George W. Potter was born in Illinois. According to family tradition, apparently he was an orphan as he was raised by his uncle, said to be named Jerry Potter, until he was about 17 (c. 1870), at which point he ran away from home. He would soon join a traveling carnival where he was an acrobat and tight rope walker. He came to Georgia and stayed at age 21 (c. 1874), possibly due to the carnival breaking up there.

         It is virtually impossible to prove any of this, however. No good candidate George Potter is to be found in the 1880 census in Georgia. In fact, most of the good candidates, ranging between 21 and 31 years old in the census were still to be found in Illinois. Some of these were married and some still lived with their parents. I do not know of any way to determine which, if any, might be him.

ChildrenEdit

ReferencesEdit

• FamilySearch.org - Social Security Death Index
• Lipthratt, Gerri (glipthra@bellsouth.net). Email received on April 28, 2005.
• Young, Charlotte. "Rowe/Murrell family histories" posting. October 28, 2004.