Gen. Andrew Porter
Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Revolutionary War officer; surveyor of western and northern State boundaries, 1784-87; Surveyor-General, 1809-13. Born near here, 1743; died at Harrisburg, 1813. His home, "Selma," is marked, a block distant.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Andrew Porter, born near this spot in 1743, served as an officer during the Revolutionary War and then turned his talents to mapping the young state, surveying Pennsylvania's western and northern boundaries between 1784 and 1787. He capped his career as the commonwealth's Surveyor-General from 1809 until his death in Harrisburg in 1813. His home, "Selma," is marked a block away.
Why it matters
Porter embodied the Revolutionary generation that first fought for the nation and then drew the very lines that gave its states their shape.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Andrew Porter was born near this spot in 1743, into a Pennsylvania that was still a British colony on the edge of a vast and imperfectly mapped continent. His was the generation that would carry the country through its Revolution and then face the harder, quieter work of building a nation once the fighting was done.
The Revolutionary War called men like him to arms, and Porter served as an officer in the cause of independence. But the marker is careful to show a second act to his life, one that belonged to the early Republic: the years after the war, when the new United States had to organize itself, define its territory, and put its states on a firm footing.
Much of that early work was literally about lines on the land. A young nation needed to know where its boundaries ran, where one jurisdiction ended and another began, before it could sell land, settle disputes, or govern its frontier. Surveying was not a dry technicality in those years — it was nation-building with chain and compass, and it demanded men who combined mathematical skill with the toughness to work in wild country.
People & events
Porter's career, as the marker records it, moved from the battlefield to the boundary line. Having served as a Revolutionary War officer, he turned his skills to surveying, and between 1784 and 1787 he helped fix the western and northern boundaries of the state — demanding, precise work carried out in rough frontier terrain in the first years after independence.
Decades later, his standing in the commonwealth was recognized when he was made Surveyor-General, the state's chief officer of surveys, a post he held from 1809 until his death. He died at Harrisburg in 1813, near the end of a long life of public service that had begun in the era of the Revolution.
The marker adds a personal touch: his home, called "Selma," is itself marked a block away. That detail roots the whole story in this neighborhood — the same ground where he was born in 1743 and to which he was tied throughout a career that spanned the birth of the nation.
Its place in the American story
Porter's life traces the full arc of the founding generation. First they fought to win independence; then they had to make something lasting out of it. The same men who took up arms in the 1770s spent the decades afterward doing the unglamorous work — surveying, governing, administering — that turned a wartime cause into a functioning country.
His surveying, in particular, connects to one of the young Republic's essential tasks. Boundaries had to be settled before land could be granted, taxed, and governed in an orderly way. Every accurate line a surveyor ran reduced the risk of future conflict and gave settlers and states a clear framework to build within. It was foundational work in the most literal sense.
That is why a man remembered today mainly through his home and his title deserves the notice this marker gives him. He stands for a whole class of Revolutionary veterans who never became famous but whose steady labor — mapping, measuring, serving in office — quietly assembled the nation that the more celebrated founders had proclaimed.
If you visit
The reward here is a short walk. From this marker, Porter's home, "Selma," is marked just a block away — so you can move from the sign that tells his story to the place where he actually lived. Take the few steps; a life feels far more real when you can stand where it was lived than when you only read a plaque.
As you go, remember that this was his home ground in the deepest sense. He was born near here in 1743 and remained connected to this corner of what is now Norristown across a career that reached from the Revolution to the early Republic. The neighborhood itself is the throughline.
For a traveler, this makes an ideal stop on a walk through the town's older streets — a small, human-scaled piece of Revolutionary and early national history tucked into an ordinary block. It's a chance to trade the grand narratives of the founding for the story of one man who fought for the country and then helped draw the very lines that gave his state its shape.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Attractions
- Discovery Center at East Park Reservoir13.1 mi away
- Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge13.4 mi away
- Philadelphia Zoo13.6 mi away
- American Bandstand13.8 mi away
- Rocky Steps14.5 mi away
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Related people
- · Andrew Porter
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Selma
Norristown, PA · est. 1949
Selma was the home of Andrew Porter, a general of the Revolution, but it is best remembered as the birthplace of his remarkable sons. David R. Porter became governor of Pennsylvania from 1839 to 1845; James M. Porter served as U.S. Secretary of War in 1843; and George B. Porter was governor of Michigan Territory from 1831 to 1834. From one Montgomery County household came a striking concentration of public service in the early republic.
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