POTTER, Henry Codman [1835-1908] -- American clergyman, Episcopal Bishop of New York

POTTER, HENRY CODMAN, bishop, author, was born May 25, 1835, in Schenectady, N, Y. He is the sixth protestant episcopal bishop of New York, and prominent among broad church thinkers. HE

POTTER, Henry Codman, sixth bishop of New York and 131st in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Schenectady, N.Y., May 25, 1834; fifth son of the Rev. Alonzo and Maria (Nott) Potter. He attended the Episcopal academy at Philadelphia, Pa., and was graduated from the Theological Seminary of Virginia in 1857. He was ordered deacon in 1857, and ordained priest in 1858. He was twice married: first, Oct. 8, 1857, to Eliza Rogers, daughter of Samuel O. and Clara (Boyd) Jacobs of Spring Grove, Pa., who died June 29, 1901; and secondly, Oct. 4, 1902, to Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark of Cooperstown, N.Y. In November, 1902, Mrs. Potter announced her gift of the East Side Community House, a philanthropic institution similar to Hull House, Chicago, for the city of New York, to cost about half a million dollars. Mr. Potter was rector of Christ Church, Greensburg, Pa., 1857-58; of St. John's, Troy, N.Y., 1859-66; assistant, on the Greene Foundation, at Trinity church, Boston, Mass., 1866-68, and rector of Grace church, New York city, 1868-84. He refused the presidency of Kenyon college, Ohio, in 1863, and the office of bishop of Iowa in 1875. He was elected assistant bishop of New York in 1883, and was consecrated, Oct. 20, 1883, by Bishops Smith, Williams and Clark, assisted by Bishops Whipple, Stevens, Littlejohn, Doane, Huntington and McLaren. On the death of his uncle, Bishop Horatio Potter, Jan. 2, 1887, he succeeded to the bishopric. He became prominent in public reforms; was a friend of the laboring classes, and his services as an arbitrator to adjust differences between employer and employed were frequently sought. He was secretary of the house of bishops, 1866-83. Union college conferred on him the honorary degree of A.M. in 1863; D.D. in 1865, and LL.D. in 1877; the degree of D.D. was also given him by Trinity in 1884, by Harvard in 1890 and by Oxford, England, in 1892; that of D.C.L. by Bishop's university in 1894, and that of LL.D. by Cambridge, England, in 1888, and by the University of Pennsylvania and Yale in 1901. BDNA  
 

1887

• Grandson: ¤POTTER, H(enry) C(odman) [1904-1977] American cinema director
• Father: ¤POTTER, Alonzo [1800-1865] American clergyman, Episcopal bishop of PA
• Uncle: ¤POTTER, Horatio [1802-1887] American clergyman, Episcopal bishop of New York