Potter Family History
Clarkson Nott Potter
( 1825 - 1882 )
He died on January 23, 1882, in New York City, N.Y., interment in Vale Cemetery Schenectady, NY..
Clarkson Nott Potter, a Representative from New York; born in Schenectady, N.Y., April 25, 1825; son of the Rev. Alonzo and Maria (Nott) Potter. He graduated from Union College in 1842; graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a civil engineer, 1843; served as a surveyor in Wisconsin in 1843. He was admitted to the bar in 1846 and established himself in practice in New York City in 1848.
He was married in October 1853, to Virginia, daughter of Matthew and Louisa Ann (Mitchell) Pope. They had five children Howard Nott Potter, Clarkson Alonzo Potter, Maria Louisa Cotton (Potter), Virginia Potter, and Eleanor Potter.
He was a elected as a Democrat to the Forty-first and to the two succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1869 - March 3, 1875); declined to be a candidate for renomination to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1874; elected to the Forty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1877 - March 3, 1879); chairman Committee on Pacific Railroads (Forty-fifth Congress); declined to be a candidate for renomination to the forty-sixth Congress in 1878: president of the Democratic New York State conventions in 1875 and 1877; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1872 and 1876; unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 1879; trustee of Union College 1863-1882; president of the American Bar Association in 1881 and 1882.
Photo taken 1870