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.

Lillian McConnell: Merry Survivor

1859 - 1929

Lillian, on her back porch.

      Lillian McConnell was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 28, 1859, the daughter of Lawrence McConnell and Mary Ann Moore. She was the 5th of 6 children and had siblings: Richard (1845), Juliette (1848), Margaret (1852), Mary Jane (1853) and Cary (1860). Her father was a habitual drunkard, was not supporting the family and had been jailed several times for beating his wife and eldest son. In 1864, Mary sought a divorce from Lawrence and 15-year old Juliette testified against her father.

      By 1870, the family was divorced. Mary Ann had married Edgar Hunt of Madison, who had 3 children of his own from an earlier marriage. Richard, Lillie and Cary were also living in the household. However, Lillie (age 11) is also listed as residing with her sister Maggie (age 19), who had married Isaac Taad/Teede. Her sister Julia, age 21, had married George Lyford and had a daughter. Her sister, Mary, age 16, was working in a Madison household as a domestic servant. It appears that the sons still lived with their mother, but maybe none of the daughters!
   
      In 1880, Lillian married Frank Williams in Madison, Wisconsin. They later lived in Olney, Illinois, and Waukegan, Illinois, where they raised their 2 biological children and their adopted daughter Maggie. Their son, George Allen Williams, was a baseball player in the minor leagues. He worked as a weaver in a fence factory and as a laborer for American Steel and Wire. His nickname was "Cinders", because he was a wire-thrower at a wire mill in North Chicago. George fought in World War I, as a corporal, in the Illinois 56th Infantry.  He married his wife Anna in 1919, although they never had children. After about 1930, he developed Parkinson's  disease and largely took to bed, according to Aunt Dorothy.
   
      Lillian was widowed in November 1922, when her husband Frank died. At the time, her son George was living next door to her and her daughter Nellie Crooks was living in Chicago with her husband Charlie, son Ray and daughter Dorothy! When Charlie died on December 22, 1926, in Chicago, Nellie and her 3 children moved in with Lillian at 728 Ash Street. Soon after, the upstairs was made into an apartment for daughter Maggie, whom we knew as Aunt Monie, and her husband, Ozzie Eide! (We visited Monie and Ozzie in Port Townsend, Washington. They had a wonderful lot backing up to Puget Sound!)

      Lillian died on December 19, 1929, age 70, in Waukegan, Illinois. She died in Victory Memorial Hospital the day after an operation to remove gallstones from the common bile duct. She had been in failing health for some time prior to the operation and the cause of death was listed as heart disease (myocarditis). She is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories next to her husband and our grandparents, Nellie Williams and Charles Crooks.

      Dad had memories of Lillie chasing the kids around the kitchen with a broom and cackling with merriment!     
 

Nellie Reed Williams: Gentle Humorous Teacher

1885 - 1959

      Nellie Reed Williams was born sometime between October 16 and October 19, in 1885, in Waukegan or North Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Frank Dunn Williams and Lillian McConnell. She had 1 sibling, George Allen Williams (1887), who married Anna Mead, but never had children. According to Aunt Dorothy, Annie did not get along with Nellie. Because Nellie just had the one sibling and he did not have children, Dad did not have any first cousins on his Mom's side.

      In 1904, Nellie was a senior at Waukegan High School, where she played right guard on the girls' basketball team. In the Senior Prophecy, they predicted "her horror of laughter and merriment will grow as the years slip by and she will devote herself to prayer and repentance". She was listed in the "Want Ads" as wanting lessons in boxing! Since all of her pictures show her with a gentle smile on her face, I am certain these comments were ironic.

      Nellie worked as a teacher at Dudley elementary school and lived with her parents in Waukegan until she married Charles Henry Crooks in February, 1920.

      According to Aunt Dorothy, Nellie dated a man named Jim Reardon before she married Charles. Her mother Lillian did not want her to marry Jim, however, because he was Catholic. Aunt Dorothy also said that Nellie was Methodist, but only went to church on holidays. Evidently, the family switched to the Episcopalian Church because Dad had tangled with another boy at the Methodist Sunday school! When Nellie was ill, she told Dad and Aunt Dorothy, "I hope you get back in the Methodist church before I die".

      When Nellie's husband, Charles, died in December, 1926, Nellie and her 3 children (Ray, Dorothy, George) moved in with Nellie's mother at 728 Ash Street in Waukegan. Nellie's brother George lived immediately next door at 724 Ash. (These 2 properties were both jointly purchased by Nellie and George about 1910-1916, although 728 Ash was transferred to Nellie's mother after Nellie married.) Even though George had health issues, he was the closest person to a father figure for Dad... Dad's grandmother, Lillian (McConnell) Williams, died in December, 1929, just 3 years after Nellie and her kids moved in.

      In 1930, Nellie was working as a bookkeeper at the Waukegan county courthouse. She was initially the only female there, found the work environment coarse and decided to return to teaching. She also received $40 per month as rent from Aunt Monie and Uncle Ozzie, who lived in the upstairs apartment. In 1940, Nellie had some additional income because Dad was working as an usher in a theater while attending college and Aunt Dorothy was working as a telephone operator!

    Nellie died November 25, 1959, age 74, in Waukegan, after having strokes and being in a nursing home. She is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories cemetery in North Chicago, next to her husband.

    Dad's McFarland cousins said that Nell really liked the dishes that Charlie brought back from the Philippines for his sister Helen's wedding. Charlie said she could have had them too if she had agreed to marry him before he left for the Philippines. (If so, they knew each other longer than I had realized!) When Charlie got back, Nellie visited him and his brother Ray asked if she was going to break his heart a second time and she said "no"... When Charlie died less than 7 years after their marriage, she dated Jim Reardon again and brought him to visit her sister-in-law, Helen Crooks McFarland. Dad's McFarland cousins said Jim was very nice and owned a plant that made women's clothing. Jim was Nellie's boyfriend, but the relationship was limited.

Frank Dunn Williams: Pioneer Railroad Man

1853 - 1922

      Frank Dunn Williams was born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, on May 6, 1853, the eldest child of Josiah Williams and Ellen Shand. He had 5 siblings: Mary Jane (1858), George Burrell (1859), David C. (1862), Margaret (1870) and Nellie (1876). Nellie appears to have died as a child and David never married.

      When he was a very small boy, his family moved to a farm 12 miles from Dodgeville. At the age of 19, he left the farm to go railroading and devoted the rest of his life to railroads, both steam and electric. Frank was fascinated with railroads, building new lines, extending old lines and replacing temporary construction work with permanent structures.

      In 1880, Frank married Lillian McConnell at Madison, Wisconsin. In that same year, he is listed as working as a carpenter. In 1881, he was raised to the degree of Master Mason in the Madison Lodge. Frank and Lillian had 2 children together, Nellie Reed (1885) and George Allen (1887). George was born in Olney, Illinois, almost 300 miles south of Waukegan and Nellie was probably born in Waukegan.

      In 1889, Frank and Lillian came to Waukegan, where Frank built railroad sidings and yards for the Washburne and Moen company, later absorbed by the American (US) Steel and Wire Company. For almost 20 years, he was employed by the North Shore electric line. He served with the crew which built the new line from North Chicago to Milwaukee and was later made road master in charge of the line from Waukegan to Evanston. In 1919, a strike at the US Steel and Wire Company, led to a call for intervention from the state militia. This could likely have impacted either Frank or his son George.
   
      In 1895, Frank's brother David came to live with Frank and was a wire worker. But David was a rolling stone and by 1900, he was living with his cousin in Deer Creek, Nebraska, where he died 2 years later at age 39. In August 1901, Frank purchased a lot in the subdivision known as Waukegan Highlands, in North Chicago Village, from The American Steel and Wire Company. By 1907, he owned the lot free of a mortgage. By 1910, he was living at 553 Ash Street, later renumbered to 728 Ash Street, where Dad lived as a boy. In the 1920 census, Frank and Lillian still lived on Ash Street. Nellie was living with them and teaching in a public school. Their son George was living there with his wife Anna and was a laborer for American Steel and Wire Company. In addition, adopted daughter Margaret, age 12, was living with them. Margaret was a student of Nellie's who was quite poor.

      Frank Williams died on November 25, 1922, age 69, in Waukegan, of heart disease (listed as myocarditis). Funeral services, led by a Methodist minister, were held at the home, with Masons from Lodge #78 participating. Frank is buried in North Shore Garden of Memories in North Chicago.