Representative women of New England/Isabella A. Potter

by Mary H. Graves

ISABELLA A. POTTER

ISABELLA ABBE POTTER, now serving her seventh year as president of the Woman's Club House corporation, having been first elected in 1898, and re-elected for the sixth time in January, 1904, is the wife of a well-known business man of Boston, William W. Potter, and resides in Brookline. Born in the town of Lee, Berkshire County, Mass., daughter of Porter and Rubina (Abbe) Strickland, she comes of long lines of New England ancestors, extending back to the early settlement of the Bay Colony. Her father was a native of Amherst, Mass., and son of Francis L. Strickland and Jerushy Gaylord. Her mother was daughter of Obadiah and Margaret (Marsh) Abbe and grand-daughter of Lemuel Marsh, whose father, John Marsh, was graduated from Harvard College in 1726.

Through Lemuel Marsh Mrs. Potter is descended from the Rev. John Wilson, the first minister of Boston, and from the Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, the families of these two Puritan divines being united by the marriage of Mr. Wilson's son, the Rev. John Wilson, Jr., first minister of Medfield, Mass., and Mr. Hooker's daughter Sarah. John Wilson, third, born of this union in 1660, became a physician, and settled in Braintree. His daughter, Sarah Wilson, married in 1701 John Marsh, Sr., and was the mother of John Marsh, born in Braintree in 1702, above mentioned as the father of Lemuel and grandfather of Margaret Marsh, Mrs. Potter's maternal grandmother.

The early education of Mrs. Potter, received in the public schools of Springfield, Mass., was supplemented by a three years' course of private instruction in music, languages, physical culture, and practical kindergarten work. She then—still bearing her maiden name of Strickland—became an enthusiastic and successful teacher, holding the position of principal of a group of schools in Springfield. Miss Strickland was the first teacher to introduce object teaching and kindergarten work into those schools. She left teaching to become the wife of William Walker Potter, a successful Boston business man, trustee of Boston University, member of the Wesleyan Association and other organizations. They were married May 21, 1873, and have since resided in their beautiful home in Brookline. They have one child, Helen Wilson Potter.

Thus writes one who knows:—

"Although Mrs. Potter's preferences are decidedly for literary work, she has always been sought for church, charitable, and philanthropic enterprises. She has been a leader and eminently successful in them all.

"She and her husband were for fourteen years workers in Harvard Church, Brookline, until the cry came from a weaker society, struggling unsuccessfully to get a footing in the same town, to come over and help them. They gave of their money, but that was not enough. The personal element and influence was needed, or there could be no hope of success. The result was, they left their own home church, joined forces with the weaker society, and the beautiful St. Mark's Church of Brookline is to-day a monument to their fidelity and devotion.

"Mrs. Potter has been for years the treasurer of the Brookline Woman's Exchange, treasurer of the Massachusetts Home for Intemperate Women, treasurer of the First Needlework Guild of Boston, vice-president of the Boston Business League, a member of the New England Woman's Club, the Castilian and Charity Clubs, the New England Woman's Press Association, and the Club House Corporation Club, of which she has just been elected president.

"She is a quiet, dignified, courageous, and resourceful woman. Feeling that responsibility is the exacting companion of capacity and power, her business and executive ability are consecrated, that she may render the greatest possible good to the greatest number. She devotes the best of herself in all that she undertakes. Few women have a wider acquaintance."

It may be added that the handsome New Century Building on Huntington Avenue stands in evidence of the business enterprise and sagacity of the Woman's Club House Corporation under the guidance of Mrs. Potter. In this building are Howe TTall, Potter Hall, Woolson Hall, and Sewall Hall, named after prominent club women, the last-mentioned after Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, treasurer of the corporation.

As facetiously noted by Mrs. Abba Goold Woolson at the dedication, it was owing to the firm faith and active assistance of an Isabella that the continent of America was discovered, and it was through the opportune "discovery of an Isabella" a few years ago that had been achieved the present happy result—the fulfilment of long-cherished hopes wherefore club women of Boston and vicinity have reason to feel grateful.