Representative Nathan Potter View All Years

HON. NATHAN POTTER.

MR. SPEAKER—Your committee appointed to draft proper resolutions of respect in honor of the Honorable Nathan Potter, respectfully submit the following:

WHEREAS, The Hon. Nathan Potter was born in Hartford, Licking county, Ohio, on October 26, 1835, and died in Olin, Jones county, Iowa, on November 30, 1908, having arrived at the age of seventy-three years, one month and four days. In 1844, Nathan Potter came with his parents to Jackson county, Iowa, where he grew to manhood. He experienced all the hardships of a pioneer life, and by self-application and study at home he was enabled to teach in the common schools. On January, 1860, he was married to Clementine Demoss of Canton, Jackson county, Iowa. To this union, two children were born. In 1865, he moved to Jones county, near Anamosa, where he bought a farm and built a comfortable home, where he and his wife lived happily together until June 19, 1894, when Mrs. Potter died. Two years after his wife died he moved to Olin, where he has since resided. On November 9, 1899, Nathan Potter was united in marriage to Mrs. W. D. Hutton. The union proved to be a very happy one until the separation by death of Mr. Potter. Nathan Potter was converted to the Christian faith when a young man and took up the ministerial work near the time of his conversion. He was regularly ordained as a minister of the Christian Church in Clayton county, Iowa, in 1863, and continued in this profession until the time of his death. When he settled in Jackson township, Jones county, Antioch Church was in an unfinished condition and he did as much as any other to complete its structure. He held different township offices and was elected mayor of the city of Olin. He was elected as a member of the Twenty-fourth General Assembly and was an able and painstaking man who served his county and state with honor to himself and to his constituents. In politics as in religion, he was always the same broad-minded man and always respected the opinions of others. But when once convinced that he was right, or that the welfare of society or humanity was at stake, he never hesitated to assert his convictions. Mr. Potter was a Master Mason from 1869 up to within a short time of his death and had been recently made a member of Mount Olivet Commandery of Anamosa. He was a man of great physical fiber but when the end came, it was sudden, and he died of paralysis without a moment’s warning. So ends the life of an esteemed friend and an eminent citizen; such a life we should emulate.

Resolved: That in the death of Mr. Potter, the state and county in which he resided loses a worthy, honored and upright citizen, and that we extend to his bereaved wife and relatives our sincere sorrow and sympathy in their great loss and that an engrossed copy of these resolutions be spread upon the Journal of the House and that a copy be sent to bereaved family.

W. M. BYERLY,

JAMES W. ELLIS,

V. W. KENDALL,

Committee.