Noted Ohio Historian Remembered: A Personal Reflection
Dr. Lorle Porter of the Muskingum College History Department was assigned my advisor on an independent research project and paper focusing on Quakers, Free Blacks and the Underground Railroad in eastern Ohio in 1977.
This launched a lifelong friendship that began with her in a role of instructor, to mentor and eventually dear friend.
That relationship ended in 2025 with her passing at 87 in her hometown of Mt. Vernon, Ohio.
During the intervening years, she counseled me on the intricate nuances of history, sociology and human behavior. She easily explained why Barnesville and other communities in eastern Ohio developed and related to the larger world.
Trained as a medieval historian, her attention turned to local history due to helping care for her ailing mother during my college years.
What followed was a flurry of research and writing spanning 1978 to 2015 focusing on southeastern Ohio and her hometown, Mt. Vernon.
She penned the following books garnering seven writing awards in addition to national recognition.
- A Sesquicentennial History: 1828-1978: New Concord, Norwich, Bloomfield and Rix Mills
- Discovering Ohio’s Hill County
- The Western Leatherwood Valley – Lore City, Gibson Station, New Gottengen
- St. Patrick’s People: Irish and English Catholics in Early Ohio History (co-authors Donald Schlegel, Kathy Kreppnere Graham and Pear Gallagher Reischman with major focus on Temperanceville, Ohio’s second oldest Catholic parish)
- The Immigrant Cocoon: Central Ohio Europeans in the Cambridge, Ohio Coalfields
- A People Set Apart: Scotch Irish in Eastern Ohio
- Roscoe: Generations, regeneration (Roscoe Village, Coshocton)
- John Glenn’s New Concord
- Sarah’s Table: “Keeping House” in Ohio 1800-1950
- Politics and Peril: Mt. Vernon, Ohio in the Nineteenth Century
- The Great Dan Emmett: Burnt-Cork Artist Extraordinaire
- Unexpected Healer: The Story of Jayne Payne, M.D. in 19th Century Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Porter did this massive amount of writing on individual sheets of paper. She never cozied up to the personal computer, relying instead on her trusty manual typewriter.
Fortunately, during her long association with Muskingum, the history department secretary and dear friend, rekeyed the material on a computer.
She was on the ground floor planning the John and Annie Glenn Museum on New Concord’s Main Street. She researched and initiated the professional docent program for the museum.
She eventually returned to Mt. Vernon, purchasing a neat early 20th-century Craftsman bungalow with her sister. In these final years, she focused her attention on her hometown. There, as in New Concord, she shared her home with several dog and cat companions.
In time she became Lorle to me and I, “kiddo” to her.
In addition to not taking up the computer, she also refused to drive on Interstate highways. Over the years, she made several trips to Barnesville and Belmont County by way of routes 40, 265 and 147!
I secured her as speaker for the 1995 Barnesville Chamber spring banquet. She explained the sociology of why some communities work – Barnesville does – while others in the area do not! Yes, there is a history and science that makes each community unique!
Her annual Christmas missive was typed on her faithful manual then photocopied for distribution to family and friends. After retiring she and her sister traveled extensively. Each year readers were taken on quick trips to exotic foreign lands.
In her later years, she was bedeviled by severe back nerve pain that often incapacitated her for days and weeks at a time. A couple of surgeries brought some relief but no permanent cure. Finally, typewritten letters were replaced by handwritten cursive that was challenging to decipher!
Since Covid, we exchanged letters decrying the ill-advised demolition of historic downtown buildings in Mt. Vernon and Barnesville and the tragic loss of traditional newspapers in both communities.
Her 2023 Christmas was her last.
I was busy handling matters for my ailing mother in 2024 and did not reach out until mom’s passing this past fall. It was then that I discovered she too had passed on in May.
I feel blessed to have had her as an inspiration, a mentor and friend for almost 50 years.
Obituary
Dr. Lorle A. Porter, age 87, of Mount Vernon, passed away on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
She was born on April 7, 1938, in Mount Vernon and was the daughter to the late Robert A. and Dorothy (Downs) Porter.
Dr. Porter held a B.A. from Notre Dame College, Cleveland, an M.A. from Boston College and a Ph.D. in European Medieval History from the University of New Mexico. Later, due to the illness of her mother, she concentrated on Southeastern Ohio History, publishing ten books and winning seven awards from the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums and a national award from the American Association of State and Local History. Dr. Porter was awarded the distinction of Outstanding Teacher for 1998 by the Ohio Academy of History. Upon her retirement in 1998, after a 34-year career, Muskingum University named her Regional Historian in Residence.
She was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Dr Porter was quite active in New Concord civic affairs. She was a founding member of R.E. New and was awarded the Dedicated Public Servant Award from New Concord in 1999. She was a founding trustee of the John & Annie Glenn Foundation and developed the Living History program at the Glenn Historic Site.
Dr. Porter was a member of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.
She is survived by her brother and sister-in-law, Robert S. and Becky Porter; sister, Sara (Jerry) Mann; nieces and nephews, Debra (Paul) Larrison, Patricia (Doug) Kenney, Theresa (Scott) Randall, Christina (Matt) Cudlip, Robert (Anna) Porter, Douglas (Gwen) Porter; along with eight numerous great nieces and nephews.
Visitation took place at Snyder Funeral Home – Lasater Chapel, Mt. Vernon. A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. Burial followed in Mount Calvary Cemetery.
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