Robert Potter was born and grew up in County Kent, England. As a youth and young man he was a hostler (worker with horses.) During this time he married Sarah Daw. One of the jobs for the women was to go “oppin” (that is to pick hops.) While they were in England two children were born: James on January 21, 1854, and Lucy born November 16, 1856.

In 1856 they came to America, land of opportunity, because life was so hard in England. Three more children were born in America: Mary, Thomas and Carrie. They raised a niece, Edith Daw, from infancy. Sarah’s brother, Ambrose Daw, requested this when his wife died. Edith married John Teeslink in Platte, South Dakota.

At first Robert worked on a farm in Kane County, Illinois. They later moved to Plymouth County, Iowa, where they met Leonard and Lucy Lamkins, a family they knew from England.

Robert Potter had a brother, Thomas, who also came to America and became a Methodist minister in southern Wisconsin.

Robert’s oldest son, James Potter, one day walked to Sioux City from near Seney, Iowa (where the farm was located) and carried home a load of trees which he planted on the homestead. They later sold this homestead and bought the Gillespie homestead in Carroll Township, O’Brien County, Iowa, which was located about 6 miles south of Sheldon.

When Sarah Daw Potter died, she left the farm to son, James, in her will with the stipulation that he should pay $50 to each of his sisters and his brother.

~Selected written by Richard Smith via Travis Potter, son of Noma Dott Potter-Smith