Potters in Anderson County, Texas Prior to1900

From the book "Pioneer Families of Anderson County, Texas, Prior to 1900,"  published by the Anderson County Genealogical Society (no date), page 294:

Silas Potter was born in 1813 in Tennessee. He and his wife, Rachel Amos, born 1826, died about 1861, were living in Cherokee County, Alabama in 1840. They apparently were newlyweds, as there were no children in their household at that time. An older woman between the ages of 60-70 was living with them. In 1850 and 1860 they lived in Dekalb County, Alabama, and their family had grown to ten children, all born in Alabama. They were:

1. Frances Marion, b. 1841
2. Nancy Elizabeth, twin, b. 1843, d. 2 Mar 1912, m. George Coffee. 
3. Sylvia, twin, by 1843, died young.
4. Rachel, b. 1844, d. 15 Jan 1926, m. Will Geiger.
5. James H., b. 1849.
6. daughter possibly named Emily, who died young
7. Eliza Ann, b. 1853, m. Joseph Miller.
8. Martha Caroline, b. 1855, d. 7 Dec 1922, m. Thomas J. Marlin.
9. John Cobb, b. 1857, d. 1910, m. #1 Susie Mitchell; m. #2 Sarah Frances Mobley.
10. William Washington, b. 26 Aug 1858, d. 26 Feb 1939, m. #1 Sarah Baker, m. #2 Dola Ines Bridges.

A farmer and boot maker by trade, Silas came to Anderson County about 1880 and remained there the rest of his life. All of the children made the move to Texas except Francis Marion, James H., and the two daughters who died young. 

Silas Potter died on 14 Jul 1892 and is buried in the Palestine City Cemetery, Old City Section 1.

*** Submitted (to the book) by Mrs. Johnnie Potter Ayo

Potters, Members of Phi Delta Phi, 1930-1950

I recently browsed in a large volume titled The Directory of the International Legal Fraternity of Phi Delta Phi, 1930-1950. Here were the Potters listed in this directory:

Potter, Bruce Boyd,  Holmes '24,  Blackwell, Oklahoma
Potter, Charles A., Jr., Langdell '49, St. Charles, Illinois
Potter, Edward H., Taft '29,  Jamaica, New York
Potter, Edwin O., Chase '90
Potter, Elbert K., Miller '02, Los Angeles, California
Potter, Ellis David, Harlan, '22
Potter Fred Hall, Jr., Langdell & Ames, '40, Rock Island, Illinois
Potter, Fred W. Jr., Langdell '32,  Chicago, Illinois
Potter, George, E., Green, '98
Potter, Harry, Cooley, 05
Potter Henry J., Conkling '89,  d. 23 Feb 1929
Potter, Howard C., Tiedeman, '33, Springfield, Missouri
Potter Hugh, Roberts, '13,  Houston, Texas
Potter, Jack D., Lincoln, '37, Lincoln, Nebraska
Potter, James A., Tiedeman, '05, Jefferson City, Missouri
Potter, John C., Harlan, '04, d. April 1920
Potter, Louis D., Tiedeman, '22, Racine, Wisconsin
Potter Mark Winslow, Field, '88
Potter, Maurice A., Field, '22, Long Branch, New Jersey
Potter, Meredith, Daniels, '00,  Buffalo, New York
Potter, Raymond J., Jones '38, Vallejo, California
Potter, Robert D., Hughes, '50, Wilmington, North Carolina
Potter, Robert S., Jr., Minor, '48, Manchester, Massachusetts
Potter, Thaddeus S., Chase, '91
Potter, Truman Addison, Dillon, ?, St. Paul, Minnesota
Potter, Whitney W., Tiedeman, '41, St. Joseph, Missouri
Potter, William S., Minor, '27, Wilmington, Delaware

James Potter, 1736-1804, m. Abigail Barnes, Connecticut & New York

I called this lineage Branch 82 and it appeared in Potter Profiles, Vol. 12, 1987:

1. Dr. James Potter, 1736-1804, Sherman, CT, m. Abigail Barnes, 1743-1817.

2. William Cicero Potter, b. 1773 in Sherman, CT; d. 1856 in Orleans Co, NY; m. Nancy Anna Hubbell, 1776-1854.

3.  Herman Boerhave Potter, b. 1804 in Sherman, CT;  d. 1880 in GalesBurg, IL; m. Minerva L'Hommedieu, 1804-1892.

4.  Leander Hubbell Potter, b. 1829 in Orleans Co, NY; d. 1879 in Galesburg, IL; m. Martha Irwin, 1851-1935.

5.  Herman Hubbell Potter, b. 1879 in Galesburg, NY; d. 1966 in Madison, IN; m. Virginia Lois Wymond, 1887-1918.

6.  Charles Wymond Potter, b. 1915 in Madison, IN; m. Betty Jane Andrews.

This lineage was submitted by Charles Potter of Ocala, Florida.

Thanks to Google Images for this map showing the whereabouts of Sherman, Connecticut:

Potter Towns

Perhaps the most famous town with the Potter name, Pottersville, comes from the Jimmy Stewart Christmas classic movie, It's A Wonderful Life. Who hasn't seen this wonderful movie and longed for an angel to ring a bell on their behalf??

I've learned that there are other, real-life, towns and counties bearing the Potter name:

Potter, Yates County, New York..... named for Arnold Potter, the first proprietor
Potter Township and County, Pennsylvania..... named for Gen. James Potter, Revolutionary officer
Potter County, South Dakota ............ named for a prominent physician in the state
Potter County, Texas ............... named for Robert Potter, temporary secretary of the Texas Navy in 1836

Potter Hollow, a village in Albany County, New York.......... named for Samuel Potter

Potterville, Eaton County, Michigan......... named for Linus Potter who settled his family there in 1844

Pottersville, unincorporated village in Bedminster County, New Jersey
Pottersville, unincorporated village in Howell County, Missouri

Did I miss any?

** I do remember that Robert Potter, in Texas in 1836, was quite a character. In one volume of Potter Profiles I included a newspaper sketch of his colorful life.

Potter Query: Line of Nathaniel Potter (ca 1615-1664).

On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 8:03 PM, Mike and Cassy Palmer <mcpalmer7@roadrunner.com> wrote:

Hi Donna, my name is Mike Palmer and I spend way too much of my free time on my genealogy hobby.  I published my book in 2011 but my research continues.

Tonight I am researching a certain Alvin Jered Potter who married Harriett Reynolds.  While I have found various records detailing his descendants, I found this on an old message board:

Found in "Potter Profiles" vol.17, p.42-43: [John Reynolds Potter line - somewhat abbreviated here]

1. #1 Nathaniel Potter (ca.1615-1664 RI) m. Dorothy ___
2. #2 Nathaniel Potter (1637-1704) m. Elizabeth Stokes
3. #6 Nathaniel Potter (1669 MA-1736) m. Joan Wilbour
4. #376 William Potter (1689 MA-1777 RI) m. Mary Brownell
5. #382 David Potter (1722 MA-1801 RI) m.1748/9 Susanna(h) Barber
6. #569 David Potter (1767 RI-1834 NY) m. Hannah Wilkinson
7. #907+ John Reynolds Potter (1811 NY-) m.1835 Charlotte Knapp
8. #934 Alvin Jered Potter (1836 NY-1893 MI) m.1866 Harriet Reynolds; Alvin d. in Scottville, Mason, MI, m. in MI
9. [#934.1] Edna Sedenia Potter (1871 MI-1951 WA) m.1903 Charles Near; Edna b. in Hastings, Barry, MI, m. in Scottville, Mason, MI
10. Helen Maxine Near (1905 MI-) m.1927 Robert Blaine Thurston; Helen b. in Scottville, Mason, MI, m. in Vancouver, WA
[etc.]

Can you tell me, how is this book, Potter Profiles, volume 17?   I want to cite my source correctly.

  

It's #8,9,10 above that interests me.

Thank you,   Mike Palmer,   Winterport, Maine

Notes on Daniel Potter, wife Lydia Hale, early 1800s in New York, Part 6

Back in Potter Profiles, Vol. 11, March 1987, Virginia Zadorozny (who lived in Palmyra, NY) sent this material as it pertained to her line. She added this note that came with the material:  "This chapter on the Potters was written by Clayton Buell Potter, grandson of Daniel Potter and Lydia Hale. It is included in a handwritten book compiled in 1909 by Edward Augustus Parks, the stepson of Clayton's sister, Cassandana Potter Parks.

Part 6:

"I remember some of the sentiments of war times. Edgar was at the front and in the Army of the Potomac and like most of the soldiers at the time in that department was under the personal magnetism of General George B. McClellan. Mother took issue. She did not believe in the loyalty or the honesty of "Little Mac." Edgar did, for a time, and would wind up his letter with "Hurrah for Little Mac!" Mother would not hurrah for him until he did something to hurrah for and she would rather have the soldiers have some chance in the game for coming out alive instead of being held in that dismal swamp to die of malaria faster than they could have been shot by the rebels. She believed that Gen. McClelland was so much in sympathy with the South that he was nearly if not quite a traitor. And Edgar, after the long weary months of promises of Mc. to move and fight , and after Lincoln had pleaded month after month and Mc. continued to remain inactive, finally acknowledged that Mother was right and he wrote to that effect." 

THE END

A summary of this family as gleaned from the above is:

Daniel Potter married Lydia Hale and they had Allen, Clarissa, David, William, Daniel, Joseph, Hannah, Silas and Achsah. 

Joseph Potter (who d. 8 Apr 1882) married Mary Eunice Wylie (who d. 4 Dec 1883). They had:

     1. Cassandana Louise on 22 Deb 1838, m. Samuel Orlando Parks

     2.  Edgar Wylie on 25 Mary 1840; d. 30 May 1864 at Cold Harbor, VA.

     3.  Stanley Noble on 21 Jul 1842; m. Laura Cheney and had:  E. Clifford, Mable, Mildred, Theo,

                                              Gilman and an unnamed infant.

     4.  Irving Delmont, b/d/ ca 1845

     5.  unnamed son, b/d ca 1846

     6.  Ellen Lavancha on 30 Jun 1850; m. Lewis King; she d. 7 Oct 1903

     7.  Lydia Arnot Augusta on 30 Jun 1850; m. Lorentus S. Edson; had: Lena (m. Ira Marble) and Edgar

     8.  Clayton Buell on 9 Sep 1852; m. 12 Oct 1876 to Jane Whetmuth; had:  Mary Walker, Ada

                                               Whetmuth, Frederick Clayton, Alice Louise, Ethel Wylie and Edgar Lamont

     9.  Lorenzo Warderell on 10 Apr 1855; d. 1856.

    10. Argus Lamont on 22 Sep 1857; m. Clare Wright; had: Earl Lamont;  Argus d. 5 Aug 1883. 

Notes on Daniel Potter & wife Lydia Hale, early 1800s in New York, Part 5

Back in Potter Profiles, Vol. 11, March 1987, Virginia Zadorozny (who lived in Palmyra, NY) sent this material as it pertained to her line. She added this note that came with the material:  "This chapter on the Potters was written by Clayton Buell Potter, grandson of Daniel Potter and Lydia Hale. It is included in a handwritten book compiled in 1909 by Edward Augustus Parks, the stepson of Clayton's sister, Cassandana Potter Parks.

Part 5:

"The last of the family births was Argus Lamont Potter, born on September 22nd, 1857. He was the brightest of the family, easy and quick to learn. I recall one winter when our school dwindled to a failure, Lamont and I went to the Lime Lake school taught by Flotilla Watson and she was par excellent. Figuring closely, I think Lamont was 6 years old. He wore a waist to which his trousers were buttoned. When he took his place in the highest reading class in school he stood beside a boy three times his age and twice his size holding his side of the Sanders 4th Reader and having to reach up to meet the other's height, look up to see the page-eyes as black and shining as jets, and the whole school brought to silent amazement for he could read better than any of them. Later in life he married Clara Wright and one son, Earl Lamont Potter, was born to them. This brother of mine was of genial happy disposition and was loved by everyone who knew him. He used to write up weekly news items for the county papers. They were always interesting articles and most happily written and he surely made his mark. He took up carpentering and was successful until overcome by typhoid fever, dying on August 5th, 1883, aged 24 years, 10 months and 13 days.

"On April 8th, 1882, father died of pneumonia and only four months after Lamont's death, on December 4th, 1883, mother died. She was the one person that I have known who did not in the least fear death. She had suffered with inflammatory rheumatism and her sight had failed and she could no longer read and could no longer do much to help anyone else and felt that she had done what she could and did not want to be a care of burden to anyone and was ready and anxious for the change and she felt to know it would be better. We had been summoned and were gathered at the old Homestead and on that morning we were at the breakfast table and I was where I could see her on the bed in the adjoining room. I have never known what or how to describe it, but something occurred and I said, 'it has come,' and was at her bedside at once. She said, 'is this death?' And I said, 'Yes, Mother, it surely is present.' She was conscious and knew all of us and had words of kindness and wisdom for each and passed away without struggle, fear or dread. She had lived, practiced and died in the faith of a true Christian.

"If I knew how, I would like to emphasize the fact of this woman's intellectual character and her remarkable executive ability. I have never known another woman who had more than a slight beginning toward accomplishing work of any nature that my mother had. Her house was always clean, her work about the house was always up and done with nothing hanging about and her cooking could not be beaten. I am amazed when I think of her taking the flax as it came from the hitchel and weaving it into the linen homespun suits for the men or into handsome patterns for table linen and towels  and weaving handsome bedspreads, quilting, knitting, darning, sewing of all kinds, shirts and collars, vest coats and trousers for the men and all the clothing for the girls. Then there were the carpets, hundreds of yards of them and the coloring, etc. 

(To be continued.......)

Notes on Daniel Potter & wife Lydia Hale, early 1800s in NY, Part 4

Back in Potter Profiles, Vol. 11, March 1987, Virginia Zadorozny (who lived in Palmyra, NY) sent this material as it pertained to her line. She added this note that came with the material:  "This chapter on the Potters was written by Clayton Buell Potter, grandson of Daniel Potter and Lydia Hale. It is included in a handwritten book compiled in 1909 by Edward Augustus Parks, the stepson of Clayton's sister, Cassandana Potter Parks.

Part 4:

"The next two children of Joseph and Mary Potter were Irving Delmont and an un-named son, the former living but a few months and the latter but 21 days. Then on February 24th 1848 was born Ellen Lavancha who was a beautiful character and had one of the sweetest self-sacrificing dispositions carried to a point of actual self-sacrifice to a grasping selfish man that would and did let her suffer and die rather than provide suitable nourishment and care in her sickness. She died on October 7, 1903, aged 55 years and 7 months. It is told to me that her husband insisted in burying her in the old ground at Elton where the grave dug for her was nearly half full of water when they lowered in the coffin. It might have cost him forty dollars for a whole lot in a decent place. He was abundantly able and she had helped him to become so. She left a daughter, Lora. 

"In the town of Farmersville on June 30, 1850, was born another daughter who is still living in the old Homestead and in that sentence is shown the true spirit of Lydia Arnot Augusta Edson, nee Potter. Such a noble home lover could not be content away from the place of her birth. She would not consider any money value as an inducement to leave the old associations where she had been from earliest childhood and was a friend to every animal on the place. She had a chord of affection for each one that made them all as members of the family and a heart so tender that it responded to the suffering and weeps at the death of a horse, a cow or a sheep. Augusta married Lorentus S. Edson somewhere about 1870. They were a devoted couple and he was a man of the most sterling quality. His devotion to his wife could only be surpassed by his wife's devotion to him. They had two children, both now living. Lena, the wife of Ira Marble and Edgar as yet unmarried. As these children develop the character of their parents becomes more and more prominent.

"When Augusta and I were young, we were constant companions. We can remember the old log house a little and I can remember the partly built new frame house but do not remember the transfer from the old to the new. Augusta and I used to yoke the oxen and hitch them to the stone boat and draw stones from the fields or hitch them to the stumps and old logs and haul them together and burn them, thus contributing in play quite an item toward clearing the farm. We would tap from 50 to 75 maple trees each spring and do all the work of making sugar when we were 8 and 10 years old. We would gather up the sap and tote it to the boiling place, let it boil into syrup and then carry it to the house...and sometimes the snow was deep...it would be late at night before we could get through. We have lost all of a day's labor by having the snow slump underfoot or stubbing our tired toes and spilling the syrup. I think we know the old farm better than any others. 

"The next of the family of Joseph and Mary was born on September 9th, 1852. I am told that the name of Clayton was given by Aunt Augusta Wylie and the other by Joseph who had admiration for the contractor of a railroad that was begun and never finished and as I write, that may seem quite typical, too, for I am certain he had aims, ambitions and hopes that he has never had the power to realize.

"In 1876, October 12th, at 6 o'clock in the morning were married Clayton Buell Potter and Alice Jane Whetmath in the village of Geneseo, Livingston County, New York, where they lived till May 1891 and then moved to Albany, New York. Their children are Mary Walker Bosboro (who married in 1902 and has three children), Ada Whetmuth, Frederick Clayton and Alice Louise. Alice Louise married in 1907 to a Rulison and has one child, a son named James Potter Rulison. Ethel Wylie Potter and Edgar Lamont Potter, and two, Fanny and Harriott, died in infancy and are buried in Temple Hill Cemetery.

"As to ourselves, others may write or talk but we ahve as good and honorable children as are born to man. 

"The next of father's family was Lorenzo Warderell Potter and he was born on April 10th, 1855 and then died when 10 months and 28 days of age. 

(To be continued.......)

Chester A. Potter, 1891-1947, s/o Alfred.

Spotted these two stones in Pines Cemetery, in Spokane Valley, Washington. According to the U.S. censuses and our Washington Digital Archives website, here is what I learned about these Potters:

Chester A. Potter was born in 1893 in Iowa, the son of Alfred and Emma U. Potter. He died on 25 Oct 1947 in Yardley, Spokane Co, WA.  All his life he had been a railroad car inspector. Nellie or Nelly M. was born in 1889, also in Iowa,  and died in 1961.

In the 1920 census, the couple were living in Malden, Washington with John F. Kight, age 69, born Iowa and his wife Cornelia R., aage 68, also born in Iowa. John Kight was a railroad bridge carpenter. Chester A. and Nellie M. were both 27, born in Iowa.

By the 1930 census, they were living in Spokane. Chester was a railway inspector. Also in the household were John F. Knight, father-in-law, age 79, b. Iowa, and Cornelia R., mother-in-law, born Ohio. (??)

On the 1940 census, Chester A. and Nelly M. were still in Spokane. He was a railroad car inspector; he had education only through the 8th grade; he owned his house; he had worked 39 weeks in 1939. Also living with them were Milton L. Kight, age 63, brother-in-law, born Iowa, and Cornelia R. Kight, mother-in-law, age 89, born Ohio.

It does appear that Chester and Nellie had no descendants; please add any information YOU know about this couple. (Note the different spellings: Kight - Knight.)