Howard Potter

Howard Potter was an industrialist, investment banker, diplomat and philanthropist, and a partner in Brown Bros. & Co.. He was born in Schenectady, New York on July 8, 1826 and died in London, England on March 24, 1897. He was the father of Howard Cranston Potter, James Brown Potter and Grace Howard Potter.

Potter was the second son of Alonzo Potter – Professor and later Vice President of Union College and subsequently Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania – and Maria Nott, daughter of Dr. Eliphalet Nott, President for more than sixty years of Union College.

On both sides he came from New England Puritan stock of English descent, and counted among his distinguished relatives Nathan Hale, the patriot schoolmaster, and other noted New Englanders, the Rev. Joel Benedict of Connecticut, his maternal great grandfather, and the brother-in-law of Mr. James Brown; Rt. Rev. Horatio Potter, Bishop of New York, his uncle; Clarkson N. Potter, a noted lawyer and Congressman; Gen. Robert B. Potter of the 9th Army Corps, the first man to cross the bridge at Antietam, gaining that day for the Union cause; Rt. Rev. Henry Codman Potter, a distinguished bishop of New York; Dr. Eliphalet Nott Potter, President of Union and later of Hobart College, and other brothers distinguished in architecture and other walks in life.

Potter entered Union College in 1842 and graduated in 1846. After his graduation he remained for a year as tutor in Latin and Greek. Later he studied law and was admitted to the New York Bar, but gave up the practice of law to become Secretary and Treasurer of the Novelty Iron Works, then the most notable iron works in the U.S. In 1859, at the invitation of James Brown, he entered the firm of Brown Brothers & Company, becoming a partner in 1861.

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