Private John Potts

Quick Facts

Significance:

Private on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Place of Birth:

Dillenburg, Hessen, Germany

Date of Birth:

Approximately 1776

Place of Death:

Gallatin County, Montana

Date of Death:

1808

Place of Burial:

Unknown

"this we called Pott's Creek after John Potts one of our party." - Lewis, July 20th, 1805.

John Potts was a valuable member of the expedition. As a good hunter and trusted soldier he often was employed in small groups. He had been somewhat accident prone and found himself in trouble in the beginning, but by the time the expedition truly started he became a well respected part of the journey

On the Expedition

Potts was off to a rough start when on January 4th, 1804, he and William Werner got into a fight. Clark writes an account of the event as follows: "Worner & Potts fight after Dark without my Knowledge & the Corpl. head of the mess left the hut & Suffered them to bruse themselves much, he has no authority." This remark is likely what would lead to Corporal John Robinson's demotion to private. However this would be the first and last time Potts was ever written to have misbehaved.

Potts quickly began to shine as a stand out member of the expedition. He likely had displayed some knowledge of law or a good moral compass as he went from being on the trouble maker end to an important role in a court martial that occured on June 29th, 1804. Here John Potts was listed "to act as Judge advocate." A position that advises the court martial on points of law and sums the case up.

Throughout all the journals Potts was remarked as a good shot. Sergeant Ordway in April of 180 had written multiple times about Potts taking down bison and even smaller game like otter.

On July 18th, 1805, Clark picks Potts to join him for a small expeditionary force to find the Shoshone, writing "I deturmined to go a head with a Small partey a few days and find the Snake Indians if possible after brackfast I took J. Fields Potts & my Servent proceeded on." Thusly showing the captain's trust in Potts. 

A few days later his service was rewarded with the naming of a creek "Pott's Creek," although it is now known as Towhead Gulch. Similarily a "Pott's Valley" was to be named for him, now known as Spokane Creek.

Though his service record was exceptional, Potts had an unortunately bad luck streak when it came to injury or illness. There are many remarks on his illnesses throughout the journals in which he recovered from, but a particularly bad injury had Lewis writing on June 18th, 1806, "we had not proceeded far this morning before Potts cut his leg very badly with one of the large knives; he cut one of the large veigns on the inner side of the leg; I found much difficulty in stoping the blood which I could not effect untill I applyed a tight bandage with a little cushon of wood and tow on the veign below the wound."

After the Expedition

For his service to the expedition John Potts was awarded $166.66.

On April 22nd, 1806, still on the expedition, Lewis would write a short sentence: " at 7 A. M. we set out having previously sent on our small Canoe with Colter and Potts." Little would anyone know that years later, in 1808, after having become a trapper for Manuel Lisa, he would again depart in a canoe with John Colter for what would become his final trapping voyage. This journey would end with an encounter with the Blackfeet that left one member of their nation dead alongside John Potts. Colter would return to Fort Raymond naked.

Resources:

Morris, Larry E. The Fate of the Corps. Yale University Press, 2004. Print.

Moulton, Gary. The Journals of the Lewis & Clark Expedition: August 30, 1803 - August 2, 1804 . University of Nebraska Press, 1986. Print.

Moulton, Gary. Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. University of Nebraska Press. Web.

Further Reading:

Learn more about John Potts at Lewis-Clark.org