BIO: POTTER Family, Centre County, Pennsylvania
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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc.
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 109-110
THE POTTERS of Centre county. A. Boyd Hamilton, late of Harrisburg, Penn.,
says that John Potter, the first American ancestor of the Potter family, was
a native of Tyrone, Ireland, of Scotch parentage, born about the year 1705.
He immigrated with his family to America in 1741, aboard the good ship
Dunnegal, landing at New Castle, Delaware, in September of that year. He
removed west of the river as early as 1746, and settled in Antrim township
(now Franklin county), near Greencastle. In the early French war of 1747-48,
he was in the service as a first lieutenant, and took an active part in the
Indian war following Braddock's defeat. On the erection of Cumberland
county, in 1750, he, on October 6th of that year, was commissioned its first
sheriff, and again commissioned sheriff in 1753. On February 17, 1756, he
was commissioned a captain in the Second Pennsylvania Battalion, and
accompanied Col. Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning September 7, 1756.
He died about 1758. His children were: James, who was a general in the Army
of the Revolution, Thomas, who was killed by the Indians, Samuel, Margaret
Annie, Catherine, Mary, Hannah and Isabella.
GEN. JAMES POTTER, son of John Potter, according to Mr. Hamilton, and Hon.
John B. Linn, in his "Annals of Buffalo Valley" and "History of Centre
County," was born on the bank of the river Foyle, Ireland, in 1729, and was
twelve years old when his father landed at New Castle in 1741. He was
commissioned ensign in a company of which his father was captain, in Lieut.-
Col. John Armstrong's battalion, and served as such in Armstrong's expedition
against Kittanning September 7, 1756, and was wounded in the attack. On
October 13, 1757, he was commissioned lieutenant of the second battalion, and
February 17, 1759, he was promoted to captain. On October 2, 1764, he was
commandant of three companies on the northern frontiers. On July 27, 1764,
he was in command of a company which pursued the Indians who had killed a
school master, named Brown, and his ten scholars, near the present site of
Greencastle, Penn., and Capt. Potter was the first white man to enter Penn's
Valley.
Chief Justice Tilghman says: "Capt. James Potter was a man of strong and
penetrating mind, and one to whom early habits as an officer of the British
provincial army, engaged in the defense of the frontier, rendered a life of
peril, toil and enterprise familiar." He conceived the natural idea that,
inclosed by the range of mountains which on every side met his view on his
return from Kittanning, there must be a fine country behind, and on being
ordered to Fort Augusta, his idea of a fine country to be discovered returned
to him. Having obtained leave of absence, he set off with one attendant,
passing up the West branch to the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, then passing up
Bald Eagle creek to the place where Spring creek enters it, they took to the
mountains, and having reached the top of Nittany mountain, Capt. Potter,
seeing the prairies and noble forest beneath him, cried out to his attendant:
"By Heavens Thompson I have discovered an empire." Immediately descending
into the plain, they came to a spring at a place which was in after days of
some distinction, and known by the appellation of "Old Fort." Here they
found themselves out of provisions, and for two days and as many nights the
flesh scraped from a dried beaver's skin was their only subsistence. From
here they started to return to Fort Augusta, and by good fortune happened on
a creek, to which they gave the name John Penn's creek. Pursuing the stream,
they arrived where provisions could be had, and finally reached Fort Augusta.
This was in all probability in 1759, just after the purchase of 1758, when
Potter was at Bedford, and had been first promoted captain of William
Thompson's company, and that Thompson was his companion. He afterward
returned to Penn's Valley, and in the spring of 1774 removed his family, and
made the first improvement at the spring, a little north of where the "Old
Fort Hotel" now stands on the turnpike in Potter township, where he built a
log house which was fortified in 1777, and known as the "Upper Fort in Penn's
Valley." He owned in this valley, in 1782, 9,000 acres of land.
On January 24, 1776, he was elected colonel of the Upper Battalion, and in
July a member of the Constitutional Convention. He was in command of a
battalion of Northumberland County Militia at Trenton, December 26, 1776, and
at Princeton, January 3, 1777. On April 5, 1777, he was appointed third
brigadier-general of the militia of the State, and was in command of his
brigade at Brandywine and Germantown. He served with great ability upon the
outpost of Gen. Washington's army while encamped at Valley Forge, and by
particular request of the State Council he remained in the field during that
winter. The house he occupied as headquarters during the time he was at
Valley Forge is still standing, and is occupied by J. Ralter Rayser. It
stands back a hundred yards from Trout creek. On January 9, 1778, he
obtained leave of absence in consequence of the condition of his business and
the illness of Mrs. Potter, whose
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, page 110
"indisposition is with me a more urgent reason than any other for my return."
During the summer of 1778, he was in Penn's Valley assisting in repelling
inroads of the Indians. He remained in Penn's Valley as late as July, 1779,
when he retired with the rest of the inhabitants, and took his family to
Middle Creek, in Snyder County. On November 16, 1780, when he became a
member of the State Council, he still resided at Middle Creek. On November
14, 1781, he was elected Vice-President of the State, and May 23, 1782, he
was unanimously elected major-general. In 1784 he was elected a member of
the Council of Censors, taking his seat July 7, 1784. Meanwhile he had
resumed his residence on his farm above New Columbia, now Union county. In a
letter dated White Deer, April 26, 1785, he says: "I have just come home
from Philadelphia, and will have to return, which will prevent my visiting
Penn's Valley at this time." In that year he was appointed one of the deputy
surveyors of the "Old Purchase." In 1786 and 1787 he was largely interested,
with Hon. Timothy Pickering, in lands in the Purchase of 1784, and in 1788
turned his attention to improvements in Penn's Valley, erecting the first
house at Potter's bank, and the Mills there. In the fall of 1789 he was
injured in raising a barn on what was lately Foster's farm, east of the "Old
Fort," and went to Franklin county for the benefit of Dr. McClelland's
advice, and died therein during the latter part of that year.
Gen. Potter's first wife was Elizabeth Cathcart, who died near Greencastle,
in Franklin county (then Cumberland), leaving two children: John, who died
at Middle Creek, when he was aged about eighteen years; and Elizabeth C., who
was married to Hon. James Poe, of Franklin county. Mrs. Poe died September
11, 1819, and Hon. James Poe on June 21, 1822, in Antrim township, Franklin
county. Only one of their children, Susan M., wife of Samuel VanTries, who
died in Bellefonte, December 10, 1882, aged seventy-seven years, came to
Penn's Valley. Gen. Potter's second wife was Mary, widow of Thomas Chambers,
daughter of James and Mary Patterson, of Fermanagh township (now Juniata
county), and a sister of Capt. William Patterson. The second Mrs. Potter
died in 1791 or 1792, in Penn's Valley, and is buried in the old Stanford or
Cedar Creek graveyard, near Linden Hall. The children born to the second
marriage were: (1) James is mentioned farther on; (2) Martha, born on the
Conococheague, April 10, 1769, married Hon. Andrew Gregg; (3) Mary married
George Riddles, a merchant of Middletown, and after his death she wedded
William McClelland; Mary H., her daughter by the first marriage, married W.H.
Patterson; another daughter, Eliza, married Dr. Joseph B. Ard, of Lewistown,
whose heirs owned the old Potter place in White Deer, Union county. (4)
Margaret, the youngest daughter, married Edward Crouch, of Dauphin county.
JUDGE JAMES POTTER, son of Gen. James Potter, was born at his father's
place on Conococheague creek, Antrim township (now Franklin county), July 4,
1767, a son of the second marriage. On December 15, 1788, he married Mary
Brown, daughter of William Brown, the first settler at Reedsville, Mifflin
county, and in 1789 established himself at Potters Mills. On the death of
his father, he acquired large land interest, and carried on a store, mills,
and distillery at that place, and succeeded him as deputy surveyor of the
Sixth District in the Purchase of 1784. In connection with Capt. Samuel
Montgomery, of Carlisle, he owned the site of Lewistown, and laid out that
village in 1790. On October 2, 1790, he was commissioned one of the judges
of the several courts of Centre county, which office he held during life. In
1807, he was appointed major-general of the Tenth Military District. Judge
Potter died November 2, 1818, when he was aged fifty-one years; his widow,
Mary Potter , who was born June 15, 1770, died January 6, 1823. Their
children were: James, born December 1, 1789; William W.; George Latimer;
Mary, married to Dr. William I. Wilson; John; Peggy Crouch, married to Dr.
Charles Coburn; Martha Gregg, married to Abraham Valentine; and Andrew Gregg.
JAMES POTTER, son of Judge James Potter, was born at Potters Mills, Centre
county, December 1, 1789. On December 20, 1814, he married Maria Wilson,
daughter of Gen. William Wilson, and by her he had the following children:
James, Susan (married to O.P. Duncan), William W., John, Dr. George L. and
Andrew Gregg. For his second wife, James Potter married Susan Irvin, widow
of Thomas Duncan (deceased), by whom he had children as follows: Thomas D.,
Irvin W., Maria (married to Dr. Hendricks), Annie A., (married to Dr. W.C.
Spaulding), Jacob Lex, Charles H., and Mary Ellen (married to Simeon H. Crane
and residing in Chicago). The father of these, in connection with his
brother John, was extensively engaged in mercantile and manufacturing
business. In 1856 he removed to Watertown, Wis., and afterward to Madison,
Ind., where he died March 22, 1865.
WILLIAM W. POTTER was born at Potters Mills, Centre county, March 8, 1819.
He at-
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 112
tended the academy of Rev. David Kirkpatrick, D.D., at Milton, and later was
engaged with his father in the mercantile and milling businesses, in the
transaction of which he made frequent visits to Philadelphia on horseback.
He resided, respectively, at Potters Mills, Linden Hall, Centre Furnace,
Milesburg, Iron Works and Bellefonte, and at his death, July 7, 1884, he was
agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., at Bellefonte. He was held in high
esteem by his employers and the community, which was manifested by the
respect shown him at his death, when all places of business were closed
during the funeral services. On February 6, 1844, he was married to Sarah
Irvin, youngest daughter of John Irvin, of Linden Hall, and of their two
children, John Irvin, the elder, who was born November 23, 1844, succeeded
his father as agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., which position he
occupies at the present time. George Latimer Potter, the younger son, was
born at Potter's Mills, April 6, 1847. He attended school at State College
(Centre county), Lawrenceville (N.J.), and Washington and Jefferson College
(Washington county, Penn.), but as his health failed he did not complete the
college course. He read medicine for a year, but owing to an accident by
which his father lost an arm, he took up the latter's work, which he
continued in until 1874, when he was obliged to relinquish it on account of
failing health. In 1874 he engaged in the insurance business, and since made
that his permanent work. On June 21, 1876, he was married to Elizabeth J.
Sanderson, daughter of W. C. Sanderson, of Eagle Mills, Clinton county, and
they have two daughters: Marguerite, born July 29, 1877; and Sara Irvin, born
March 14, 1883. Through her mother, Mrs. Potter is a descendant of the
famous Indian scout, Robert Copenhoven. The family attend the Presbyterian
Church, in which Mr. Potter is an elder.