A "Lost" Potter Found

I am happily working as a volunteer on the 1940 census indexing project. Living in Washington state, I've chosen Washington pages. Last evening I found a "stray" Potter lady-person living in Tower Pct, Cowlitz County, Washington on 23 April 1940:

Clem E. BARR, head, age 56, divorced, born Pennsylvania, occupation timber faller/log camp
Tilda POTTER, housekeeper, age 57, widowed, born Oregon
James LEE, grandson, age 6, born in Washington

Interesting to speculate on the dynamics represented here. Was Tilda born or did she become a POTTER?  Is Tilda POTTER the mother of James LEE? Was she Tilda POTTER LEE and resumed her maiden name? Or did she become Tilda POTTER after husband LEE died? Or is little James LEE not related to Tilda but to Clem.... James is his grandson?? Interesting, interesting. One more stray piece to the Potter puzzle.

A Potter Name Incribed

SGT ALBERT RAYMOND POTTER	SGT ALFRED N POTTER	SP4 DON POTTER
SGT JAMES FRANK POTTER	SSG JAMES RALPH POTTER	PFC JERRY LEE POTTER
CPL LARRY EMERSON POTTER	CPL NEIL WARREN POTTER	1LT PAUL D POTTER
SGT PAUL PRICE POTTER	CPL RAYMOND GEORGE POTTER	PFC RICHARD EDWARD POTTER
PFC ROBERT ALLAN POTTER	SP5 ROBERT GLEN POTTER	CPL WESLEY ROY POTTER
WO WILLIAM DON POTTER	LTC WILLIAM JOSEPH POTTER Jr	SGT WILLIAM STEVEN POTTER
CAPT WILLIAM TOD POTTER	BM1 WILLIAM VERNON POTTER

I did not know; there are 20 men surnamed Potter whose names are inscribed upon the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. I was there last week, spending spring break with son, Benjamin, and grandsons, Austin (13) and Grady (18). Along with hundreds of others, we filed slowly and silently past the black marble memorial to the fallen heroes of the Vietnam War. I did a tracing of the only Potter I spotted but a Google search brought me the names of the 19 others. There were tributes left even now and even still. A visit to this memorial should be on every American's bucket list.

Potters & Potter Info @ Ancestry.com

Did you realize what a wealth of information awaits you at www.Ancestry.com? And you don't have to pay for it if you cannot. Ancestry Library Edition (almost the full-meal-deal) is available via your local Family Search Center and/or your public library. Go ask! And then start seeking those illusive Potter ancestors!

Potter Family History

Potter Name Meaning

English, Dutch, and North German (Pötter): occupational name for a maker of drinking and storage vessels, from an agent derivative of Middle English, Middle Low German pot. In the Middle Ages the term covered workers in metal as well as earthenware and clay.

Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4

2,535,001 Historical Documents & Family Trees with Potter

• 548,676 Census and Voter Lists
• 42,178 Immigration Records
• 577,974 Birth, Marriage, and Deaths
• 1,280,569 Member Family Trees
• 85,604 Military Records
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Name Distribution of Potter Families

Well, I could not copy the map but the most Potter families were in New York; the next most populous states for Potters were MA-RI-CT-PA-OH.  And the last category were all the states east of the Mississippi River. 

Potter families in the U.S. in 1840, according to the U.S. Federal Census:

317 - 632  106 - 316

1 - 105

Potters in Indiana and North Carolina

Last December, I was doing some research on husband's lines and was into the county records of Pulaski County, Indiana and Rockingham County, North Carolina. Here are two "strays" that might help some Potter researcher:

Martha POTTER m. John SMITH, his will dated 12 Feb 1798, proved May 1798; children were Samuel John, Rachel (RUSSELL), Martha (CANTRELL), Lydda (WATERS), Mary (HUFF), Ann (BRITTON). In Rockingham County, North Carolina.


William E. POTTER, 1853-1914; wife Martha J., 1850-1924; and in the same plot: Robert PARMETER, 10 May 1911 to 12 Feb 1917, s/o Leonia POTTER PARMETER.  In the Winamac Cemetery, Winamac, Pulaski County, Indiana.

If you have any "stray Potters" this would be a good place to post that information so please do send them to me and I will post them.

Nicholas Potter of Salem, Massachusetts

Nicholas Potter of Salem penned his will on 10 August 1677.  He had a large posterity and there is much information on him and his descendants within the 3000 pages of Potter Profiles. 

In his will, Nicholas mentions his his "sonn" Robert and daughter Elizabeth (Newall), which were children by his first wife, and then his six children by his "last wife:"  Samuel, Benjamin, Sarah, Mary (Elson), Hannah, and Bethiah (Witt).  He also mentions his "brothers," Bartholomew Gidney and Eleazer Gidney, who were (I think) brothers of his first wife, who was Mary Gedney.

Nicholas was born circa 1604 in England and settled in Lynn, MA, as early as 1638 and later removed to Salem where he died on 18 October 1677. He married (1) Emma Knight and had Elizabeth (who married Thomas Newhall) and Robert who married Ruth Driver. He married (2) Alice Weeks but she died soon and they had no children. He married (3) Mary Gedney.

In my Potter Profiles, I designated this particular branch of Potters to be Branch 7. His will was transcribed and submitted by Dawna Lund, and was published in Profiles, Volume 5, 1985.  She said it came from The Probate Records of Essex County, Vol. 3, published in 1916 by the Essex Institute.

One Potter Lineage

Back in 1985, Barbara Bower-Raftery of Tacoma, Washington, submitted this lineage:

1. Nathaniel-1 POTTER, b. 1615 in England; m. Dorothy ALLEN; ch. Nathaniel-2, Ichabod, Abel.

2. Nathaniel-2 POTTER, b. 1637 in RI; m. Elizabeth STOKES; ch. Stokes, John, Nathaniel, William, Benjamin, Samuel-3, Mary, Rebecca, Elizabeth, Catherine, Ichabod, Ruth.

3. Samuel-3 POTTER, b. 1675, MA, m. Sarah BENTON; ch. Aaron-4, Nathaniel, Fear, Mary, Elizabeth, Benjamin & Samuel (twins), Job

4. Aaron-4 POTTER, b. 1701 in MA; m. Hopestill (HUMPHREY?); ch. John, Stoughton-5, Champlin, Thomas, Sarah

5. Stoughton-5 POTTER, b. 1725 in MA; m. Ruth WEAVER; ch. Humphrey-6, Ichabod, Sybil, Meribah

6. Humphrey-6 POTTER, b. ca. 1751; m. Mary SCRANTON; ch. Weaver-7, Benjamin, John , Stotin

7. Weaver -7 POTTER, b. 1777 in MA; m. Content/Temperance DREW; ch. William, David, Mary, Humphrey, Ruth, Benjamin-8, Warren, Charlotte, Effa

8. Benjamin-8 POTTER b. 1811 in PA; m. Hannah PLANTS; ch. John Maxwell-9, William

9. John Maxwell-9 POTTER, b. 1836 in WV; m. Anna Jane PEARSON; ch. Ella Jane, David Bradford-10, Mary Elizabeth, Edward Orr

10. David Bradford-10 POTTER, b. 1863 in WV; m. Jane Moss MOORE; ch. Paul, Charles Edward-11, Floyd Marling, David Timmons, Jay Moore

11. Charles Edward-11 POTTER, b. WV; m. Barbara Elizabeth HEIDNER; ch. Jane Elizabeth, Helen Ann-12, Thomas Moore

12. Helen Ann-12 POTTER, b. 1924 in MT; m. Robert Oral BOWER; ch. Barbara Anne-12, Richard Thomas, Mary Christine

13. Barbara Anne -13 BOWER, b. 1945; m. Thomas Lee Raftery.

For a more complete listing of Barbara's lineage, see Potter Profiles, Vol. 5, p. 31..... and in subsequent volumes. Barbara shared a good deal of information on her line which I dubbed Branch 3.

My Civil War Potter Ancestor

It's time to come clean; I have a questionably shameful ancestor story and it concerns my direct line Potter ancestor. My Matthew Potter, 1838-1902, was a Civil War veteran. He married my ancestor, Lydia Temple, and then in 1878, he married Sarah Hendricks. (Lots of detail; no need to rehash it all here.) His obituary in the Belleville, St.Clair County, Illinois, newspaper spoke of him as a "loving and lovable father" to his many children.

But.  In 1924, when widow Sarah was trying yet again to get a pension because she had been married to a Civil War veteran, she was yet again rejected (because she remarried). But in a typed affidavit, she explains, "I divorced him on account of I caught him in a vile sexual act with a chicken.....after which he beat me, and threw me out of the house in my nightclothes............... (more)."

As a genealogy teacher, I never have a problem with folks fearing to trace their ancestry for worry over finding a horse thief!! Nobody has yet topped my very-true story.