Mr. Henry Dave Porter came to Marceline in 1890 and began work as a contractor and carpenter. He built the Carnegie Library on California Street and the I.O.O.F. building on Kansas Avenue. He also built school buildings in adjoining towns and one in New Cambria, Missouri. Mr. Porter and family lived at 624 North Missouri Avenue. His children were sons, George, David, Harold, Theodore, and Clarence, and a daughter, Edith.