Hon. William W. Potter and Lucy Winters

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Husband Hon. William W. Potter ^{1 2 3 4}

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            AKA: W. W. Porter 5
           Born: 13 Dec or 18 Dec 1792 - Potter's Mills, Centre Co, PA 6 7
     Christened: 
           Died: 29 Oct 1839 7
         Buried:  - Potter's Mills, Centre Co, PA

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         Father: Judge James Potter (1767-1818) 4 8 9 10
         Mother: Mary Brown (1770-1823) 4 8 11

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       Marriage: 20 Mar 1815 7 12

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Wife Lucy Winters ^{1 3 5 7 12}

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           Born: 29 Aug 1790 7
     Christened: 
           Died: 30 May 1875 - Bellefonte, Centre Co, PA 7 12
         Buried: 

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         Father: William Winters (1728-1794) 1 3 5 7 13
         Mother: Eleanor Campbell (      -      ) 3 5 7

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Children

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• They had no children.

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General Notes: Husband - Hon. William W. Potter

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In August, 1809, he commenced attending the Latin school of Rev. Thomas Hood, near Lewisburg, Union County, Pennsylvania, from which he was transferred to Dickinson College at Carlisle. After he graduated, he read law with Hon. Charles Huston, of Bellefonte, and was admitted to the Bar in April, 1814, of which for twenty-five years he was an honored member. Affable, courteous and kind to the junior members of the Bar, he was looked up to by them as a father. He was an able and judicious counselor, and an industrious and successful practitioner of the law, and his profession was his pride. Left with an ample patrimony, no child of penury and want was more indefatigable and industrious in legal pursuits, and at his death he had no superior in his district in legal standing and acquirements. In 1833 the grand jury of Union county petitioned the governor for the appointment as president judge of that district. In 18- he received the unanimous nomination in the district for a seat in Congress, and was elected by the largest majority ever given in the district, and in 1838, which was a fierce and bitter political contest, was re-elected, and died in office. During the sessions he represented his district in Congress, he gained for himself a high reputation, and stood at the head of the Democratic delegation from Pennsylvania. Congress was convened in extra session on the 4th of September, in consequence of the financial condition of the country, by President Van Buren, and on the 27th of September Mr. Potter made his maiden speech in Congress on the bill to postpone the fourth installment of deposit with the States, which placed him in the front rank of sagacious counselors upon our financial policy. His next speech, January 4, 1838, in reply to Mr. Cushing upon the Hayes resolution in relation to the United States Bank, was a masterly constitutional argument. On the 12th of April he delivered a remarkably eloquent speech, exhibiting extensive historical research, upon the resolution relative to the Wyoming flag. The people of Wyoming Valley had asked for the flag their fathers had fought under, believing the one captured in Canada in the War of 1812, and in the State Department, was it; but it turned out to be the one the British had fought under during the battle of Wyoming. On June 13, 1838, he delivered a very able and exhaustive speech on the independent treasury bill, which acquired for him great notoriety and popularity. One other speech of Mr. Potter, that which was delivered February 28, 1839, on issuing treasury notes to meet the expenses of the government, as a brief, unanswerable, logical argument.
He died at a comparatively early age, in his forty-eighth year, in the midst of his professional usefulness, and when rising into national fame. His remains were conveyed to the family burying-ground at Potters Mills on the morning of October 1, attended by the judges of the court and the members of the Bar in a body.

The date of his death, October 29, is given by the family source. Other sources state that he was buried October 1. One of these is wrong. Likely he either died September 29, or he was buried November 1.

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General Notes: Wife - Lucy Winters

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After the death of her husband, she resided at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and after the marriage of her niece to Edward C. Humes, made her home with them the rest of her lifetime.

1 John Blair Linn, History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1883), Pg 221.

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

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 251.

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

5 Emmett William Gans, A Pennsylvania Pioneer: Report of the Executive Committee of the Ball Estate Association (Mansfield, OH: R. J. Kuhl, Printer, 1900), Pg 697.

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

7 G. O. Seilhamer, Esq, The Bard Family (Chambersburg, PA: Kittochtinny Press, 1908), Pg 324.

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

9 —, 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.

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

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

12 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 23.

13 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion. (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 29.