Background
Potter was born 10 March 1823 in Charlemont, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel and Sophia Rice Potter.
United States representative politician
Potter was born 10 March 1823 in Charlemont, Massachusetts, the son of Samuel and Sophia Rice Potter.
He attended the district school in Charlemont, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Master of Arts (Honorary) 1867, Doctor of Laws 1889.
He is primarily recognized for his work to establish the National Banking Acting in the United States. He was admitted to the bar on 12 February 1845 and commenced law practice in Boston, Massachusetts. In May 1853 he moved to New York and engaged in manufacturing and patent law as President of the Grover and Baker Sewing Machine Company.
And he pursued agricultural interests with a six hundred acre farm on the Hudson in Ossining, New New York
He was engaged in commercial real estate development in Manhattan, having developed several commercial buildings in the city. In 1884, he purchased the site at 71 Broadway and began planning development of the Empire Building, to be later completed by his estate.
He is primarily known for his work to devise the National Banking Acting of 1863. In an exhaustive letter to United States. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase on 14 August 1861, Potter outlined the means to develop a national banking system.
Much of his plan was incorporated into the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864.
Potter was unsuccessful for election in 1878 to the Forty-sixth Congress. However, he was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1885) from New York"s 11th congressional district. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1884 after congressional redistricting was completed that year.
He died suddenly in New York City, January 2, 1894, and he was thought to have been the wealthiest man in New York City to have died intestate.
He served as member of the Rapid Transit Commission of New York City 1890-1894 as well as a Cornell University and as a trustee of the New York Savings Bank on Bleecker Street.
