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File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of LEMUEL W. POTTS 

Pages 833-835, transcribed in full by Karen CRANE Goggin 

[Surnames: BROWN, DOLSON, PANCAKE, PATTERSON, POTTS, WALLWORTH] 

    
LEMUEL W. POTTS, a prosperous farmer of Liverpool Township, is well known in political and Grand Army circles and it gives us pleasure to represent in this BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM one who fought so long and well for the preservation of this Union. He is a native of Clarke County, Va., where his birth occurred October 27, 1832. He is a son of Amos F. and Elizabeth S. (Dolson) Potts, natives respectively of Loudoun County, Va., and Licking County, Ohio. His ancestors, both on the paternal and maternal side, were men of sterling worth, who were prominently identified with the public affairs of the community where they resided. His great-grandfather Potts was a native of Wales, who came to this country and settled in Virginia before the Revolution. 
    
Isaiah Potts, the paternal grandfather of our subject, spent his entire life in Loudoun County, Va., where the most of his years were passed at his trade as a blacksmith. He was a Quaker in religion, an old line Whig in politics, and was bitterly opposed to slavery. He married Elizabeth Brown, a native of Virginia. His career was brought to an untimely close by his death at the age of thirty-nine years. 
    
The father of our subject was engaged as a blacksmith until he was nineteen years old and then he began life as a farmer. While yet in early manhood he removed to Ohio, and in the town of Zanesville was married to Elizabeth Dolson, April 25, 1828. She was born February 13, 1810, and died in 1882 at the age of seventy-two years. She was one of the representative pioneer mothers of this county who bore the many hardships incidental to life in a newly settled country with that bravery and uncomplaining self-sacrifice characteristic of her sex. Thomas A. Dolson, her father, was of English descent and his early years were passed in the State of New York where he was engaged as a distiller. He fought in the Revolutionary War, and he was among the early pioneers of Ohio, settling in Perry County, where he carried on farming for a time. He died at the age of eighty-four years. His father was a native of England and was a British Captain in the Revolutionary War. Ten children were born to Mr. And Mrs. Potts, namely: John W., Lemuel W., Huldah A., Thomas I., George W., William H., Mary J., Sarah E., Martha J. and Emily A. 
    
In December, 1829, the father of our subject set out with his little family from his home in Ohio, for what was then the Far West, and made the journey across the wild intervening country with one horse and a sled, finally arriving in January, 1830, in Clark County, Ill., then on the Western frontier. Mr. Potts purchased forty acres of land on which he erected a log cabin and then proceeded to develop a farm. Two years later he sold that place and returned to Perry County, Ohio, where he lived a year and a half prior to coming again to make a permanent settlement in Illinois. This time he arrived October 31, 1835, and located in Fulton County, purchasing eighty acres of land on section 29, Liverpool Township, which in due time he improved into a fine farm to which he added more land as opportunity offered, till at the time of his death he owned five hundred and twenty acres of land. When he came here the county was in a very wild condition; the woods were full of deer and other wild game; Indians were seen on every side, while there were but few white settlers throughout the county. He and his family had to endure many hardships and privations and they were often in a state of alarm concerning their aboriginal neighbors who at one time caused them to flee from their home. When they finally ventured to return to their lonely cabin they found all their household goods piled in the middle of the floor, and a few Indians there who said "Bad Indians gone; they were going to burn the house, but good Indians wouldn't let them." 
    
Notwithstanding his advanced age when the war broke out, the father of our subject offered his services to his country and did much valuable work in helping to suppress the rebellion. He was at one time Assistant Provost Marshal and during a greater part of the war was at the front and took part in various engagements. He was made Quartermaster of the same regiment of which his son of whom we write was a member. His services as a pioneer of this county will never be forgotten. He died greatly lamented December 17, 1866, and his memory is still cherished in the hearts of those who knew him. 
    
Lemuel W. Potts of this biographical sketch, was reared on his father's homestead amid the pioneer scenes of this his native county. He attended school in a primitive log schoolhouse that was furnished with slab benches and had a large open fireplace for heating purposes. His youth was employed in working in the clearings and on the farm. He was in the flush and vigor of early manhood when the war broke out, and he was among the first to spring to arms at the call for troops, enlisting April 29, 1861, in Company H, Seventeenth Illinois Infantry, he being the first man to enlist in Liverpool Township. He was sworn into the service May 12, 1861, and was mustered in May 25. In one of the early engagements in which he took part at the battle of Frederickstown, Mo., he was badly wounded in the head by a shell and was sent home to recuperate. He rejoined his regiment at Ft. Henry in February, 1862, in season to witness its surrender. He was one of the number who made the second charge on the enemy's works at Ft. Donelson, carrying them at the point of the bayonet, and he was in the front a great deal of the time at the battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded in the right leg by a musket ball. His gallant and daring act in which he set fire to a forty barrel powder magazine which had been arranged to blow up Ft. Hill, will ever be remembered by the fellow soldiers of his regiment. He bore a brave part both in the siege and battle of Corinth and he faced the enemy again at Champion Hills. He fought with unflinching bravery at Vicksburg and at the battle of Clinton, Miss., July 6, 1864, when he was wounded in the right arm. His conduct at the battle of Shiloh gained him the commission of a Sergeant. He was present at the engagements at Spanish Fort and Ft. Blakesley, where he did good work. He served with his first company three years, was with Company B, Eighth Illinois Infantry, one year, eleven months and twenty-three days and was mustered out of the army May 14, 1866. As a partial payment for what he did and suffered in the cause of the Union he now receives from the Government a pension of $8 a month. He is highly respected in army circles for his bravery and fidelity to his country during those trying times in the great Civil War. 
    
After he left the army Mr. Potts resumed farming and he and his brother subsequently bought the old homestead on which they were reared. Our subject has since bought his brother's interest in it and is now the sole owner. It is a fine, well-ordered farm, under excellent tillage and replete with substantial improvements. To the lady who presides over his pleasant home here Mr. Potts was united in marriage, December 4, 1874. Mrs. Potts was formerly Jennie Wallworth and was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y. She is a woman of high character and a faithful member of the Methodist Church. The first marriage of our subject, which took place April 4, 1872, was to Martha E. Patterson, and to them one child was born. Mrs. Potts was an estimable lady and her death was mourned by many friends. Mr. And Mrs. Potts have no children by this marriage but in the kindness of their hearts have taken Stork T. Pancake to rear. 
    
Mr. Potts is a valued citizen of his township and is popular among his associates and numerous friends. He is one of the leaders of the Republican party in this vicinity, and has been a member of the Republican Central Committee and also a delegate to various political conventions. He is Justice of the Peace for this township, to which position he was elected by forty-seven majority, although the Democrats usually carry the township by a majority of sixty-eight votes.