William Henry Potter
1850 - 1925 (75 years)
Generation: 1
Generation: 3
1. William Henry Potter was born on 17 Jan 1850 in Illinois (son of William H. Potter and Hester B. Lane); died on 22 Mar 1925 in Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried on 24 Mar 1925 in Gundy Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois. Other Events:
- Occupation: farmer
- Census: 1880, Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois
- Census: 1900, Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois
Notes:
Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/58093506/william-henry-potterWilliam married Harriet Belle Hoskins on 21 Sep 1876 in Vermilion County, Illinois. Harriet (daughter of George Washington Hoskins and Mary Ellen Gritton) was born on 27 Apr 1858 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; died on 4 Feb 1924 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried on 6 Feb 1924 in Gundy Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Notes:
Married:
Marriage License Abstracts Vermilion County, Illinois 1875-1877. Page 41. William H. Potter, 26, Blount Township. Harriet B. Hoskins, 18, Blount Township.
2. 
William H. Potter was born on 17 Aug 1816 in New York (son of Elijah Potter and Lanie Van Wormer); died on 25 Mar 1908; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. Other Events:
- Occupation: farmer
- Census: 1860, Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois
- Census: 1870, Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois
Notes:
History of Vermilion County: Together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts. By H. W. Beckwith. Chicago, H.H. Hill and Company, Publishers, 1879.
Page 896.
William Potter, Danville, farmer and stock-dealer, section 27, was born in the state of New York, on the 16th of August, 1817. He came to this state in 1830, settling in New Town. He was married on the 26th of July, 1847, to Hester Lane, who was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in 1823. They have seven children by this marriage: Elijah, William H., Eliza J., John F., Mary E., Lincoln A. and Andrew J. Mr. Potter had but little property with which to start in life, his first tax being only six cents; but he has by hard labor, economy and good management, acquired a property of hour hundred acres of land. His taxes have since been as high as $250 a year. He went in an early day to Chicago from Blount township on foot, carrying his clothes on his back, and there worked for seventy-five cents a day digging the cellar for the first brick house ever built in chicago. His father lived to be eighty-eight years old and his mother ninety-three. Mr. Potter is a republican, and does not belong to any church.
Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67726054/william-h-potterWilliam married Hester B. Lane on 25 Jul 1847 in Vermilion County, Illinois. Hester was born on 15 Jan 1823 in Franklin County, Ohio; died on 24 Jul 1897 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
3. 
Hester B. Lane was born on 15 Jan 1823 in Franklin County, Ohio; died on 24 Jul 1897 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. Notes:
Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67724381/hester-b-potterNotes:
Married:
Marriage License Abstracts Vermilion County, Illinois. Page 60. No record of anyone signing for bride or groom.Children:
- Elijah Potter was born on 28 Sep 1848 in Illinois; died on 27 Sep 1915; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- 1. William Henry Potter was born on 17 Jan 1850 in Illinois; died on 22 Mar 1925 in Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried on 24 Mar 1925 in Gundy Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- Eliza Jane Potter was born on 20 Dec 1851 in Illinois; died on 11 Feb 1943 in Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Rose Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- Burke Potter was born in 1854 in Illinois; died in 1935; was buried in Peyton Cemetery, Peyton, El Paso County, Colorado.
- Joseph F. Potter was born about 1855 in Illinois.
- Mary Elizabeth Potter was born on 5 Apr 1858 in Illinois; died on 25 Jul 1926 in Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried on 27 Jul 1926 in Gundy Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- Lincoln Abraham Potter was born in 1860 in Illinois; died on 15 Mar 1888; was buried in Rose Cemetery, Bismarck, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- Andrew Jesse Potter was born on 17 Aug 1865 in Vermilion County, Illinois; died on 12 May 1932 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried on 14 May 1932 in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois.
Generation: 3
4. Elijah Potter was born on 3 Sep 1790 in Fort Ann, Washington County, New York; died on 8 May 1876 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. Notes:
From Portrait and Biographical Ablum of Vermilion County, Illinois. Page 241-242.
Mrs. Eliza J. (Potter) Boyce was born in Jefferson County, N.Y., one half mile from Sackett's Harbor, Sept. 19, 1813, and is the daughter of Elijah and Lana Potter, the former of whom was born in Washington County, N.Y., Sept. 4, 1787. He was there reared upon a farm and was married to a maiden of his own township, Miss Lana Van Wormer, in 1810. Not long afterward the young people removed to a point near Sackett's Harbor in Jefferson County. Mrs. Lana Potter was born June 2, 1793 and was consequently seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage.
The three eldest children of Mr. and Mrs. Potter were born in Jefferson County, N.Y., Eliza J. being the eldest. Six more children were added to the family after they left the Empire State. With one exception they all lived to mature years, one being killed when about four years old by the falling of a tree upon him. About 1820 the Potter family resolved to seek what was then the farther West and accordingly removed to Richland County, Ohio, settling near the present site of the town of Ashland. That region was then a wilderness, peopled chiefly by wild animals and Indians, there being only four other white families in the township. Mr. Potter entered a tract of land from the Government and the family endured all the hardships and privations of life on the frontier. The nearest mill was thirty miles away and the road which led to it was for long distances nothing more than an Indian trail.
As the country began settling up Mr. Potter distinguished himself as a leading citizen and was one of the first to exert himself in the establishment of a school which was effected after much difficulty, Mr. Potter riding three days to find a teacher who could even write. The family sojourned in that neighborhood for a period of seventeen years and in 1830 concluded to make another change of residence, this time seeking the Prairie State. After due preparation they in October set out overland with a two-horse team and two cows, and their household goods and provisions. They were three weeks on the road, camping and cooking by the wayside. They arrived near the present site of Newtown, on Middle Fork Township, in November following. The father three or four years later purchased land on the State road, at the edge of Eight Mile Prairie, ten miles north of Danville, where he open up a good farm and lived until 1856. Eleven years later Mr. Potter removed to Missouri and subsequently made his home with his son, Joseph, who was located on a farm nine miles from Chillicothe.
Mr.s Lana (Van Wormer) Potter was the daughter of Jacob Van Wormer, one of the early pioneers of Washington County, N.Y., and a strict adherent of the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His house for many years was the meeting pace for the annual conference and was the frequent resort of the itinerant. Among the early preachers of that day was the renowned Lorenzo Dow, who made for himself a name intimately associated with the early history of Methodism. He as his wife finally removed to Jefferson County and mad their home with Mrs. Potter, his youngest daughter. They intended going to Ohio with the Potter family, but on account of the mother's health they were obliged to remain in Jefferson County N.Y., where they spent their last days. The Van Wormer family traced its ancestry to Holland.
Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67723996/elijah-potterElijah married Lanie Van Wormer in 1810 in Washington County, New York. Lanie was born on 2 Jun 1793 in Washington County, New York; died on 18 Jun 1856 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
5. Lanie Van Wormer was born on 2 Jun 1793 in Washington County, New York; died on 18 Jun 1856 in Blount Township, Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois. Notes:
Buried:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/67725621/lanie-potterChildren:
- Sarah Ann Potter was born on 17 Mar 1836 in Illinois; died on 4 Jan 1877 in Vermilion County, Illinois; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois.
- 2. William H. Potter was born on 17 Aug 1816 in New York; died on 25 Mar 1908; was buried in Johnson Cemetery, Danville, Vermilion County, Illinois.