HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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his associates operating both plants until 1902, when they were transferred to the Corn Products Company. Besides building up one of the great industries of the West, Mr. Pope has been the inventor of a number of devices used in the manufacture of starch, glucose, etc.
JOSEPH C. PORTER (deceased), Civil War veteran, Aurora, Ill.; born at Charlotte, Me., July 30, 1837, son of Joel and Anna (Ells) Porter; came with his parents to Galesburg, Ill., when twelve years of age; enlisted in 1861 in the Eleventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving four years and in the meantime participating in many notable engagements, including the battle of Shiloh and the siege of Vicksburg. After the war he was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway Company until 1888, when he embarked in the hardware business in Aurora, and later was, for some years, in the shoe business in that city. At the time of his death, which occurred Dec. 6, 1900, he was connected with the city waterworks department of Aurora. He was married in 1867 to Miss Emma Kerr, of Gales-burg.
CHARLES H. POTTER, merchant and manufacturer, Elgin, Ill., was born in Plato Township, Kane County, Sept. 14, 1851, a son of Harry E. and Mary (Griggs) Potter, and is a lineal descendant, in the paternal line, from Robert Potter, who came from Coventry, Eng., in 1634, and first settled in Roxbury, Mass., and removed in 1638 to Rhode Island, settling permanently at Warwick, where he died in 1655. The line of his ancestry is also traced through the Winsor family to Roger Williams, of Rhode Island. Mr. Potter was brought up on his father's farm, and educated in the public school and the Marengo Business College. In 1872 he came to Elgin and engaged in the grocery trade, in which he continued until 1883. That year he turned his attention to real estate and the creamery business, and is now President and Manager of the Excelsior Creamery Company, operating creameries in Illinois and Wisconsin, and in addition doing a wholesale and jobbing business in creamery products. Mr. Potter is also closely identified with the agricultural interests of Kane County as an extensive farm-owner. In 1882. in company with W. H. Hintze, he laid out what is now known as Hintze & Potter's Addition to the City of Elgin. He is an active and public-spirited citizen of Elgin, and was Water Commissioner from 1897 to 1900. He married in 1873, Elvira J. Mann, daughter of the Hon. S. S. and Caroline (Young) Mann, and they have one daughter, Alice, who is the wife of John P. Tetzner, residing in Elgin.
HARRY EDDY POTTER (deceased), pioneer Plato Township, Kane County, was born in Monroe County, N. Y., July 12, 1815, and died in Plato, III., Feb. 12, 1865. He was the son of Winsor and Deborah (Eddy) Potter, and grew to manhood on a farm near Java Village, N. Y. When a young man he learned the carpenter trade, and coming to Illinois in 1836, worked at his trade for a time in St. Charles, where he helped to put up some of the first buildings erected in that place. In 1840 he married Miss Mary A. Griggs, daughter of John and Ruth (Dibble) Griggs, of Plato, Ill. Her parents, who were natives of Berkshire County, Mass., came to Illinois from Ashtabula County, Ohio, in 1834. After his marriage Mr. Potter settled on a farm in Plato Township, on which he lived until his death. He had a family of six children, of whom three (1903) are now living, all residing in Elgin. The youngest son, John P., born in Plato, Dec. 1, 1861, inherited his father's mechanical gift, and became an expert carpenter and designer. He was educated in the district school of the native town and the Elgin Academy. He died April 11, 1903, leaving a widow, Grace (Dolph) Potter, and two daugh-
JOHN H. POSSON, dealer in farming implements, coal, and a practical farmer, Maple Park, Kane County, Ill., was born in Pierce Township, DeKalb County, Ill., April 25, 1875, and received his educational training in the public schools of his native locality, including a year and a half in the Hinckley High School. When he reached the age of eighteen years, on account of his father's failing health he assumed the management of the home farm. In 1896 the father sold this farm, and bought another northwest of DeKalb, to which the family removed the same year. The father died in May, 1897, and two years later John H. Posson, with his mother, sister and brother, made their home in Maple Park. In the spring of 1900 the mother died. The same year Mr. Posson started in the coal business, and the following
