Mail Call: 20 June 1935 (George)

Letter from George Potter in Cabool, MO to his daughter Mary who has just reported to her new job in Washington DC.

The stationery has been "liberated" from The Lee House hotel, where Mary stayed for a night when she first arrived on June 17, 1935.  A room there cost $3.00 for the night, $17.50 the week.  She started work on June 18 at the Department of Agriculture, Personnel Division.

Note:  Arch is neighbor Arch Brooks
I cannot identify "Greg"

18 June 1935: Mary Potter arrives in Washington DC

Mary Potter kept a set of postcards in an envelope with the label "First Impressions of Washington." For some reason, she never mailed the cards.  She stayed the first night in the Lee House hotel, and kept these post cards and some stationery which later was used by George to write a letter.  She had already reported for work at the Department of Agriculture.

Card to Dora Potter Bremercamp, Mary's aunt.  Mary had stayed with Dora for a while in E. St. Louis. Dorothy Potter ("Dot") is evidently visiting Dora but will be back in Cabool soon.

Another card not sent to Mildred Lee, evidently Mary's landlady in St. Louis while Mary was working at a bank.

The travel arrangements which Mary Potter had made to Washington were preserved: receipts and timetables in her scrapbook show that  Mary had paid $18.00 for a ticket on the Pennsylvania Railroad #66 express, "The American," which left St. Louis on 9:00 AM Central time on June 16, 1935 and arrived in Pittsburgh about twelve-and-a-half hours later at 10:40 PM Eastern time.  The connecting train to Washington DC, #533, left Pittsburgh at 6:00 AM and arrived at Washington DC at 7:30 AM on June 17, as the postcard to Dora tells us.  Mary reported to work immediately.  At least "The American" was fully air-conditioned and had all amenities available, although Mary probably did not pay for such luxuries.

13 June 1817: George's great-grandfather George Valentine, whaler, comes ashore.

Two hundred years ago today, third great-grandfather George Claghorn Valentine returned from a ten-month whaling voyage on the brig Sally to the whaling grounds off the coast of Africa (probably south of Maderia).  He had signed on at age 18, the youngest member of the crew. He never went whaling again, instead moving to Collins, NY in 1835 with his wife (Mary Green, married 1821) and six children (four more were later born in NY).

A whaling brig christened Sally
(probably not the same one mentioned below)

This was not a particularly successful whaling voyage.  The captain, Fred Arthur, got ill and left the ship at some point. The remaining 13 crew members continued on but returned with only 250 barrels of whale oil, probably from ten or fiftten baleen ("right") whales.  The per-crew share, or "lay" is not listed for the Sally nor is anyone's rank below captain.  George probably got little, either way.

Note:  I believe the return date in the following Federal tables (13 June)
rather than the 16 June in this transcription, for what difference that makes.
Credit: New Bedford (MA) Library whaling archives

Detail of right-hand facing page of federal fisheries report, continuation of Sally's entry is underlined.

Source: Starbuck, A.: "History of the American Whale Fishery from its Earliest Days to the year 1876"
pages 218 and 219 (details) on https:archive.org/details/historyofamerica00star

Detail of left-hand page of federal fisheries report; Sally's entry  is underlined

1 June 1875: Truman Potter's Farm, Eden, NY

Mary Jane Valentine Potter, wife of Truman Potter
Photo from jacki Neitzke's collection

In 1875, while grandfather George Potter was being a baby down on his father David "Max" Potter's farm near French Creek, NY, David's father, mother and brothers were living about 70 miles north in Eden, Erie County, NY.

The New York agricultural census of 1875 took place on 1 June in both French Creek and Erie.  The tabulation of David Potter's farm was shown in the 10 April blog post commemorating George's 60th birthday.


Here, for comparison if nothing else, are the data for George's grandfather Truman Potter's farm in Eden NY.

The location of the farm is known from this 1866 atlas of Eden County.  Truman Potter's house is underlined in orange (at the intersection of today's Eden-Evans Center Road and Hemlock Road). The Valentine property underlined in blue is by 1875 in the charge of Truman's brother-in-law George C. Valentine, the elderly George Claghorn Valentine (the one-time whaler) having moved in with a daughter Harriet Valentine Hale and her family a bit west in Evans, NY.

credit: HistoricMapWorks.com, fair use claimed on this tiny excerpt of the map for genealogical purposes.
The cemetery at the right edge of the photo is where this generation ended up, for the most part.

In 1875, Truman Potter (53) still has sons George (23), Millard (17), Franklin (19), and Clinton (9) at home, so he has much more in the way of helpers than David "Max" (25) and Mary (19) with their babies and one hired man on his farm.

Truman Potter's farm was about three times as large as David's at 75 acres, of which 60 were "improved" and 10 in "wood and timber" with 5 "unimproved".  The value of the farm was $3750, with buildings $400 and stock $469 with $100 in tools and implements.  He had had gross sales of $300 in 1874 (about $6500 in current dollars, to the extent such comparisons are meaningful, and a total value for the farm and contents approaching $80,000 in current dollars).

The Truman Potter family had powed 10 acres in 1874 and 12 in 1875, from which they had harvestd 46 bushels of winter wheat, 104 bushels of oats, 140 bushels of potatoes.  There were 60 apple trees, yielding 110 bushels of fruit, some of which turned into 4 barrels of cider (presumably the hard kind).

There were six milk cows in 1874 and seven in 1875 with 2 heifer calves in 1874 but none in 1875.  Milk was sent to the factory in unspecified units of 6 in 1874 and 7 in 1875. They produced 150 pounds of butter, in which they were much outdone by David's farm with 200 pounds from only two cows.

The cows were supported on 22 acres of pasture (30 in 1874) and 16 acres of meadow (14 in 1874) with 25 tons of hay gotten in during 1874.

The State of New York did not ask about chickens, pigs or other small animals, or about the production from home gardening, or about the horses which were surely needed to work the land.

Google Maps view of the site of Truman Potter's farm, looking in from the intersection of the two fronting roads.
Hemlock Road is the one running into the center distance.  There is an old house beyond the trees, but no nearly old enough to have housed these ancestors.

Confused yet?...George Henry Potter's immediate ancestors.  Ancestry.com tree.

Truman Potter, his children and their spouses:

-Truman POTTER (31)             b. 21 May 1822                   d.  7 Sep 1881

 s-Mary Jane VALENTINE (30)     b.  1 Jul 1831   m.  2 Jan 1848  d. 26 Aug 1904

  |-Maria M POTTER (48)         b.  8 Dec 1848                   d.        1925

  | s-Albert J. READ (355)      b.    Dec 1847   m.        1875  d.        1920

  |-David Henry POTTER (21)     b. 30 Mar 1850                   d.  2 Apr 1912

  | s-Mary M  HASBROUCK (20)    b.  9 May 1855   m. 25 Dec 1871  d. 28 Apr 1912

  |-George H POTTER (49)        b.    Feb 1852                   d.        1928

  | s-Emily M KESTER (357)      b.    May 1858   m.        1878  d.        1935

  |-Emma Jane POTTER (47)       b. 22 Feb 1854                   d. 22 Sep 1887

  | s-Burwell E HAWKINS (366)   b. 11 Jul 1849   m.        1889  d.  7 Nov 1934

  |-Franklin POTTER (51)        b.    Feb 1856                   d.        1916

  | s-Ellen PHILLIPPI (360)     b.    Jul 1858   m.        1878  d.        1942

  |-Millard POTTER (50)         b.        1858                   d.        1882

  |-Clinton POTTER (52)         b.  5 Oct 1865                   d. 27 Jun 1922

  | s-Eliza PHILLIPPI (365)     b.    Mar 1863   m.        1882  d.  8 Mar 1921