John Porterfield (Nashville, TN)

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Photo of John Porterfield (date unknown) (ancestry.com)

John Porterfield (August 21, 1819 – December 28, 1874)

Biography

  • Name: John Porterfield
  • Birth: August 21, 1819 Fayetteville, Lincoln County, TN
  • Death: Dec 28, 1874 Nashville, TN
  • Spouse: Mary Eliza (Shapard) Porterfield (1826-1898) (m.1845)
  • Daughter: Susan Porterfield married Marcus A. Spurr, President of the Commercial National Bank of Nashville, charter 3228


John Porterfield was born August 21, 1819 in Fayetteville, Tennessee, to Francis and Malinda (Morgan) Porterfield. When he was 8 years old his father moved the family to Nashville, where John attended the local schools. His father, Francis, died of cholera in Nashville in 1833. John volunteered during the Indian Wars in Florida and served under General Armstrong. He trained as a clerk and bookkeeper and was employed by various steamers, such as the W. L. Robinson, running between Nashville and New Orleans in 1837. Later, he entered the wholesale grocery business as a partner in Pilcher & Porterfield, and he began to work at his father-in-law's bank as a cashier for the Merchants Bank of Nashville. At the outbreak of the Civil War he owned and was President of the Traders Bank of Tennessee.

He left Tennessee for Europe and then settled in Quebec, Canada in 1862, and rented a house in Niagara-on-the-lake. During this time he thought up a plan to ruin the finances of the north by exchanging paper money for physical gold and shipping the gold out of the country. He was able to ship out about $2 million before the plan was uncovered, and he retreated back into Canada. After the war, he waited until President Andrew Johnson signed his amnesty proclamation in 1865 and returned to Nashville, where on February 16, 1867, he helped organize and was elected cashier of the Fourth National Bank of Nashville, charter 1669. John was active in state Democratic politics, and served on the state finance committee. He died after a brief illness at his home in Nashville on December 28, 1874, at the age of 55. He is buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, in Nashville.

Bank Officer Summary

During his banking career, John Porterfield was involved with the following bank(s):

  • Merchants Bank of Nashville, TN (Haxby TN-170): Cashier
  • Traders Bank of Tennessee, Nashville, TN (Haxby TN-200): President
$20 Original Series bank note with pen signatures of John Porterfield, Cashier and James Whitworth, President. Courtesy Heritage Auctions, www.ha.com


References

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