37 Facts About Pleasant Porter

Pleasant Porter was an American Indian statesman and the last elected Principal Chief of the Creek Nation, serving from 1899 until his death.

Pleasant Porter had served with the Confederacy in the 1st Creek Mounted Volunteers, as superintendent of schools in the Creek Nation, and as commander of the Creek Light Horsemen.

Pleasant Porter was elected several times as the Creek delegate to the United States Congress.

Pleasant Porter was born on September 26,1840, to Benjamin Edward Porter and Phoebe Perryman.

Pleasant Porter was born in the Creek Nation, Indian Territory, in what is Wagoner County, Oklahoma.

Pleasant Porter had fought with Andrew Jackson against the Creek in Georgia after the massacre at Fort Mims.

Pleasant Porter developed a plantation based on the labor of enslaved African Americans.

Pleasant Porter was educated at the Tullahassee Mission School on the Creek Nation, where he studied for five years.

Pleasant Porter grew up in a bi-cultural environment, and he was fluent in both Muscogee and English.

Pleasant Porter supplemented this basic education by developing a lifelong habit of study at home.

Pleasant Porter traveled to New Mexico, where he drove cattle until the outbreak of the Civil War.

Pleasant Porter had enlisted as a Private under the command of Col.

Pleasant Porter participated in several battles, including Round Mountain, Chusto-Talasah, Chustenahlah, Pea Ridge and Honey Springs.

Pleasant Porter was wounded three times, once in the thigh.

Pleasant Porter walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

In 1865, after the end of the war, Pleasant Porter served as a guard for Creek commissioners who traveled to Fort Smith, Arkansas, to begin peace negotiations with US government representatives.

Pleasant Porter was asked by Creek Nation leaders to reorganize the schools, which had been disrupted by the war.

In 1871, Pleasant Porter was reelected as superintendent of schools, but declined a second term.

Pleasant Porter, commanding a group of Creek horsemen, together with a group of Federal agents, put down the short-lived rebellion without loss of life.

Pleasant Porter convinced the Sands followers to lay down their arms and go home.

Pleasant Porter performed this work so effectively that he served for much of his life on business in the national capital.

Pleasant Porter soon became well-known and respected by members of Congress and several presidents, and was befriended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Pleasant Porter was called on to quell the subsequent demonstration and convinced the Haijo supporters to go home.

Pleasant Porter gathered about 350 followers of Sands and Haijo, established a military camp and formed a rival government, complete with armed light horsemen.

Pleasant Porter attacked the opponents camp, beginning what historian Meserve says the Creek called the "Green Peach War".

Pleasant Porter's troops chased their opponents into Sac and Fox territory in February 1883.

Pleasant Porter headed another Creek commission to negotiate the terms with Federal officials.

Pleasant Porter was elected Principal Chief on September 5,1899.

Pleasant Porter appealed to the US government for help putting down the revolt.

Pleasant Porter went into business as a merchant and rancher.

Pleasant Porter opened a general store at Okmulgee that he sold in 1869.

Pleasant Porter moved to Wealaka, built a home and lived there for the rest of his life.

Pleasant Porter married Mary Ellen Keys in St Louis, Missouri, on November 25,1872.

Pleasant Porter was born in the Cherokee Nation on April 6,1854, the daughter of Judge Riley Keys and his wife; he was chief justice of the courts of the Cherokee Nation for twenty-five years.

The widower Pleasant Porter married Mattie Leonora Bertholf, a cousin of his first wife, on May 26,1886.

Pleasant Porter complained of feeling unwell, had a stroke sometime that night, lapsed into a coma and died on the morning of September 3,1907.

Pleasant Porter is buried in the Pleasant Porter Cemetery in Bixby, Oklahoma.