| Notes |
- From Portrait and Biographical Ablum of Vermilion County, Illinois. Page 241-242.
Mrs. Eliza J. (Potter) Boyce was born in Jefferson County, N.Y., one half mile from Sackett's Harbor, Sept. 19, 1813, and is the daughter of Elijah and Lana Potter, the former of whom was born in Washington County, N.Y., Sept. 4, 1787. He was there reared upon a farm and was married to a maiden of his own township, Miss Lana Van Wormer, in 1810. Not long afterward the young people removed to a point near Sackett's Harbor in Jefferson County. Mrs. Lana Potter was born June 2, 1793 and was consequently seventeen years of age at the time of her marriage.
The three eldest children of Mr. and Mrs. Potter were born in Jefferson County, N.Y., Eliza J. being the eldest. Six more children were added to the family after they left the Empire State. With one exception they all lived to mature years, one being killed when about four years old by the falling of a tree upon him. About 1820 the Potter family resolved to seek what was then the farther West and accordingly removed to Richland County, Ohio, settling near the present site of the town of Ashland. That region was then a wilderness, peopled chiefly by wild animals and Indians, there being only four other white families in the township. Mr. Potter entered a tract of land from the Government and the family endured all the hardships and privations of life on the frontier. The nearest mill was thirty miles away and the road which led to it was for long distances nothing more than an Indian trail.
As the country began settling up Mr. Potter distinguished himself as a leading citizen and was one of the first to exert himself in the establishment of a school which was effected after much difficulty, Mr. Potter riding three days to find a teacher who could even write. The family sojourned in that neighborhood for a period of seventeen years and in 1830 concluded to make another change of residence, this time seeking the Prairie State. After due preparation they in October set out overland with a two-horse team and two cows, and their household goods and provisions. They were three weeks on the road, camping and cooking by the wayside. They arrived near the present site of Newtown, on Middle Fork Township, in November following. The father three or four years later purchased land on the State road, at the edge of Eight Mile Prairie, ten miles north of Danville, where he open up a good farm and lived until 1856. Eleven years later Mr. Potter removed to Missouri and subsequently made his home with his son, Joseph, who was located on a farm nine miles from Chillicothe.
Mr.s Lana (Van Wormer) Potter was the daughter of Jacob Van Wormer, one of the early pioneers of Washington County, N.Y., and a strict adherent of the doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His house for many years was the meeting pace for the annual conference and was the frequent resort of the itinerant. Among the early preachers of that day was the renowned Lorenzo Dow, who made for himself a name intimately associated with the early history of Methodism. He as his wife finally removed to Jefferson County and mad their home with Mrs. Potter, his youngest daughter. They intended going to Ohio with the Potter family, but on account of the mother's health they were obliged to remain in Jefferson County N.Y., where they spent their last days. The Van Wormer family traced its ancestry to Holland.
|
1790 - 1876 (85 years)
[1] 
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set