Henry Codman Potter (May 25, 1834 – July 21, 1908) was a bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. He was the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Potter was "more praised and appreciated, perhaps, than any public man in New York City's long list of great citizens"., 177.
Lack of biographical materials Potter "destroyed all the material which was needed to write a satisfactory" biography. Both of his major biographers, George and James , had to use "newspaper clippings", augmented by remembrances of people who knew him. Sheerin also had "access to the complete files" of George F. Nelson, who had been the Potter's secretary for much of his tenure at Grace Church and for all his years as bishop., ix.
Family and early life
In 1818, Alonzo Potter graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, with "the highest honors". He returned to the college as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy from 1821 to 1826. During that time (1823), he married Sarah Maria Nott, who was the college president's daughter. Henry Codman was their fifth son. Henry was born on May 25, 1834, and was baptized in St. George's Church on April 14, 1835., 2, 11.
In 1839, Potter's mother Sarah Nott Potter died. She was giving birth to her seventh child and only daughter. Potter was only five years old, but his father described his mother's many virtues for Henry. Among her virtues, "she gave herself, seemingly without a pang, to her household, to her friends, and to anyone whom she could make more happy". She was "a centre of delight to all who knew her"., 13., 7.
According to his mother's request, Henry and the other children were placed under the care of his mother's cousin Sarah Benedict. Henry's father married Miss Benedict in 1840. They had three boys. Thus, altogether, Alonzo Potter had ten children: seven (six boys and one daughter) by Sarah Nott and three boys by Sara Benedict., 13-14. and Henry Codman Potter's siblings were as follows:Frank Hunter Potter, The Alonzo Potter Family (Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press, 1923), 64.
By Sarah Nott Potter Clarkson Nott Potter (1825–1882) was a Democratic member of the House of Representatives after the Civil War. Howard Potter (1826–1897) was a New York City banker who was known for his contributions to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Children's Aid Society, and the New York Orthopaedic Hospital. Robert Brown Potter (1829–1887) was a United States General in the American Civil War and a financier., 211. Edward Tuckerman Potter (1831–1904) was an architect who designed the Nott Memorial at Union College. Eliphalet Nott Potter (1836–1901) was rector of an Episcopal Church, college professor, and president of three colleges. Maria Louisa Potter (1839–1916) married sculptor Launt Thompson and lived in Italy."Maria Louisa Potter."
By Sarah Benedict James Neilson Potter (1841–1906)."Clarkson Nott Potter, 1825 - 1882." William Appleton Potter (1842–1909) was an American architect who designed numerous buildings, including the Church of the Presidents (New Jersey) in Elberon, New Jersey. Frank Hunter Potter, (1851–1932) served as a first lieutenant in the American Civil War. "Francis M. Potter," pages 1-4.
Education The first eleven years of Henry Codman's life were spent in Schenectady. In the Union College town and in his home, "the pursuit of knowledge" was pervasive.
In 1845, when Alonzo Potter was consecrated as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, the Potters moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the move, Henry (at age eleven) was having difficulty with Latin and began "a habit of swearing". Henry spent two months with the Rev. Robert Traill Spence Lowell to be tutored in Latin and to be cured of his swearing. Mr. Lowell successfully accomplished both goals., 14-15.
In the spring of 1846, Bishop Alonzo Potter had the Academy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the City of Philadelphia reopened. Henry completed his secondary education at the academy. While attending the academy, Henry showed no evidence of a call to the ministry. He did not take the classes in Greek and Hebrew offered to "candidates for the ministry"., 21.
In 1854, the nineteen-year-old Potter was working in a "wholesale dry-goods house". In August 1854, he was "converted"., 22. Little is reported about the conversion experience, but two factors contributed to it. One was a sermon preached by M. A. de Wolf Howe, rector of St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia. The other was the influence of Clara Boyd Jacobs who owned an iron mine and forge in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. When the Alonzo Potter family visited Spring Grove, Henry came under her influence. He later said that she turned "his mind in the direction of religion"., 9-10.
Potter did not take a "full college course in preparation" for seminary. However, he became Self-taught by "extensive reading" throughout his life. As busy as he was, "he found time... to read". In his lectures, writings, sermons, and addresses, Potter demonstrated his wide reading. The lectures he delivered at Kenyon College in 1901 and at Yale University in 1902 showed that Potter had read John Stuart Mackenzie, Introduction to Social Philosophy, George Howell, Trade-Unionism, New and Old, Edward Bibbens & Eleanor Marx Aveling, Working Class Movement in America, Geoffrey Drage's Labor Problem, Shailer Mathews' Social Teaching of Jesus, William Hurrell Mallock, Labor and the Popular Welfare, the three volumes Sir Frederick Morton Eden, State of the Poor, the works of Frederick Denison Maurice, Charles Kingsley, and Thomas Hughes, and "other like books"., 19., 343-344.
Theological Seminary in Virginia
In 1854, Potter entered the Theological Seminary in Virginia located in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated in 1857., 21. Potter's father told him he needed to receive his theological education at this seminary., 584.
Potter indicated that he was pleased with his father's choice because he was a loyal alumnus who supported the seminary with words and gifts. In 1873, while he was rector of Grace Church in New York City, he served on a committee to raise money for the seminary, On October 23, 1883, at the Episcopal Church's General Convention, Virginia Seminary alumni met. Potter "recalled pleasant incidents of his Seminary life". He also gave money for enlarging the seminary chapel and for a Bible, Prayer Books, and Hymnals for use in the chancel., 68, 71, 82.
The Theological Seminary in Virginia was "pervaded by the warmth of religion, where men of a kindly and sympathetic spirit, conscientious, studious, and saintly persons, were teaching a reasonable theology". Students were encouraged "to make up their own minds". In this atmosphere, Potter was "directed and encouraged, and his life deepened and enriched"., 29-30.
In the summer of 1856, between his middle and senior years in the seminary, Potter was a lay-reader in a parish in Mont Alto, Pennsylvania. As the lay reader, Potter was in charge of the Sunday School. He began a church choir, and gave lectures in the nearby farmhouses. He prepared his own sermons. Writing to the parish a decade later Potter said, "Few places can have more attraction for me than Mont Alto. I look back when I remember my summer with you to some of the brightest memories of my life"., 31.
After graduating in 1857, Potter was ordained deacon on May 27, 1857, in St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia. After that, his father assigned him to the parish in Greensburg, Pennsylvania., 33.
Marriages and children Potter was twice married: to Eliza Rogers Jacob in 1857 and to Mrs. Alfred Clark in 1902.
Eliza Rogers Jacob On October 8, 1857, Potter married, as his first wife, Eliza Rogers Jacob. She died on June 29, 1901. They had six children: Alonzo Potter was in the "banking and brokerage" business and the father of movie director H. C. Potter. Clara Sidney Potter married Mason Chichester Davidge and later married artist Henry Fitch Taylor. Sarah Linzee Potter married Edwin Tatham on May 16, 1916. Jane Brinsmade Potter married lawyer Charles Howland Russell.Charles Howland Russell, Charles Howland Russell, 1851-1921 (New York, 1935), 32. Lena Potter married textile executive Winthrop Cowdin; she hanged herself in 1906. Mary Boyer Potter married portrait painter William Henry Hyde.
Potter's biographers tell little about Eliza Jacob and say nothing about how Potter felt about her. There is little information about their children in the biographies. However, from a letter written by their daughter Jane Potter Russell, "it was clear that the Potters' family life was good". The father "cared deeply for his children," his children "cared for and respected him, and "all the recollections are happy"., 11.
On June 29, 1901, Eliza Rogers Jacob Potter died suddenly at home. She was survived by a son and five daughters. The funeral was at Grace Church in New York City., 339-340.
Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark On October 4, 1902, fifteen months after the death of his first wife, Potter married his second wife, Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark (née Elizabeth Scriven) (1848–1909). Mrs. Clark, of Manhattan and Cooperstown, New York, had been a widow for six years. She belonged to the Episcopal Church, concurred with Potter's "religious and social desires," and had helped him in his work as bishop. Both families were "cordially in favor of the wedding".Nicholas Fox Weber, The Clarks of Cooperstown (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009), 104-105. By this marriage, Potter gained four stepsons: Edward Severin Clark, Robert Sterling Clark, F. Ambrose Clark, and Stephen Carlton Clark. The second Mrs. Potter died on March 4, 1909 "after a short illness," less than eight months after Potter's own death.
Ministry as priest As a priest, Potter served in four parishes before becoming a bishop.
Christ Church, 1857-58 When Potter went to Christ's Church in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1857, its population was "about thirteen hundred inhabitants". For intellectual friendship, Potter had only "a Roman Catholic lawyer who was a drunkard" and "an infidel physician who was a rake"., 36.
While in Greensburg, on October 15, 1857, Potter was ordained a priest by Bp Samuel Bowman of Diocese of Pittsburgh. To fulfill his "missionary obligations," Potter conducted "occasional services in adjoining towns". He bought a horse which he "fed and groomed"., 37, 40.
In 1857, Potter refused a call to Calvary Church in a suburb of Pittsburgh. However, in May 1859 he accepted a call to St. John's Church, Troy, N.Y., 40-41.
St. John's Church, Troy, N.Y., 1859-66 Potter was the rector of St. John's Church, Troy, N.Y. from 1859 to 1866.
In the years preceding Potter's tenure, there had been "frequent changes" in rectors partly caused by "parochial disagreement". After seven years as rector, when Potter resigned, the vestry wrote him, "Before you came among us, we well remember the dissentient views that obtained not only in our own body but in the congregation which we represent". This did not happen during Potter's incumbency., 44.
Both Potter and his wife were active in the church and in Troy organizations. After five years, the parish had grown from seventy families to a hundred and sixty. The number of communicant had increased from a hundred and fifty to three hundred and five. The church had to be remodeled to provide room for the congregation. In 1881, a later rector of St. John's said that the growth of the parish during Potter's tenure was partly due to his "remarkable personal influence" and partly to way he presented "the church's teaching" especially to people who were not members., 50-51.
Potter's success at St. John's made him widely known. In 1862, he was called to Christ Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1863, he was called to St. Paul's Church in Albany, New York. In 1863, he was offered the presidency of Kenyon College. He declined them all., 57.