Aaron Potter, stone cutter
How a grave stone carved in Hamilton, Ohio ended up in Union Cemetery, Randolph County, Illinois.
The road trip.
It started with frustration at the poor photos on the Find A Grave website. The well intentioned but poorly equipped volunteers often produce results like this; muddy, back lit, grainy, and useless for research.
Feeling the need for a road trip, three hundred thirty miles later I arrived at Historic Hopewell Church. The sun is going in and out of fast moving cumulus clouds. But the light is perfect for my task. Here is a photo of the same grave marker.
On a tight self imposed schedule, I quickly moved from marker to marker, leveling the tripod, waiting for the cloud to pass and snap, snap, got it. Bracket the f stop. Move on. Repeat. There is a golden hour for this work; one hour in late morning for east facing stones and one hour in early afternoon for west facing. Hopewell Cemetery is mostly east facing, so from about 11:15 AM to 12:15 PM the raking oblique light is perfect. Rain is in the forecast for the next four days so this is it. I am trying to photograph every sandstone marker in the cemetery and I have about 1 hour. A 330 mile trip and I have one hour, that’s all. But some are not perfectly east, more southeast so that extends my time a bit as I get those stragglers last. An hour and a half later, I am exhausted from running place to place in the midday sun, kneeling and moving. But I got them all!
The life of A. Potter
I first noticed the small signature on the Sophia Allen marker, “A. P.” And then another one and then finally, “A. Potter.” I had the name of the carver who made these sandstone grave markers. And then I began to examine details of the carving in an
attempt to define the “style signature.” Typically only a small percentage of early nineteenth century grave markers are signed. So, the vast majority are attributed to a specific carver the same way you would attribute a painting; intensive study of the tiniest of details. For this I prefer a high quality photo, enlarged on my computer screen where I can compare multiple photos side by side, looking at every single letter, every single numeral blown up to the size of my screen.
Back home several days later, the real work began as I dived into genealogical and historical sources to find what I could about “A. Potter.” My first efforts produced an A. Potter woman of the correct age living in W. Hamilton, Ohio. After my initial excitement at finding a woman in a non traditional occupation, my hopes were dashed as it turned out to be a false lead.
The real A. Potter turned up in the 1850 Butler County Non Population census as one Aaron Potter, owner of a marble factory. We found our man! Now let’s see what else there is.
Since we knew his county of residence and now had a complete name it was easy to search the county histories for Butler County. In fact, the 1882 Butler County History yielded a gold mine of information.
Aaron’s parents went west to Ohio from their native New Jersey, finally reaching Middletown, Ohio in 1798. Aaron, the youngest of ten children, was born in 1809 to Enos and Rhoda (Miller) Potter. Enos died in 1814 leaving the large family to fend for themselves. Aaron’s mother is noted in the 1882 Butler County History as a “more than ordinary mother.”
Only young men could stand the fatigues of practice (of medicine). This county, therefore, had attained a population ; of at least four thousand before there were any resident physicians. In the early days of settlement near Middletown the mother of the late Aaron Potter had a child afflicted with a felon.1 There was no one at hand to attend to it, and the heroic lady mounted her horse, took the child in her arms, and rode the whole way to Cincinnati to have a surgical operation performed.2
Imagine holding a baby in one hand and the horse reins in the other, riding twenty miles over rough roads to save your child. No ordinary mother, indeed.
These early pioneers bad ten-children, the youngest son of whom was Aaron, who was born in 1809. In this home he grew up under the fostering care of a more than ordinary mother, his father dying when he was only five years old. But in 1827, when he attained his eighteenth year, he left the maternal fireside, and removed to Cincinnati, where, under the tuition (guardianship) of E. B. Potter, he learned his trade.3
The following timeline provides a summary of Aaron Potter’s life.
1809, born in Middletown, Butler County, Ohio
1826, at age 17 has a religious experience that leaves a lasting impact throughout his life.
1827, at age 18 goes to live under the guardianship of E. B. Potter (unknown relationship to Aaron) in Cincinnati. Is apprenticed to learn his craft as a stone carver.
1830, marries Emeline Ransdale, originally from Boston.
1837 at age 28 moves to Hamilton, Ohio to establish his stone carving business.
1841 at age 32 attends Rossville Presbyterian Church, an affluent neighborhood of W. Hamilton where he also serves as sexton.
1844 is instrumental in organizing a Baptist Church.
1849 The last sandstone marker carved by Potter at Hopewell Cemetery.
July 1, 1871 Aaron Potter died and is buried in Greenwood Cem., Hamilton, Ohio.
By the time Aaron Potter shows up in the 1850 census, he is recorded as having five employees, and $135 per month in total wages paid out. His business is valued at $2,500 but is relatively small in comparison to his neighbors which include foundries, casting, sash and blinds milling, a flour mill, and a paper mill. It is interesting that almost all of these business’s including Potter’s are said to run on water power, indicating proximity to the Miami River. His total annual revenue was $6,000 but spent $2,500 on the stone raw material. So, adding in the labor cost to the raw material cost and adding on a bit more for miscellaneous expenses, it appears that he cleared about $1,000 per year in 1850. It is also interesting to note that his product output is described simply as “markers” indicating that he was specialized in grave markers rather than a diverse range of stone carving like many stone cutters. Considering that he probably worked 6 days a week, and that the average stone worker made about $1.50 per day, Potter was doing OK but not great.4 His $1,000 per year income worked out to about $3.25 per day which was about double what his hired hands might have made but not a fortune either. Yet, he managed to live in the elegant Rossville neighborhood of W. Hamilton which are the big houses on top of the hill, not the gritty neighborhood of Millville nearby. Aaron Potter appears to have succeeded financially.
The style signature
For an amateur stone carver, a style signature is made up of many quirky irregularities that manifest at times, limited education, physical infirmities, and unique stylistic traits that spring sui generis from the mind of an untrained craftsman. But Aaron Potter was a highly trained craftsman. He spent ten years working in Cincinnati at a professional stone carving shop absorbing the style of his mentor(s) while perfecting his own craft. Necessarily, his style will resemble the style of his mentor. Preliminary findings reveal the following attributes of his “signature.”
Capital letter A done in script especially when used for his name “A. Potter” or when beginning a sentence but never for the deceased name.
Lower case s whereby the serif line at the end of the s are are replaced by dots.
Numeral 2 is a flowing swan like numeral lacking a straight line base.
Numeral 3 is quite distinctive where the top curls in and up.
Numeral 4 is distinctive especially when compared with other stone carvers.
Potter does not use these traits exclusively but seems to slip them in when he deemed appropriate. For example, the “dot s” is used in lower case and often toward the lower half of the stone or when the inscription is a small size. The script upper case A is used when beginning a sentence or in the word Aged but never for the deceased person’s name. This is evidence of mental rules that decide the specific use. Artifacts indeed are the embodiment of ideas.
The Revelation
So where do we find Aaron Potter sandstone grave markers? A cursory review of Ohio and Indiana gravestones in the 1837 to 1849 year period places a large number at Historic Hopewell, a Presbyterian Church and grave yard dating from 1808 in Morning Sun, Preble County, Ohio. Quite a few are up in Middletown, Butler County, Ohio, Potter’s hometown. The rest are scattered around Preble, Butler and Hamilton Counties. A few are found in Kentucky just across the Ohio River and there is a cluster in Jefferson County, Indiana some 110 miles down the Miami and Ohio Rivers. It is not unexpected to find his work mostly within a forty mile radius from his shop. A delivery wagon could make the journey in a days time. But there are outliers that push this distance out.
The grave of Martin C. Bennet is marked with a Potter carved stone. And that is up in Mulberry, Clinton County, Indiana, a distance of over 150 miles! Martin Bennet’s family was from Preble County and are buried at Historic Hopewell and have their own Potter carved stones.. Martin was up in Mulberry studying theology. The family loyalty to their stone carver no doubt influenced their decision to transport a marker rather than use a local Indiana carver.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111067164/martin-c-bennett
But the biggest surprise was the realization that I had one of Potter’s stones in my own backyard back in Illinois! I was aware of several well made grave stones in Union Cemetery, Randolph County, Illinois. One that stands out is the Margaret McQuiston Simpson marker. While in Ohio on my “field trip” I began to think about the Simpson marker. Could it be carved by Aaron Potter, over three hundred miles away by river? On my first trip back to Union Cemetery after my Ohio journey, I looked carefully at the Simpson marker and several others. And indeed there are two markers likely carved by Aaron Potter.
The Margaret Simson (Simpson) marker exhibits most of the Potter diagnostic attributes; the dot s, the four and two numeral style, the two dot ordinal indicator, and so on. Clearly this was a Potter stone but unfortunately not signed. But this stone faces east not west as is the norm at Union Cemetery. A quick check of Margaret’s genealogy revealed her father’s siblings and even her only son are buried back at Hopewell Cemetery. Later it was discovered that her father left Preble County, went to Tennessee and alarmed by an epidemic there, moved to Randolph County, Illinois. Her father’s siblings and families stayed in Preble County, Ohio. Later, Margaret’s son became a doctor and at some point he, himself moved back to Preble County, Ohio and is buried there at Hopewell also. And remember that the grave markers at Hopewell face east? Here at Union Cemetery, defying convention, the family placed the marker facing east as they had done back in Ohio. What was the reason to bring this stone all the way from Ohio? Was it loyalty to a stone cutter who was a friend of the family? Was it simply wanting the best; since Aaron Potter was a very accomplished stone carver? Or was it just some sort of cultural inertia yet unknown to us? Whatever the exact reasons, it is undeniable the Simpson family had strong connections back to Preble County, Ohio and that this silent stone stands witness to those long ago relationships.
The other Potter grave stone at Union Cemetery is for little 11 month old Margaret Jane Graham d. 1844. It bears many of the Potter style signature also. This stone was a bit of a mystery for us but it turns out that her father was pastor at Union Church for a few years in the mid 1840s. As a Presbyterian minister, he would certainly have had contacts back to Hopewell church in Preble County. Yet again, we find relationships from Randolph County, Illinois back to Preble County, Ohio.
What are we to make of all of this?
I was astounded to discover that people of the 1840s would ship gravestones long distances. Were good carvers in such demand or was it loyalty to “our” stone carver? Surely there was an equal carver in 1840s St. Louis, just 40 miles up the Mississippi River from Randolph County. Potter’s accomplishment was quite evident in a few monuments that he carved. There is the signed monument for Sarah Ward, d. 1837, Middletown, Butler County, Ohio that shows remarkable talent and mastery of the carving art. His signature “A. Potter” is faintly visible at the bottom left.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/95292974/sarah-ward
My strong sense is that Aaron Potter exceeded his mentor in skill. We still do not know without uncertainty who his mentor was but there is faint evidence it was William Ingersoll in downtown Cincinnati. And why in the world did Potter decide to open his own shop in 1837? Eighteen thirty-seven was the Andrew Jackson “species crash” that resulted in a severe economic downturn lasting nearly seven years. Was he dismissed from his employer due to the crash or was it just accidental timing?
Eighteen forty-nine is the last known year of Potter’s sandstone markers. He was obviously in business much longer, but like the vast majority of carvers in the Midwest he switched to marble, an easier to carve stone. Unfortunately many of these “manufactured stones” were carved at least partially by machine rather than hand and the softer material degraded faster leaving many of them unreadable. By the time of the 1850 census, Potter’s business is recorded as a “marble factory.”
Connections
While I was at Historic Hopewell, some volunteers were testing the sound equipment for the upcoming Sunday service. Yes, as incredible as it may seem, this church constructed in 1828 is still holding services. There is no formal congregation. Area pastors of different denominations take turns to preach to whomever shows up, often campers in casual dress from the nearby state forest campgrounds. I was fortunate to get an impromptu tour of the interior of Hopewell Church and in conversation the name of Robert Simpson came up. While I did not get to meet him in person, I reached out with email and found he is a direct descendant of the Simpson family that stayed in Ohio. He helped to fill in part of this story with the Margaret Simpson monument at Union Cemetery. More than 200 years has passed and yet those connections between Preble County, Ohio and Randolph County remain.
A felon is a type of infection, usually of the finger resulting from a puncture wound or deep cut. Left untreated it can lead to gangrene and death.
A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio with Illustrations and Sketches of its Representative men and Pioneers., Western Biographical Publishing Co., Cincinnati, Ohio. 1882, p. 179.
History of Butler County, 1882, p. 329.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin #604, History of Wages in the United States from Colonial times to 1928, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934.
“connected by rivers but also by people”
Great write up Dave. A quick comment on stones facing East from an article I read was on the return of Christ , he is believed to appear first in the East, hence the reason.
What a great detective story. The images are gorgeous and really support your attributions to Aaron Potter.