J. H. Potter, a well-to-do stockman and farmer, is a native of Cooper County, Mo., and was born on May 11, 1815, being one of five sons and two daughters born to the union of Samuel Potter and Elizabeth Newman. Both parents were Kentuckians, and immigrated to Missouri in 1813, at which time the country was thickly populated with Osage, Shawnee and Sioux Indians, but in about eight years they began to wend their way westward, and were followed in 1834 by the Seminoles. The father died in St. Charles County, Mo., in 1826, his wife having died at Boonville in 1819. J. H. Potter was bound out to a boot and shoe maker in St. Charles, completing his term of service when about twenty-one years of age. He then came to Cooper County and engaged in tilling the soil, which he continued for about seven years. In 1843 he married Susan Winders, by whom he had seven children, six now_living: James E., Nancy J., Samuel W., Ellen E., George W., Mary, J. H. and Robert E. Samuel W. died September 3, 1887. James, Nancy and George are married, but all are away from the paternal roof with the exception of Mary, who still resides with her parents. Soon after his marriage Mr. Potter purchased some land in Pettis County, which he improved and yet owns, and upon which he resided until 1866, when in March of that year he purchased the farm upon which he is now residing. Since 1854, while still actively engaged in farming, he has been successfully engaged in merchandising, and the income from this enterprise, as well as from his farm, has enabled him to purchase land at different times, until he is now the owner of 1,700 acres of land, 735 acres being in the home place, and over 600 acres under cultivation. His residence and barns are in excellent condition. His annual sale of cattle amounts to about three car loads, and his horses fifteen or twenty head. Since 1856 he has been a Mason, and in politics is a Democrat. He has been in every respect the architect of his own fortune. and deserves much credit for the success which has attended his efforts.
History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries and Osage Counties, Missouri, Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.