Matthew Porter

Matthew Sheldon Porter

• Bats Unknown, Throws Unknown

• Debut June 27, 1884
• Final Game July 5, 1884
• Born 1858 in New York USA
• Died September 28, 1906 in Pijijiapan, Chiapas Mexico

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Biographical Information

Matthew Porter, who was also known as Sheldon Porter, managed 16 games and appeared as a player in three games for the Kansas City Unions in 1884, in the Union Association's only season. Until 1979, his playing record was wrongly attributed to teammate Henry Porter, who was a pitcher in the league but never played for the Kansas City team.

An article about Porter says he was an investor in the 1884 team. He was a druggist by trade and already a successful businessman. He had married into one of Kansas City, MO's prominent families: his wife, Rose Shannon, was the daughter of Patrick Shannon, who had been the city's mayor in 1864 and 1865. Matthew Porter was also an amateur baseball player, and he took a lead role in handling executive duties for the team, taking over as manager for a time after Harry Wheeler resigned after four games only, and before Ted Sullivan was brought on board. He also played 3 games in the outfield. Later in life, he was involved in a variety of business ventures, including a successful zinc mine in Carthage, MO. The last trace of him in Kansas City dates to the late 1890s, when he was back to operating a drugstore. By the time of the 1900 census, he had left the city without a trace.

SABR reported in 2003 that it was known he died in Mexico in 1906, but that the exact location and date were still uncertain. Researcher Bill Carle had managed to track one of Porter's grandchildren by his three surviving daughters, who had all moved West with their mother early in the 20th Century. The family - but not Matthew - was living in Seattle, WA at the time of the 1920 census, and Rose died in Long Beach, CA in 1939. Their daughter Mabelle settled in Grants Pass, OR, where she died in 1982. Her son George Walker, Matthew's grandson, told Carle that Porter had died abroad decades earlier, but the only precision that could be found through family records was that the death occurred in Mexico in September of 1906. However, through State Department consular records, it was determined that a man named "S.V. Porter" had died in Pijijiapan, Chiapas on September 29th of that year. Further information was not forthcoming until 2011, when a document entitled "Mexico, Chiapas, Civil Registration, 1861-1990" was scanned and placed on the internet by genealogists. It allowed Carle to find the information related to S.V. Porter (the hand-written record is of such poor quality that the name could also be "S.N. Porter"). It gives a date of death of September 28, 1906, claiming he was in his 40s and that he came from Missouri. However, there is no indication of what brought our player from Kansas City to a small town at the southernmost end of Mexico, 2000 miles from home, where he met his death. Porter was buried in the local cemetery.

Further Reading

• "Matthew Porter Found", in Bill Carle, ed.: Biographical Research Committee Report, SABR, November/December, 2011, pp. 1-2.

Related Sites

• BR Manager page

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