Potter, Royal

Born: 1811-11-14 Illinois

Died: 1878-05-04 Menard County, Illinois

Flourished: 1834-05-05 Sangamon County, Illinois

Potter was one of the early settlers in Sangamon County, Illinois, arriving there with his family from either Tennessee or Kentucky sometime before 1819. During the Black Hawk War, he served as a private in Abraham Lincoln's company of the 4th Illinois Regiment of Mounted Volunteers. After the war, he purchased several hundred acres in an area of Sangamon County that would become part of Menard County. In 1841, he married Terry Higginbottom, with whom he had several children. By 1860, he was a farmer in Menard County who owned $3600 in real estate and $1,831 in personal property.

The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 376; Certificate of Discharge for Royal Potter; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Menard County, 69:39, 817:106, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Menard County, IL, 75; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Menard County, IL, 127; Gravestone, Concord Cemetery, Petersburg, IL; Menard County Times (Petersburg, IL), 11 May 1878, 3:4.