SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

August Pott, Page 666

AUGUST POTT, deceased, a prominent and much-respected pioneer of Sheboygan County, was born in Regierungs Bezirk, Dusseldorf, in Rhenish Prussia, November 19, 1826.  His parents were Gotfried and Anna Katherine (Feld) Pott, who were also natives of the same province, and became early settlers of Sheboygan County.

    The subject of this sketch received a liberal education in hi native country, which included thorough instruction in vocal and instrumental music.  For several years he was employed as a school-teacher.  In 1849, in company with his parents, he emigrated to the United States.  They came direct to Sheboygan County, and settled on wild land in the town of Herman.  They were very poor and had to struggle for the means of support.  From the scattering pine trees on their land they made shingles by hand, and it was no unusual thing during the first year of their residence in the county for our subject to carry a bunch of shingles on his back to the city and trade it for provisions, and as the distance was eleven miles the trip was one of hardship.

    In 1853 Mr. Pott returned to Prussia and was married there, January 26, of that year, to Miss Justina, a daughter of William Hoehfeld.  Mrs. Pott was born in the same town as was her husband, her birth occurring on the 5th of September, 1826.  In the summer of the year of their marriage, Mr. Pott and his young wife set out for America, accompanied by a small colony of their friends and neighbors.  Their destination was Sheboygan County, and on arriving there they settled in Herman Township, where they became thrifty farmers, and where their families still reside.  For the next year and a-half Mr. Pott was engaged in farming in Herman.  The church to which he and his family belonged in the Old Country had been the German Reformed Church, and as the little settlement had neither school nor church, he served as teacher and pastor.

    In the fall of 1855, Mr. Pott was elected County Clerk of Sheboygan County, and on the 1st of January following entered upon the duties of that office, moving his family to the city.  he was re-elected several times, holding that office during several years.  Subsequently, he was elected Clerk of the Court, Justice of the Peace and Police Justice.

    Mr. Pott established the Sheboygan Zeitung in 1860, making it a "red-hot" Republican paper and aiding in the first and second election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency.  Political feeling ran high in those days, and it required considerable nerve to face the prejudice of many who were not in sympathy with the course of the Republican party.  But he lived it down, and won a strong support for his journal, which was, and is at this day, the only German Republican paper in the county.

    Mr. and Mrs. Pott's family consisted of four children, three sons and one daughter.  August W., of whom see sketch, is now proprietor, editor and publisher of the Zeitung and holds the office of Municipal Judge of Sheboygan.  Henry G. is a member of the firm of Optenberg & Pott, boiler-makers and machinists of Sheboygan.  He married Miss Anna Woehrmann.  William H. was drowned in the Sheboygan River, July 29, 1877, aged sixteen; and Augusta, the only daughter, is single and resides with her mother.

    Mr. Pott was for a time the German teacher in the Sheboygan City schools.  he was a member and President of the Sheboygan Gegenseitiger Kranken Unterstuetzungs Verein, and was one of the first members of the Concordia Singing Society.  His death occurred September 15, 1872.