Saturday, October 24, 2015

Marguerite Potter, A 1938 Mystery Lady


On 14 July 1938, in Walla Walla (city and county), Washington, a Marguerite Potter signed as a witness to the marriage of Paul W. Beebe and Wilma Goldsmith. Paul and Wilma were "of Lewiston, Idaho," which is 100 miles east of Walla Walla.

I checked the 1930 and 1940 for Idaho and Washington for all these names and came with: NADA.

So does any Potter Profiles reader have information to identify this Marguerite Potter???

Monday, October 19, 2015

Potter Insanity Case, 1888, Washington

Our wonderful Washington State Digital Archives (www.digitalarchives.wa.gov) is a free and wonderful source for those researching in the Evergeen State.

One of the databases on the Washington Digital Archives site is Frontier Justice. Spokane case #133 was in 1886 for one Reuben B. Potter, insanity. My interest piqued, I did some further looking.

The 1883 census of Garfield County, shows R.B. Potter, age 42, b. NY, a mechanic;  Viola Potter, age 32, b. NY; A. H. Potter (son), age 15, b. IL;  G.H. Potter (son), age 13, b. IL; and Minnie E. Potter, age 12, b. IL.

The 6 Apr 1885 census for Pomeroy, Garfield County, shows R.B. Potter, age 44, b. NY, farmer; Viola E. Potter, age 38, b. NY; Albert H. Potter, age 18 and Minne E. Potter, age 12.

The 1887 census adds confusing evidence:  H.C. Potter, age 55, b. NY, Viola E. Potter, age 38, b. NY; R.B. Potter, age 45, b. NY;  George Potter, age 18, b. NY; and Minnie Potter, age 14, b. NY.

So why, in 1888, did Viola E. Potter, plaintiff, divorce Reuben B. Potter in Garfield County? 

And why is their case listed as "probate" with case type as "insanity" in case #133?? 

Guess it's up to descendants to solve this mystery.

I can add that I did find that in 1910, Albert E. Potter, age 43, b. IL, was living in Vancouver, Clark County, Washington.

And Minnie E. Potter m. George T. PICKETT on 9 Mar 1904 in Clark County.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Potters...... there and everywhere..., gleanings.

List of Officers & Men of Middlesex (MA) Militia who served in the Revolutionary War:

Rheben Potter,  Enoch Potter, Joseph Potter, Gilbert Potter, Robert Potter


Portrait & Biographical History of Orange County, New York

p. 240:  Mary Potter, of Highland Falls, m. Jerome DENNA  in June 1878; she was b. 15 Feb 1860 in Orange Co, d/o George and Nancy Potter.

p. 423:  George W. FLOOD, b. 8 Oct 1863 in Highland Falls,  m. Charlotte Potter, a native of Ft. Montgomery, NY, ten children.

p. 838:  Restcome Potter CONKLIN, b. 14 Oct 1847, in Chester, Orange County, is a descendant through his mother of Judge Platt Potter, "eminent jurist and author."

p. 1316:  Byron S. Dayton, b. 12 Jul 1847 in Napanoch, Ulster County, NY, m. Lydia Potter in Omaha, NE, in 1870;  she was b. in Potterville in Ulster County, d/o Francis Potter, "a lumberman of that county."

p. 1435:  William Reid THOMAS, on 30 Jun 1872, was ordained a Deacon by the Rt-Rev. Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York.


Genealogies of Long Island Families (From the NYG&B) comp. by Henry Hoff, 1987

p. 446:  James Addison Potter, of Lansing, MI, m. Phebe GELSTON, d/ Rev. Maltby GELSTON. She was b. 15 Sep 1803; d. 29 Apr 1841; m. 11 Dec 1821 and had these children:  Clark, Addison, Maltby Gelston, Maltby, Betsey, George Washington, Henry Martin, James Additon, and Phebe Jane.

p. 473:  Richard HARCURT, b.ca. 1623, d. aft. 2 May 1696, m. (1) ca. 1651 Elizabeth POTTER, b.ca. 1535, d/o Robert and Isabel (ANTHONY) Potter.

p. 559:  Hannah HAUGHWOUT, b. 1809, d/o John (1770-1843) and Nancy DAVIS, m. 1831 to James Potter.



Anthony Potter's wife........ Whipple? Stone?

NEXUS was/is the newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. This errata was from Gary Boyd Roberts.... this tidbit was shared by PP reader AJSWTLK@gmail.com: 

NEXUS 6(1989):110, 205; 7(1990):157, 210: Several readers, most notably Frank Bush Stone of Summit, N.J., have written that the mother of the children of Anthony Potter (ca. 1627-1689/90) of Ipswich, Mass., was not Elizabeth Whipple, his first wife, but Elizabeth Stone, his second, daughter of the immigrants Gregory Stone and Mrs. Lydia (___) Cooper (a second wife), and niece of Simon Stone of Watertown.  

See J.G. Bartlett, Gregory Stone Genealogy (1918), p. 65 (plus pp. 59-60 for a transcription of Gregory Stone’s will, wherein his daughter Elizabeth Potter is given the first legacy) and Mr. Stone’s own Stone, Grover, Ball and Everett Ancestry (1990), pp. 5-2, 5-2A, and 5-3.  To my chagrin, the source I cited on the Whipples - M.L. Holman, Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury, vol. 1 (1938), pp. 43-48 also clearly indicates that Elizabeth Stone, no Whipple, was the mother of Anthony Potter’s children.

Anthony and Elizabeth (Stone) Potter were ancestors of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jr. and of the famed Peabody sisters of Salem, one of whom was Hawthorne’s wife. John and Susanna (       ___) Whipple, parents of the childless Elizabeth (Whipple) Potter, were also ancestors of poet James Russell Lowell, feminist Susan Brownell Anthony, and Red Cross founder Clara Barton, all treated in “Notable Kin” columns cited above. In addition, Matthew and Joan (___) Whipple of Bocking, Essex, grandparents of Elizabeth (Whipple) Potter, were also forebears, through another granddaughter (Elizabeth Whipple, daughter of Matthew and Anne [Hawkins] and wife of Jacob Perkins), of Presidents Coolidge an F.D. Roosevelt. Thus this correction affects various kinships among these notables.  

In particular, via Cogswells or Lawrences, Hawthorne retains a kinship with Coolidge and (probably) FDR, as do the Peabody sisters through Hunts; J.R. Lowell and Clara Barton lose any kinship, via American forebears, with Hawthorne or the Peabody sisters; but Susan B. Anthony retains a kinship with both Hawthorne and the Peabodys via Stones (Anthony ancestor Simon Stone, Jr. 

[NEXUS 7:157], husband of Mary Whipple, was the son of Simon Stone of Watertown, above, & Joan Clark, and grandson of David Stone & Ursula ___. Sec J.G. Bartlett, Simon Stone Genealogy [1926], pp. 36-56).  

With Hawthorne and Lowell disconnected, the former is related to only four of the 15 figures covered in the “Flowering of New England” series, and the latter to six; and with the Peabody sisters and Barton unrelated, of the 16 prominent nineteenth-century women treated as “heroines” last year, the Peabodys can each be connected with three others, and Barton with six.  GBR

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Potters in St. Clair County, Illinois


St. Clair County, Illinois, is directly east from St.Louis, Missouri, and across the Mississippi River.

While browsing through the St. Clair County Genealogical Society Quarterly, I found these stray Potters.......... and some data are for neighboring counties:

Charity POTTER married Ninian E. CARR on 20 Jan 1846 in St. Clair Co.

James POTTER died on 19 Jan 1870, age 40, and is buried in the Richland Baptist Cemetery, Prairie DuLong, St. Clair County.

James POTTER, age 32, Peoria, had his eyes injured in a powder explosions on 14 Mar 1901 in St. Clair County.

Edwin Potter, age 25, married Velda JONES, age 19, on 21 Jul 1902 in the Marissa Methodist Episcopal Church

Robert POTTER married Orvilla Ann BAGLEY on 6 Sep 1849 in St. Clair County.

Matthew POTTER is listed in the "Patron Directory", Illustrated Historical Atlas of St. Clair County, Illinois, 1874..... Matthew Potter, age 29, farmer, settled in the county in 1838.

Hope this supplies new information to some one of you Potter researchers.