Joseph Potter (1816 - 1888)

Born 11 Jun 1816 in Potter Hollow, Albany Co., NY

Died 21 Apr 1888 at age 71 in Painesville, Lake Co., NY

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Biography

"BREVET BRIGADIER GENERAL

Joseph Adams Potter was a brevet brigadier-general in the Union army both during and after the Civil War. He was born in the village of Potter's Hollow, Albany, New York. His grandfather was Samuel Potter who enlisted in the Revolutionary army the day Washington assumed command of the army with his six brothers. He is a direct descendant of Samuel Adams. He spent his youth in the foothills of the Catskills, where his father was a merchant. He was an adventurer, and at 17 explored the area north and west of Chicago with a party of Indians. Later, he joined family in farming in Michigan, but soon decided it was not to his liking. He was once employed by the U.S. government as an engineer, and he soon settled into this profession. He declined an appointment to West Point in lieu of an appointment as civil engineer attached to the War Department. Shortly after, he married his first wife Catherine Rosa in Painesville, Ohio, in 1840, and she died there in 1853. He became a merchant, but was never very successful at this endeavor, and continued his relationship with the governnment. He was soon engaged in survey work and road and bridge-building in both Ohio and Michigan. At the beginning of the Civil War, he was conducting survey work along Lake Superior under then-Captain George Meade. He was appointed Lieutenant in the 15th Infantry in Detroit, and then Captain, and was ordered to go to Chicago, where he was in charge of outfitting troops stationed in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. He was also responsible for building and maintaining prisoner of war camps in the west. He married Harriet "Hattie" Savage Spafford of Hartford, CT in 1863, after meeting her in Chicago. He was made a Colonel in 1864, and was transferred to Fort Leavenworth, where he was in charge of supplies for an area extending from Kansas and Nebraska west to New Mexico and Salt Lake. In 1867 he was ordered to Detroit, then to New Orleans under General Sheridan, and then to Galveston, Texas. In March, he was breveted Brigadier General. A yellow fever outbreak became an epidemic in Galveston in July, 1867, and he and his wife Hattie and their 2 year old son Howard became victims. His wife succumbed on September 9, but he and his son survived. Following Hattie's death, he was given a 3-month leave to go north to see to the care of his son, and then was assigned to Austin, Texas, where he was responsible for the building of a number of new posts. His position brought him to the Mexican border, and he nurtured a relationship with Mexican leaders who had been responsible for the overthrow and eventual execution of Emperor Maximilian. He was relieved of duty in Texas in 1869 and assigned to Jeffersonville, IN, and then appointed chief quartermaster of the New Mexico district. While there, he built adobe structures, and the first brick chimneys in Santa Fe. His health began to fail, and he was ordered to Detroit, then to New Orleans. He then returned to Painesville in 1878, and retired shortly thereafter where he remained until his death. The source information for this biography has been derived in part from "History of Geauga and Lake Counties" Williams Brothers, 1878. "[[1]]

Sources

• No. 17478, pg 243 - Hollister Family of America compiled by Lafayette Wallace Case, MD 1886 - https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=5eNUAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA1

• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=46800241