Fred J. Porter was the great-grandson of Benton County pioneer Johnson Mulkey, who in the winter of 1845 filed a land claim for 640 acres along Oak Creek on the north side of Baldy Mountain, only a few months after Joseph Conant Avery, the first known settler, filed his claim at the confluence of the Willamette and Mary's Rivers. Both men were constructing log cabins during the winter and spring of 1846, and after Mulkey's cabin was finished he returned to Missouri to bring out his wife and seven children. In October 1847, as captain of his wagon train, Mulkey brought his wagons to the Whitman Mission near present day Walla Walla, Washington, where his people rested before proceeding to the Willamette Valley; a month later, on November 29, 1847, the Whitman family and their guests at the mission were killed in an Indian attack. The house was built in 1887 by Samuel T. Jefferys, a lawyer and Benton County's representative to the Oregon Legislature, and when he moved to Alaska it was sold to Flora and Johnson Mulkey Porter. Fred Porter moved there with his parents, later returned with his wife, Ida Eberting Porter, and the first of their two sons, and during their time there the automobile ramp to the basement at the southwest corner was built. An early auto enthusiast, Fred drove a red Buick while courting Ida in 1917. During forty years as Corvallis City Engineer, he saw the city grow from a population of 4,552 to 16,207 as public transportation shifted from riverboats and trains to autos and trucks and paved streets, water supply, and sewerage disposal became expected services; his professional expertise was vital to the city's orderly expansion.