Thomas Maxwell Potts and Mary Miller

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Husband Thomas Maxwell Potts ^{1 2}

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           Born: 17 Feb 1836 - Highland Twp, Chester Co, PA 1 2
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         Father: Thomas Jefferson Potts (1798-      ) 1 3
         Mother: Margaret Carter (1813-1874) 1 3

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       Marriage: 22 Mar 1860 3 4

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Wife Mary Miller ^{3 4}

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           Born: 6 Apr 1838 3
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         Father: Reuben Miller (      -      ) 3
         Mother: Sarah Baker (      -      ) 3

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Children

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1 M Reuben Claude Potts ^{3 4}

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           Born: 25 Jan 1861 3
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         Spouse: Claribel Fife (      -      ) 3
           Marr: 1882 4

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2 M Rev. Thomas Pliny Potts ^{4 5}

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           Born: 23 Oct 1862 5
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         Spouse: Mary Netting (      -      ) 5

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3 M William Baker Potts ^{4 5}

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           Born: 6 Mar 1865 5
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4 M Mitchell Miller Potts ^{4 5}

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           Born: 5 Jan 1867 5
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         Spouse: Sadie Grace Beatty (      -      ) 5

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5 M Louis Maxwell Potts, Ph.D. ^{4 5}

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           Born: 30 Oct 1876 5
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General Notes: Husband - Thomas Maxwell Potts

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He spent his boyhood on his father's farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania, receiving his education in the schools of his neighborhood, and at the State Normal School in Millersville. From 1857 to 1866 he taught school at Greenwood Seminary, Millville, Columbia County, and at the academy in Dowingtown. In 1866 and 1867 he was principal of the public schools of Bellville, Ohio. From 1866 to 1877 he had an interest in the retail hardware business at Bellville, Ohio, and at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He held a number of local offices. In 1867 he was mayor of Bellville, Ohio, and subsequently a member of the Bellville school board. At Canonsburg he served a number of terms as chief burgess, and as a member of the town council. He served some thirteen or fourteen years as a school director, and beginning in 1888 was a justice of the peace. In politics he was a Republican, and in religion a Presbyterian, being a ruling elder and superintendent of the Sabbath-school of the First Presbyterian Church of his adopted town. In 1870 he established the first permanent printing office in Canonsburg, and in 1872 founded the Canonsburg Herald, which he edited and published until 1888. For many years he was an amateur antiquarian and genealogist, and he collected a large amount of valuable family history of Pennsylvania and New York families. In 1877 he published "A Short Biographical Sketch of Maj. James Potts," a small bound volume of about eighty pages. In 1883 he issued a "Bi-Centenary Memorial of Jeremiah Carter, etc.," containing about 300 pages. He later published a volume entitled "Our Family Ancestors," which was a very valuable work to genealogists. It embraced sketches of some fifty families, tracing each from the settlement of the first American ancestor. The material for all of these works was gathered from original sources. He was a corresponding member of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society from 1887, and was president of the Canonsburg Library Association from 1880. Mr. Potts attained some distinction in Fraternal societies, being a Past Grand and a Past Chief Patriarch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Past Regent of the Royal Arcanum. As an Odd Fellow, he served as a deputy grand master of Washington county, and was a representative in the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania many times. He was also a representative in the Grand Council, R. A., of Pennsylvania.

He acquired his education in the academies in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and the Normal School at Millersville, Lancaster County. He taught school in the academy at Downington and Greenwood Seminary at Millville, and was also principal and superintendent of the public schools of Bellville, Ohio, to which place he went in 1866, some six years after his marriage. He then engaged in the hardware business at Bellville, and so continued until 1870, in which year he removed to Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. He continued in the hardware business there for a time, having a partner and conducting the business under the name of T. M. Potts & Co. Having learned the printer's trade, he opened an office at Canonsburg in 1870, and in 1872 established the Canonsburg "Herald," a weekly newspaper, which he conducted until 1888, when he disposed of the business to Sipe and Charlton.
He is the author and publisher of "A Short Biographical Sketch of Major James Potts," in 1877; "Bi-Centenary Memorial of Jeremiah Carter," in 1883; "Our Family Ancestors," in 1895; and "Historical Collections Relating to the Potts Family in Gt. Britain and America," 1901. He was also a liberal contributor to other publications of biographical and genealogical articles, aggregating about 1,500 octavo pages. He was a corresponding member of the New England His-toric-Genealogical Society, and a member of the Washington County, Pennsylvania, Historical Society.
From 1888 to 1906 Mr. Potts served as justice of the peace, except during a year and a half of that time. Following this he was a notary public, having an office in Canonsburg.
For fifty years he was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a Past Grand and Past Chief Patriarch. He was also for twenty-three years a member of the Royal Arcanum and a past regent of that order. His political principles affiliate him with the Republican party. He was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church and superintendent of the Sabbath school.

1 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 194.

2 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 933.

3 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 934.

4 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 195.

5 Joseph F. McFarland, 20th Century History of Washington and Washington County, Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens (Chicago, IL: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., 1910), Pg 937.