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Below is a family biography included in The History of Warren County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1887.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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P. G. Potter, farmer and merchant of Warren County, and now a resident of the Thirteenth Civil District, is the son of Watson and Harriett (Magness) Potter, both natives of De Kalb County, Tenn. The father was born in 1817, of English lineage, and is now a resident of De Kalb County. He has followed the occupation of a farmer and mechanic all his life. He is a member of the Primitive Baptist Church and a Democrat in politics. His wife was born in 1819 and died July 6, 1866. She was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church also. Our subject was born near Smithville, De Kalb County, September 27, 1842, and was the sixth of fourteen children. He lived with his parents until twenty-two years of age, when he moved to Warren County, where he remained two years engaged in farming. He then moved to the mouth of Mountain Creek, at Jessie, and was engaged in mercantile pursuits for six years, when he moved to his present location and followed the same business. He is a man of great energy and enterprise. Although he started with a very light capital, and was burned out once, he now carries a stock of $3,500 and owns 260 acres of land worth $7,000, with a good portion under cultivation. In the fall of 1863 he enlisted in the Twenty-Third Tennessee Regiment (Confederate Army), and was in service about one year when he came home on account of ill health. He was in the battle of Murfreesboro and numerous skirmishes. May 9, 1865, he married Miss Melvinia Webb, a native of Warren County, Tenn., born June 15, 1843, and the daughter of James and Mary Webb. To our subject and wife were born six children; only two are now living: Osee and Clyde. Those deceased are Ella, born in 1868 and died in 1883; Minnie, born in 1871 and died in 1884; James, born in 1873 and died in 1876, and Arthur, born in 1876 and died in 1878. Mr. Potter is a member of the Christian Church and a Democrat in politics. In 1878 he was appointed postmaster at Dibrell, which position he has held ever since; has done as much as any man of his means to build up schools and churches, and to advance the general interests of those he is intimately associated with; is a man of good moral habits and is an active worker in the church to which he belongs.

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This family biography is one of 55 biographies included in The History of Warren County, Tennessee published in 1887.  The History of Warren County was included within The History of Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Warren & White Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Cannon, Coffee, DeKalb, Warren, White Counties of Tennessee

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