David Rittenhouse Porter Family

David Rittenhouse Porter Lehman (also known as D.R.P or Porter Lehman) married Mary Elizabeth Nightwine in 1864. Mary was born in 1845, the fourth child to parents Samuel and Sarah Nightwine. Her father, Samuel, was born in 1805 and is listed as a shoemaker in the 1850 Census of Apollo, PA (Armstrong County), although Deanie Maine believes that all of the Nightwine family were miners. Mary’s mother, Sarah Herring Nightwine, came from Prussia and was born in 1818. Both parents are buried in the “Little Jim” United Brethren Cemetery in Shenango Township, PA (Mercer County). Other siblings of Mary Nightwine include Eliza J. (born 1836), who married DRP’s brother Otho, and Samuel J. (born 1841), who was a watchman and lived in Sharon, PA with his wife, Sara. Brother William B. Nightwine (born 1843), also lived in Sharon with his wife Martha and worked at Sharon Supply Store. Nine more children were born to Samuel and Sarah Nightwine after Mary Elizabeth’s birth in 1845. These children included:

Eddy E. Nightwine – born 1848

Eda Ellen Nightwine – born 1851

Sarah C. Nightwine – born 1854

Violet B. Nightwine – born 1856

Isalene Nightwine – born 1858

Orphy Nightwine – born 1862

Mary S. Nightwine – born 1865

Solomon Nightwine –no date given

Zetta Nightwine (Zada) – no date given

Porter Lehman and his brother, Otho, purchased land in West Middlesex, PA on December 15, 1865. The land was on what is present-day Wansack Road. Both brothers were married to sisters from the Nightwine family. Porter and Mary Lehman had ten children- seven boys and three girls. Otho was a coal miner. He and wife Eliza had six children: Lavina (1858), Mary E. (1860), Solomon (1869), Otho (1873), Clark (1878) and Clara (birth date unknown). It is believed that Otho’s family eventually moved into Eastern Ohio, leaving Porter’s family to live on the land in West Middlesex. Both brothers are buried in the Haywood Cemetery in West Middlesex (Shenango Township, Mercer County, PA).

Porter and Mary’s first son, William Porter Lehman, was born on November 25, 1865. He married Fanny Kauffman on January 17, 1891. The couple bought a farm outside of New Wilmington, PA and made their living by farming and coal mining. They had three biological children and one half-daughter which the couple adopted as their own. For more information on William Lehman’s family, please see the next chapter.

The second son of Porter and Mary, Samuel Leonard “Ortho” Lehman, was born February 1, 1868. He lived his entire life with his mother (Fannie), sister (Daisy) and brother (Cody). He worked in a factory (possibly GTX) and family members recall that he walked to work. He died at home of pneumonia on January 16, 1926 and is buried at Haywood Cemetery in West Middlesex, PA. There is no marker on the grave. His death certificate lists his occupation as “farmer”, but relatives discount this.

Ortho’s brother, Livingston Luther Lehman, was born November 12, 1870. (Lois Sipe remembers family members giving him the nickname “Livingston Luther Liar Lehman”, but most just called him “Doc” after the doctor who presided at his birth). As a young man, Doc was helping family members in the coal mines when he was buried in a mining accident. As workers dug him out he was hit in the head with a pick axe. From that time on he was subject to what family members called “spells” and would frequently forget where he was. Later in life Doc moved to South Dakota with his brother Bert, where both men worked on a sheep ranch. When word reached him about his brother Cody’s death, Bert was at work and Doc became traumatized by the news. Although it was January in South Dakota authorities found him walking home to Pennsylvania for the funeral without even a jacket to wear. Authorities placed him in a State Hospital, where he eventually died in 1950. He is buried in Yankton, SD.

The next son born to Porter and Mary was Bert Warren Lehman, born September 2, 1875. Bert was also single and lived in South Dakota with his

brother Doc working on sheep ranches. Family members recount that he often slept on the ground in tents and spoke of sleeping with a black snake so the

rattlesnakes would leave him alone. He was known to be on friendly terms with the Native Americans living on a reservation in the area. Bert eventually built a house for himself in Faith, SD, where he died on July 19, 1954. His niece, Mary Lehman Redmond, and her daughter, Jane, visited Bert in South Dakota just

two weeks before his death.

George Washington Lehman was born January 26, 1876. Also single, George was a foreman for the Niles Boiler and Construction Company. His obituary in the New Castle News states that he was fatally injured in an accident at the Youngstown Sheet and Tube plant and died at Youngstown Hospital on February 20, 1907. His funeral arrangements were made by the Oddfellows and the Knights of Pythias and he was buried at Haywood Cemetery without a marker. Birdie Mecklam, daughter of his youngest sister Belle Lehman, states that she was told that his death was caused by being struck on the head and falling from somewhere very high.

Potosi Memphis Lehman was the only other son besides William to get married. Born March 6, 1878, and nicknamed “Shorty”, “Tosi” and “Toby”, he was a construction worker and builder who traveled to San Francisco after the earthquake of 1906 to join the rebuilding effort. He married Florence Chapman after arriving in California and they raised seven children: Beulah Bell, Leroy, Ralph, Muriel, Shirley, Betty and Dorothy. He met Florence while he was making ends meet picking apricots at a large orchard owned by her family. Later, he was part of the construction team which built the first rollercoaster in Santa Cruz, California at a resort area on Monterey Bay. Potosi left his wife and children for unknown reasons in 1931. No one in his family knew where he had moved until they found out years later that he was working as a construction contractor for the Army in Utah. The family attempted to correspond for a while, until his replies ended and the family worried. They contacted officials in the city and were notified that had Potosi died on June 12, 1956 after being hit by a car. Florence died two days after receiving the news. Family members believe that her heart had been weakened by Rheumatic Fever and the stress of hearing of her husband’s accident caused her death. Potosi is buried in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Porter and Mary’s oldest daughter, Ama Chalilli Jessie Lehman, was born May 26, 1880. Known by most as “Jessie”, she married Engineer Harry Frasier in 1901. A daughter, Hazel, was born soon after. Jessie and her daughter were killed on September 4, 1902, but many questions are still unanswered about their death. A family Bible simply says “Jessie Amy Lehman. Died Sept. 4, 1902. At corner of North Lee and Idaho street, Sharon, PA.” As of yet, no one has been able to discover the cause of their death. Some family members report hearing that they were murdered and the case was never solved. Marcia Kaufman has done some record checking to discover that in 1902 the Arlington Hotel was located at the corner of North Lee and Idaho Streets. Theories range from a car accident to a hotel robbing that resulted in a shooting. Regardless of the cause of their death, both Jessie and her infant daughter are buried at Haywood Cemetery on top of her father, Porter Lehman.

Daisy Myrtle Lehman was born August 22, 1882. She spent her entire life living with her parents and caring for her aging mother. Although she was never married, she had two sons: Lee Lehman (who later married Elsie Mecklam and owned a car dealership in Tionesta) and Floyd Lehman (married to Evelyn Robinson). Daisy died March 30, 1961 and is buried at Haywood Cemetery.

The youngest daughter of Porter and Mary was Zada May Belle Lehman. Known to the family as “Aunt Belle”, she was born October 6, 1884. She moved from the Sharon, PA area to Chula Vista, CA, where she married Orris Henry Peirs and had 12 children. They had a set of twin boys who were born stillborn, and then had children Bertie, Hazel, Bessie, Ernest, Paul, Willard, Beulah, Francis, Norma, and Jean. She later returned to Pennsylvania. When her mother Mary became sick in the last years of her life Belle helped her sister Daisy take care of her. Belle died on October 23, 1972 and is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Sharon, PA.

Porter and Mary’s final child was Wallace Frederick Cody Lehman, born July 27, 1887. A bachelor, he lived at home with his family his entire life. He fought in World War I before returning home to his family. He is buried at Haywood Cemetery.

Mary Lehman lived to be 81 years old. She was blind in one eye from an accident with a baseball bat which occurred sometime while Cody was still a baby (in the years following 1887). The family recalls that she was hit in the eye with a baseball bat while playing with the children on a Sunday afternoon. She lived with a glass eye until she went completely blind in her 70’s. According to her obituary, Mary was bedridden for seven weeks preceding her death and died after a hip-breaking fall caused a shock to her already frail body. She died on May 22, 1926 and was buried with her husband Porter, daughter Jessie, and infant granddaughter Hazel at Haywood Cemetery in West Middlesex, PA.