Well we did it!!

Over 60 members of the Potter family gathered at Broken Acres over the weekend and feedback is that - in spite of the rain - everyone had a GREAT time! We decided that we want to hold another reunion at Broken Acres in July 2010! Dale spoke to the owners at Broken Acres at the end of the weekend and found out that, at this point, there are weekends available in July 2010. So, please cast your vote on the poll at the left of this screen and give us your first and second choices (you can vote more than once). Thanks to all for your help, support and most of all for coming to help make a GREAT Potter Family Reunion 2009!!
BE SURE TO SEE THE SLIDE SHOW BELOW LEFT!! Send jpegs to Dale at dmclark1@roadrunner.com and she will upload them to this BLOG for all to enjoy. Thanks!

Potter Men...

When Aunt Gertrude (Trudy) died several family members went to her funeral in Lisbon. Pictured here LtoR: Henry Potter, Buster Potter (Loren), Charles (Chuck) Brooks, Jr. (son of Gertrude Potter Brooks), Hubert Potter and Clyde (Butch) Weston, Jr. (son of Phyllis Potter Weston).

Early Days 1920 - 1940

The Cole family farm on Bean Road, Mt. Vernon. As far as I can tell (from my research) this farm was purchased by Grammie Potter's grandfather Sumner Cole, Jr. and his wife Lydia (Leighton) Cole in 1867 and they lived there for the rest of their lives (50 years). As a child Grammie lived here with her parents and grandparents, Clarence and Edith (Johnson) Cole, and after she and Grandpa were married in 1922 they lived here. This picture was taken c1920 so it looks the same as when the Potters lived there from 1922-1938. Today there is a tall hedge of mature lilacs in front of the house so you cannot really see it. The barn used to be across the road, but is no longer there. Every time we rode by this house Dad would say "I was born right in that room upstairs", indicating the window over the ell.

This picture was probably taken before 1931. I say that because Uncle Hubert is not included in the picture. Dad identified them as follows: Left to right: Buster (Lorin) Potter, cousin, Phyllis (Potter) Weston, 2 cousins, Don Potter, Ellen Potter (Uncle George's daughter), Henry. Dad said the unidentifed cousins belonged to Aunt Annie (Grandpa's sister) and they referred to them as "the rough kids".

Hubert and Don Potter with their pet goats, taken at Kents Hill after 1938.

The Potters moved from the Bean Road in Mt. Vernon to Kents Hill in 1938 so their children could get a high school education at Kents Hill School. In those days, with transportation as it was and on the heals of the depression and little money, either you moved to live near a high school, boarded your kids out so they had ready access to a high school or they went without secondary education. Today this house is owned by Kents Hill School and known as the Kent House. The Potters lived in / rented this farm until the early 1940's. At that time John Nason (g-grandfather to Mandi, Jeremy, Julie and Matthew) purchased this farm and the Potters rented "the Harvey place" near Dead Stream on route 41. That house is not longer there. They lived there, as I recall, for two years until they purchased the farm and 200 acres on Old Kents Hill Road, where Dennis Wight lives now. Read on for more about that farm...

Grandpa and Grammie Potter's house

This picture was taken of Grandpa and Grammie Potter's house in the 1920's. They bought the house in 1945 but this is what it still looked like then through the 1960's when the barn was torn down (while my generation was growing up). I remember animals in the barn - cows, chickens, a horse, goats - Grandpa loved animals. One time he even brought a skunk home and it lived in the shed - until Grammie startled it one morning (it wasn't a pretty sight) and Grandpa's pet skunk disappeared by suppertime that evening. I think my mother may have had a hand in that escapade along with a few others! At any rate Grandpa and Grammie's home holds many good memories for me and for my cousins as well. We all spent a lot of time there after school as children and for family birthday and holiday gatherings. We were always welcome, Grammie's cookie jar always held her famous molasses cookies and they were always ready for a good game of 63. For more history about the house and limited history about our immediate family visit my Readfield Historical Web Site: at: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mecreadf/ford.htm