Henry Melville "Mel" Potter had a rough start in life. His father, Francis Matthew Potter, worked construction for the Santa Fe RR and on a hot July day in 1894, he was killed in an accident. Mel was only 6 years old the oldest of four children. They were living in Pawnee County, Kansas, a long way from home. His mother Wanda (nee Goss) was left a widow at age 23. These circumstances directed his life for the next 20 years. Mel didn't marry until he was 29 because of having to help support his mother. (He married Efa Hope Carr.) Mel apparently had no formal training for an occupation for he worked for the Post Office and then in the local prison as a guard. He also helped take the 1920 census where he lived in Nashville, Illinois, and it is such fun to read the names in his handwriting.
I do not remember him well; we lived way out in California and he lived in Illinois and as my Dad was in the Air Force we did not get "back east" as often as we would have liked. I remember one really good picture of him and grandma Efa...... he was very tall and she was very short so she had to stand on a box!
My entire Potter ancestry is posted on Ancestry's Family Trees. Someday I expect to get a great big bear hug from Grandpa Mel.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Potter in Arkansas??
My good friend, LindaSue Davis, shared her Potter Profiles "need" with me for you: "I have Potters! I just found them! The oldest so far is Jonas Potter, b. 1822 in Ohio, died in Arkansas; his son David Potter was born in Missouri in 1857 and died in Indian Territory, Oklahoma, in 1914. And his son, Arthur Lonza Potter was born in Oklahoma in 1909 and died in Lane County, Oregon, in 1980. Contact LindaSue at LDavis@yumaregional.org . |
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