Harriet Potter: Underground Railroad

1823-1901
great-great-grandmother

From Kaufman Family Album

      Harriet Potter was born April 20, 1823, in Hampton, New York, near the Vermont border. She was the daughter of Stacey Potter and Orrilla Knapp. She was the 5th of 12 children, her siblings being: William (1816), Eliza (1818), Mary (1820), Emery (1821), Caroline (1824), Henry (1827), Phoebe (1828), Esther (1830), Pliny (1831), Paulina (1835) and Frances (1837). Four of her siblings (William, Eliza, Esther and Paulina) died very young and were buried in Hampton Hill Cemetery. 

      Stacey Potter is our 3rd great-grandfather and earliest known Potter ancestor. He was born in Rhode Island and was possibly Quaker. Our earliest known Knapp ancestor is Nicholas Knapp, 9th great-grandfather. He came to Watertown MA, in the Boston area, in 1630, as part of the Winthrop Fleet. He later moved to Fairfield County CT, where the Knapps lived for several generations. (Dad's early ancestors were in the same county.)

      Her father Stacey died in the early 1840's. Her family then moved to Monroe County in western New York. They appeared, however, to move in waves, with brother Emery moving west first. It appears that they went to Monroe County because that was where Orrilla's siblings lived.

        In about 1843, Harriet and Leander moved to Palmyra, Wisconsin, with their young son, Hiram Mark. Most of her siblings moved to Palmyra in this same time frame. Two of Orrilla's brothers (Timothy and Reuben) and her brother-in-law (Ephraim Coon) also moved to Palmyra, although some moved several years earlier. Harriet remained in Palmyra until the death of her husband in December 1876.

      Two years later, Harriet married Captain Henry P. Willson, a man 13 years her senior. In the 1880 census, Henry (70) is listed as a farmer, unable to work due to blindness. In addition, Harriet's 2 grandsons, Ira (12) and Loren Mark (10), are living with her and attending school. Their mother had died in 1876 and their father, Hiram Mark, had gone to Nebraska looking for opportunities. Harriet's marriage to Henry must have been an uneasy one. According to Mom's cousin, Frances Mary, Henry Willson had been involved in the slave trade, whereas Harriet's family had been involved in the underground railroad for slaves going north for freedom! Harriet's daughter Jenny said that Henry had been a rascal! Harriet and Henry must have divorced because when Henry died in 1895, probate states that he left no widow.

      Harriet and her 2 grandsons joined her children, Hiram Mark and Jenny Coon, in Walnut Grove Township, Douglas County, Dakota Territory. Jenny was raising Hiram's third son, the mysterious Frank Coon! Harriet made a claim for her own 110 acres, based on the 1862 Homestead Act, although it appears that she lived with her son Hiram.

      Harriet died May 18, 1901, age 78, and is buried in Ebenezer Cemetery in Douglas County, South Dakota.

      The Potters remain a mystery! What are Stacey Potters origins? Was he Quaker? Did Orrilla leave him because he had died or did he by any chance desert his family? I did hire a genealogist from Palmyra, Wisconsin, for a brief period! Later, a 4th cousin, John Potter, sent me a 4-page letter, titled 'Family Record of Mr. Stacy Poter and Orrellia Potter', written by Elizabeth (Town) Tuttle, one of Harriet Potter's nieces, that helped fill in some of the gaps.