Moses Porter was born about 1758 or 1759 in Hartford County, Connecticut to David Porter and Margaret Olmstead. He was baptized there on July 14, 1759. He was first married in 1785 to Mercy Deming. They moved to Bristol in Ontario County, New York, where Moses was elected Commissioner of Highways in 1797. Moses and Mercy had as many as nine children, some of which were still young when Mercy died in 1811. Moses married again in 1815 to Euzubia Chamberlain Perkins, a young widow, 23 years younger than him. Together they had five children.
From his application for a Revolutionary War pension made in 1818 while living in Ontario County, New York, and from military records, we know that Moses was a young man of about 18 when he enlisted in the service of the United States and served for one year. Four months later, in April of 1777, he enlisted again and served another six years as a Private in Captain William’s Company, and Colonel Samuel B. Webb’s and Colonel Ebenezer Huntington’s Connecticut Infantry Regiments, until he was discharged on June 7, 1783. His regiment first saw action at the Battle of Setauket in August of 1777. They spent that winter at West Point, where they assisted with the construction of fortifications. Other battles that Moses Porter would have participated in include the Battle of Rhode Island in August of 1778 and the Battle of Springfield in June of 1780.
Moses and Euzubia moved to the new state of Michigan in 1838 to live with their children. Moses died on May 8, 1840, age 82.