This representative business man of the City of Wichita was about twenty years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Kansas, and he had since continued his residence within the borders of the Sunflower State, where he had been long and prominently identified with the retail drug business, of which he is now a leading representative in the City of Wichita, his attractive drug store, metropolitan in equipment and appointments, being eligibly situated on East Douglas Avenue, in the College Hill District of the city.
Frank S. Porter was born in the Village of Rushsylvania, Logan County, Ohio, on the 6th of July, 1866, and is a son of Robert B. Porter, who was born in West Virginia and who was a miller by trade. For a long period of years Robert B. Porter operated a flour mill at Roshsylvania, Ohio, from which place he finally removed with his family to Urbana, that state, where he became the owner of a large mill. In 1876 he established a retail drug store at Paulding, the little city that is the judicial center of the Ohio County of the same name, and this he placed under the active supervision of his elder son, Don M. In 1886 he disposed of his varied business and real-estate interests in Ohio and came with his family to Kansas. The home was established at Larned, and there Robert B. Porter continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1894. He served as a valiant soldier of the Union in the Civil war, in which he was a member of an Ohio regiment of volunteer infantry.
In the public schools of his native village Frank S. Porter acquired his early educational discipline, and after leaving school he became a clerk in his father’s drug store at Paulding, where he gained a thorough and practical knowledge of pharmacy and where he continued his association with the drug business until he accompanied his parents to Kansas, in 1886. He found employment in drug stores at Larned and Great Bend during the interval between 1886 and 1890, and in the latter year he became associated with his brother, Herbert M., in organizing the Porter Drug Company, which established well equipped drug stores at Larned, Newton and Kinsley, In 1900 the stock at Newton was removed to Great Bend, and in 1904 Frank S. Porter sold his interest in the other stores and assumed full ownership and control of the business at Great Bend. There he conducted the enterprise successfully until 1908, when he sold the stock and business to good advantage. In 1910 he removed to Wichita, where he had since maintained his home, and in August, 1914, he opened his present drug store, in which he had built up a substantial, profitable and representative trade.
On the 30th of April, 1889, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Porter to Miss Elizabeth O. Campbell, of Larned, this state, and they are popular factors in the social activities of their home community, even as Mr. Porter is known as a progressive business man and loyal and public-spirited citizen. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Porter are Amy M. and Baird C., both of whom remain at the parental home and the latter of whom is, in 1916, a student in the Wichita High School.