porter recognized that she would be more useful in the field. In July 1863, she returned to Chicago to act as associate director of the Chicago branch of the Northwest Sanitary Commission with fellow humanitarian Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Lynde Dix was an American activist on behalf of the indigent insane who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums...
. Most of 1862 was spent in field hospitals at Ft. Pickering where Jeremiah was stationed. Following the Battle of Vicksburg
Battle of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C...
, Porter traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, where she worked side by side with Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Mary Ann Bickerdyke , also known as Mother Bickerdyke, was a hospital administrator for Union soldiers during the American Civil War.She was born in Knox County, Ohio, to Hiram Ball and Annie Rodgers Ball...
. Porter and Bickerdyke directed all manner of volunteer field-hospital work, such as cooking, laundering, distributing relief supplies, and—in emergencies—nursing the wounded.
Porter followed the U.S. Army to the Battle of Atlanta. Jeremiah served as Chaplain in Battery A of the First Illinois Light Artillery at Ft. Pickering. Porter secured nurses from Chicago, and on orders from medical director Dr. Charles McDougal, escorted the nurses to Savannah. The Porters followed the Union Army through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia.
Porter worked closely with Bickerdyke distributing supplies and caring for the sick. Eliza helped treat the wounded in Memphis from the Battle of Vicksburg
Battle of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg was the final major military action in the Vicksburg Campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Tennessee crossed the Mississippi River and drove the Confederate army of Lt. Gen. John C...
. After the battle, Porter went through Louisville to Nashville, then on to Alabama, where she assisted Lincoln Clark
Lincoln Clark
Lincoln Clark was a lawyer and one-term Democratic U.S. Representative from Iowa's 2nd congressional district. His life began and ended in the same small town in western Massachusetts, but included service in every branch of Alabama state government, the U.S...
's wife at Huntsville Prison
Huntsville Prison
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit , nicknamed "Walls Unit," is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near Downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal...
. She continued her relief work up until Sherman’s Campaign.
Activism
Both Porter and Jeremiah were active reformers. Jeremiah met abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, IllinoisAlton, Illinois
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 27,865 at the 2010 census. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area in Southern Illinois...
for an anti-slavery convention, and Porter educated children and veteran freedmen during and after the Civil War. She established a school in Memphis for African-American children. She participated in founding a school at Shiloh, Tennessee for former slaves freed by the Emancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
.
In Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, Porter established a Sunday school for freed slave children. "She [Eliza] would have a multitude of little black children packed close as their little wriggling bodies would permit. I seem to see her standing before them in that rude room upon that rough floor her beautiful eyes beaming her whole face illuminated with love while every eye was fastened upon her face as she taught them of God and His laws, of Jesus and His love." She went on to establish a kindergarten for African-American children in a missionary settlement in East Austin, Texas.
Porter and Jeremiah were active in the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. She regarded it as a "secret service before the Lord". When a fugitive slave and his three small children arrived at the Porters' doorstep in Green Bay
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
in the middle of the night, Porter suggested housing the family in the church. For four days, the belfry served as a refuge until a sailboat could be procured to carry the passengers to a steamboat bound for Canada.
In addition to her medical assistance, Eliza made appeals to many politicians about obtaining speedier recovery of convalescent soldiers—especially sending those soldiers home to northern hospitals. Porter even appealed to Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1863:
But it is not for the dead I plead, but for those who still live, and are suffering home and heart sickness in Southern hospitals. We ask that as you are giving furloughs to all veterans who are able and willing to re-enlist from the ranks, you will not forget the sick and wounded veterans, but extend furloughs to them also.
[…] President Lincoln, do you know that the holding of our sick in government hospitals, is doing more in some sections of our country to prevent re-enlistment, and weaken confidence in our government than all other causes combined?
Mexican Frontier
After her service in the Civil War ended in October 1865, the Porters went to the "Mexican frontier" in Texas to distribute supplies to U.S. soldiers on behalf of the Sanitary and Christians commissions. Porter also opened a Protestant school. She taught in the school herself until the autumn of 1866, when Jeremiah became the pastor of the Congregational church in Prairie du Chien, WisconsinPrairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Prairie du Chien is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,911 at the 2010 census. Its Zip Code is 53821....
. By this time it had been five years since the Porters has settled into a home of their own. In 1868, the Porters returned to schoolwork in Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
when Jeremiah became pastor of the Presbyterian Church there. In Brownsville, Eliza reopened the coeducational Rio Grande Seminary. After about a year in Brownsville, they returned to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Oklahoma and Wyoming Territory
Jeremiah was appointed Post Chaplain by the U.S. Senate in 1870, and sent to work at Fort BrownFort Brown
Fort Brown was a military post of the United States Army in Texas during the later half of 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.-Early years:...
, Texas, on the north side of the Rio Grande. In January 1874, the Porters went to Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
in the Oklahoma Territory, among the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
and Kiowa tribes, because Jeremiah was the chaplin for Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
's command. Porter "taught the children of the garrison in a day school [Rio Grande Female Institute], gathered the laundresses for instruction and made herself the special friend of everyone in need."
Jeremiah was transferred to Ft. Russell, Wyoming
Fort D.A. Russell (Wyoming)
Fort D. A. Russell, also known as Fort Francis E. Warren, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base and Fort David A. Russell, was a post and base of operations for the United States Army, and later the Air Force, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The fort had been established in 1867 to protect workers for the...
in 1875; by this time, Porter's health started to deteriorate. After a bout with malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
, her lungs were never the same, making frontier living intolerable. She spent much time away from her husband, because she couldn't venture out in the cold. Porter was torn between wanting to be near her sons in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and avoiding the harsh winters; she found any permanent resting place impractical. She spent summers in Wisconsin or Michigan, and winters in Florida, Texas, or California. Even though her health failed her, she kept busy with correspondence and "read with keen interest".
Death
Porter caught a chill at Christmas in 1887 that developed into pneumonia. She died at the age of 80 on January 1, 1888 in Santa Barbara, CaliforniaSanta Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
. Memorial services were held in Chicago on January 17. People from all walks of life shared recollections of Chappell. Mary Livermore
Mary Livermore
Mary Livermore, born Mary Ashton Rice, was an American journalist and advocate of women's rights.-Biography:...
—a fellow member of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, journalist, and women's-rights advocate—remarked of the "uniform gentleness and untiring diligence that characterized her", noting "What a power she was in the hospitals" and "It seems to me that her biography, like that of our Lord, may be condensed into one phrase 'she went about doing good.'"
Jeremiah remained active, giving lectures to large crowds up until just before his own passing in 1893.
Porter is buried at Rosehill Cemetery
Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago
Rosehill Cemetery is a Victorian era cemetery on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois, USA, and at , is the largest cemetery in the City of Chicago. The name "Rosehill" resulted from a City Clerk's error – the area was previously called "Roe's Hill", named for nearby farmer Hiram Roe...
in Chicago.