By William Kleppel It’s a cold and stormy winter night. You’re carrying a candle up the flight of stairs to your second floor study. The flame flickers and you realize someone has left the window open beside your desk!...
By William Kleppel
It’s a cold and stormy winter night. You’re carrying a candle up the flight of stairs to your second floor study. The flame flickers and you realize someone has left the window open beside your desk! You shut it quickly, grab a quilted blanket, and drop into your chair to read.
Earlier in the day, you stopped by the local bookshop and happened upon a small world atlas. It was printed by the store’s owner, and the editor of the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle, Paraclete Potter. Flipping through the maps, you dream of far flung adventures to the Spice Isles, Amazonia, New Holland, and Van Diemen’s Land while sipping your rum laced hot chocolate.
…of course, that would be if you were a citizen of Poughkeepsie, dreaming of world travel in 1820. Today, the Spice Isles are located in Indonesia, Amazonia is a large swath of South America, New Holland is Australia, and Van Diemen’s Land is Tasmania (which you wouldn’t have wanted to explore in 1820 since it was an English penal colony at that time).
I found this atlas, the first to be published in the city of Poughkeepsie, shoved in a folder within the depths of our miscellaneous files here in the History Rooms at Adriance Memorial Library.
Paraclete was the second eldest of 10 Potter children, and remarkably, wasn’t the most successful. His youngest brother, Horatio, was living in Beekman, New York, and at the age of 10, moved in with Paraclete in order to attend the Poughkeepsie Academy. The Academy was more prestigious than any local schools in Beekman at the time. Horatio would later become the sixth bishop of the Episcopal Archdiocese of New York. He was the founder of The Church of St. John the Divine in New York City.4 Horatio was also instrumental in the founding of Bard College.5
The second youngest of Paraclete’s siblings, Alonzo, went on to become the third bishop of the Episcopal Archdiocese of the state of Pennsylvania.6
Paraclete’s business career always seemed to flourish. Several burgeoning newspapers in town vowed for supremacy during this early period of the 19th Century. The Poughkeepsie Journal and Constitutional Republic went through several derivations before it was purchased by the local publishing firm of Bowman, Parsons, and Potter. Potter gained full control of the paper in May 1815, and held on to the reigns of editing and ownership for the next 22 years.
On September 16, 1824, Potter and other local dignitaries were in attendance at the Poughkeepsie Hotel to lunch with the visiting Revolutionary War hero, the Marquis De Lafayette. This was during the Marquis’s legendary return journey around the country. His visits would bring out thousands of admirers at every stop during his trip.
Financial instability from a bursting real estate bubble and unregulated banking policies in the United States led to the Panic of 1837. Before this economic downturn, Paraclete Potter found a partner for his bookstore. The Potter & Wilson Bookstore was fully taken over by Archibald Wilson when Potter decided to move west to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the 1840’s.
Potter gained a foothold in Milwaukee’s society, where he served as a school commissioner. He was also involved in the incorporation of the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad.7 He died on February 3, 1858, at the age of 73.8
Printer, newspaper publisher, and bookstore owner Paraclete Potter is almost completely forgotten to history. Even his brothers aren’t remembered by today’s society. Yet, being able to handle and study a simple pamphlet of maps that he printed, a glimpse into what the world was thought to have looked like to many people over 200 years ago, is thrilling and unbelievable. I continue to be amazed by how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same over the centuries.
Discoveries like this happen here all of the time. The Local History Room’s collection of rare maps and blueprints bring our past to life in ways other types of documents cannot do. Our entire library is a world unto itself to explore, so please visit often.
References
“Circulating Library.” Poughkeepsie Journal, 8 Nov. 1809, p. 2. Platt, Edmund. The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie from the Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905, by Edmund Platt. Dutchess County Historical Society, 1987. Platt, Edmund. The Eagle’s History of Poughkeepsie from the Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905, by Edmund Platt. Dutchess County Historical Society, 1987. Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine and the Cathedral Close, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, www.nyc.gov/assets/lpc/downloads/pdf/proposed_landmarks/Cathedral%20Church%20of%20St.%20John%20The%20Divine%20and%20The%20Cathedral%20Close.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023. “Potter, Horatio.” The Episcopal Church, www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/potter-horatio/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023. “Potter, Alonzo.” The Episcopal Church, www.episcopalchurch.org/glossary/potter-alonzo/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023. “Potter, Paraclete Collection.” Net, Milwaukee County Historical Society, milwaukeehistory.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1099.Potter.Paraclete.pdf. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023. Jeremiah Potter. “A Genealogy of the Potter Family Originating in Rhode Island?: Jeremiah Potter?: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet Archive, 1 Jan. 1881, archive.org/details/agenealogypotte00pottgoog/page/n14/mode/2up?q=%22Paraclete%2BPotter%22.