Western Pennsylvania Genealogy
Compiled by Douglas H. Lusher


Family Group Record



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Maj.-Gen. James Potter and Mary Patterson


Husband Maj.-Gen. James Potter 1 2 3 4 5 6 

           Born: 1729 - County Tyrone, Ireland 4 5 6 7
     Christened: 
           Died: Nov 1789 - Antrim Twp, Franklin Co, PA 6
         Buried:  - Brown's Mill cemetery


         Father: Capt. John Potter (Abt 1705-1757) 2 4 7 8 9 10
         Mother: Martha [Unk] (      -1780) 11


       Marriage: 

   Other Spouse: Elizabeth Cathcart (      -      ) 4 12 13 14 15

Wife Mary Patterson 4 13 14 15 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 1791 or 1792 - Penn's Valley, Centre Co, PA 13
         Buried:  - near Linden Hall, Harris Twp, Centre Co, PA


         Father: Capt. James Patterson (1715-1772) 14 16 17 18 19
         Mother: Mary Stuart (      -1785) 20


   Other Spouse: Thomas Chambers (      -      ) 13 19

Children
1 M Judge James Potter 14 21 22 23 

           Born: 4 Jul 1767 - Antrim Twp, Franklin Co, PA 13 21 23
     Christened: 
           Died: 2 Nov 1818 13
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary Brown (1770-1823) 13 21 23
           Marr: 15 Dec 1788 13 23

2 F Martha Potter 4 9 24 25 

           Born: 10 Apr 1769 4 9 13
     Christened: 
           Died: 20 Aug 1815 4 9
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Hon. Andrew Gregg (1755-1835/1835) 4 9 25 26 27
           Marr: 29 Jan 1787 - Buffalo Valley, Union Co, PA 3 9

3 F Mary Potter 13 15 

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: George Riddles (      -      ) 13 15

         Spouse: William McClelland (      -      ) 13 15

4 F Margaret Potter 13 15 28 29 

           Born: 1775 29
     Christened: 
           Died: 7 Feb 1795 or 1797 15 29
         Buried:  - Paxtang Church Cemetery, Paxtang, Dauphin Co, PA

         Spouse: Edward Crouch (1764-1827) 13 15 28 29 30

General Notes: Husband - Maj.-Gen. James Potter


He was born on the bank of the river Foyle, Tyrone, Ireland, in 1729, and was twelve years old when his father landed at New Castle, Delaware, 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 23, 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, Pennsylvania, and Capt. Potter was the first white man to enter Penn's Valley.
Chief Justice Tilghman says: "Capt. James Potter was a man of a 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 beyond, 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 of 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" later stood 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. On January 9, 1778, he obtained leave of absence in consequence of the condition of his business and the illness of Mrs. Potter, whose "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 later Foster's farm, east of the "Old Fort," and went to Franklin County for the benefit of Dr. McClelland's advice, and died there during the latter part of that year.

General Notes: Wife - Mary Patterson


She was buried in the old Stanford or Cedar Creek grave-yard, near Linden Hall.

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Sources

1 —, History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner, Beers & Co., 1887), Pg 901.

2 John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883), Pg 402.

3 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 19.

4 —, Book of Biographies of Leading Citizens of Berks County, PA (Buffalo, NY: Biographical Publishing Company, 1898), Pg 12.

5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 857.

6 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 312.

7 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 109.

8 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 6.

9 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 856.

10 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 303.

11 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 309.

12 John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883), Pg 403.

13 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 110.

14 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 858.

15 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 314.

16 Franklin Ellis & Samuel Evans, History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 16.

17 —, History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys (Philadelphia, PA: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886), Pg 851.

18 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 110, 182.

19 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 315.

20 Addams S. McAllister, The Descendants of John Thomson, Pioneer Scotch Covenanter (Easton, PA: The Chemical Publishing Company, 1917), Pg 95.

21 John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883), Pg 220.

22 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 63, 110, 117.

23 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 318.

24 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 19, 110.

25 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 319.

26 John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883), Pg 193.

27 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 19, 79.

28 William Henry Egle, History of the County of Dauphin in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1883), Pg 477.

29 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 145.

30 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 174.

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