History of Oakland, (Pottawattamie County) Iowa United States of America

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Hon. Levi Franklin Potter, banker of Oakland, Pottawattamie county, and one of the leading members of the legislature, was born in Wauwatosa, Milwaukee county, Wis., March 27, 1855. His father, Levi Brigham Potter, who settled in Wisconsin in 1839, was of New England stock, and prominent in municipal and church affairs. His mother, Hitty Wenzel Potter, was a woman of marked ability and of great influence in her community. Ebenezer Potter and Col. Levi Brigham, great grand parents of the subject of this sketch, were veterans of the great struggle for the independence of the colonies.

Levi Franklin Potter completed his education in Ripon and Beloit colleges, and after teaching three years came to Oakland in 1879 and there engaged in mercantile business. In March, 1884, he became partner and cashier in the Citizens bank, now the Citizens State bank, of that town, which position he now occupies. He is a prominent member of the Iowa Banking association, having served as a member of the executive council and on the legislative committee of that body.

Prominent in municipal affairs, he has twice been mayor of Oakland. Always affiliating with the republican party, he was elected by a flattering majority to represent the county in the Twenty-sixth General Assembly, which met in 1896, and in extra session in 1897, to complete the codification of the laws of the state. He was re-elected to the same representation in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly, which met in 1898. Mr. Potter's record as a legislator is one in which his constituency have just pride. During his first session he was chairman of the committee on telegraph, telephone, and express, and member of the committees on ways and means, code revision, banks and banking, municipal corporations, police regulations, and labor. His work on the ways and means committee of that session so attracted the attention of its chairman, Hon. J. H. Funk, that when Mr. Funk was elected speaker of the Twenty seventh General Assembly one of the first chairmanships he determined was that of ways and means, which went to Mr. Potter. In this session Mr. Potter was also member of the committees on railroads and commerce, banks and banking, telegraph, telephone, and express, municipal corporations, rules, and labor, and a member of the joint committee on retrenchment and reform.

At this session Mr. Potter introduced and secured the passage of several important bills, among which were House file 199, providing shorter forms for assessment rolls and assessors' books, an important act that will save hundreds of dollars every year to each county; House file 165, appropriating $25,000 (in addition to the $10,000 appropriated at the previous session) for the Iowa exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi exposition; House file 101, extending the term of school treasurers from one to two years (a measure the merit of which is appreciated by those who have noticed the efforts of banks for control of school funds); House file 147, providing severe penalties for the adulteration of candy.

At his first session Mr. Potter had charge of, and secured the passage in the house, of the senate bill taxing express companies 1 per cent on the gross amount of business done by them in the state, and in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly he supplemented this work by introducing and securing the passage of House file 234 doubling the taxes so paid by these companies. He was also deeply interested in the encouragement of the beet sugar industry, and the value of his work on these lines ranks him among the pioneers of this important enterprise.

Mr. Potter was married in 1881 to Miss M. J. Wood, and has established a delightful home in Oakland, where he and his wife are important factors in all local matters tending to advance the education, morals, and well being of the community.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

History of Oakland, (Pottawattamie County) Iowa

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