1. Alonzo Potter was an American bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States who served as the third bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
50 Facts About Alonzo Potter
1. 2.
Alonzo Potter was the sixth child of Anna and Joseph Potter, who was a farmer.
3.
Alonzo Potter's ancestors emigrated from England to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in the mid-seventeenth century.
4.
Alonzo's son Henry Codman Potter, successor to Bishop Horatio Potter in New York, was a third.
5.
The child Alonzo Potter first attended the district school in his hometown.
6.
Alonzo Potter was so taken with the story that he could not put it down except for eating and sleeping.
7.
At age fifteen, Alonzo Potter passed the entrance examination and enrolled in Union College in Schenectady, New York.
8.
Alonzo Potter had not been baptized, so he requested and received it in St Peter's Church, Philadelphia.
9.
Shortly after that, Alonzo Potter decided that he wanted to be ordained in the Episcopal Church.
10.
Alonzo Potter began theological studies under the direction of the Rev Dr Samuel H Turner, afterward for many years a distinguished Professor in the General Theological Seminary.
11.
Alonzo Potter continued studying theology after he returned to Union College as a Tutor.
12.
Shortly after he was ordained, Alonzo Potter gathered "a little congregation of blacks in Schenectady" and became their minister.
13.
Alonzo Potter married three times: first to Sarah Maria Nott, next to her first cousin, Sarah Benedict, and last to Frances Seton.
14.
Alonzo Potter was the only daughter of Eliphalet Nott, President of Union College.
15.
On March 16,1839, Sarah Nott Alonzo Potter died about four hours after giving birth to her seventh child and only daughter.
16.
In 1865, Alonzo Potter married his third wife, Miss Frances Seton.
17.
Alonzo Potter's will bequeathed $10,700 to charitable and religious bodies.
18.
In total, Alonzo Potter had ten children: seven by Sarah Nott and three boys by Sara Benedict.
19.
In 1826, Alonzo Potter accepted a call as rector of St Paul's Church, Boston, Massachusetts and was instituted on August 29,1826.
20.
Alonzo Potter succeeded Dr Samuel Farmar Jarvis, who, leaving the parish in 1827, left it without a rector.
21.
Alonzo Potter spent all day Monday and Tuesday mornings making "general visits" to parishioners.
22.
Alonzo Potter made "visits to the sick and dying" as needed.
23.
On May 12,1829, Alonzo Potter preached a sermon on "behalf of missions" before the Board of Directors of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church.
24.
Alonzo Potter began to suffer from a "partial loss of voice" and "impaired health," so, in 1831, he resigned and went back to Union College to teach.
25.
In 1831, Alonzo Potter returned to Union College as professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy.
26.
Also in 1835, Alonzo Potter declined a call to Grace Church, Boston.
27.
On September 24,1845, the day after his consecration, Alonzo Potter consecrated a new church.
28.
Alonzo Potter had already committed himself to deliver the Lowell Lectures in Boston.
29.
Besides preparing and delivering Lowell Lectures in Boston, Alonzo Potter began working on philanthropic projects, which he believed the Episcopal Church should undertake, within a year after his consecration.
30.
From Florida, Alonzo Potter wrote a letter to his son Henry, who was a student at the Virginia Theological Seminary.
31.
Alonzo Potter reported on the state of his health at the Diocesan Convention of 1856.
32.
On February 10,1858, Alonzo Potter was ordaining a deacon in Christ Church, Greensburg, where his son Henry was rector.
33.
Alonzo Potter spent most of the time in England at Great Malvern, a healing resort.
34.
Between denominations Alonzo Potter believed that the Episcopal Church should lead the way "toward the restoration of Christian unity" because it can be made "more gracefully" by the Episcopal Church than any other.
35.
Alonzo Potter was an opponent of slavery and published a reply to the pro-slavery arguments of Bishop John Henry Hopkins of Vermont.
36.
Alonzo Potter as an educator Alonzo Potter was a leader in all the educational movements of his time.
37.
Alonzo Potter was active in the formation of the American Association for the Advancement of Education, which was a forerunner of the modern National Education Association.
38.
Alonzo Potter participated in the first meetings in 1849 and 1850.
39.
At the second meeting, Alonzo Potter was appointed as chairman of a committee to write a constitution for the Association.
40.
Alonzo Potter served as President of the Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church and of the Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children.
41.
Alonzo Potter was so active in philanthropic agencies because he believed that the Church should create and administer them.
42.
Right after graduating from Union College, Alonzo Potter gave instruction to "colored persons" in Philadelphia.
43.
Alonzo Potter strongly supported the United States government during the American Civil War.
44.
On March 30,1865, Alonzo Potter left from New York for California as a guest of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company.
45.
Along the way, when the ship stopped at major ports, Alonzo Potter went ashore and engaged in activities such as sightseeing, conducting worship services, and meeting local people.
46.
On June 29,1865, as the ship was nearing San Francisco, Alonzo Potter became dangerously ill.
47.
Alonzo Potter's corpse was taken to Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, until it could be sent to Philadelphia.
48.
Alonzo Potter's funeral was in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on September 11,1865.
49.
In 1844, Alonzo Potter was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.
50.
Alonzo Potter wrote many books and edited many reprints and collections of sermons and lectures.