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- Newspaper Obituary - Thursday, April 11, 1867 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - Suicide - Mrs. Potter, wife of Thompson Potter of Amboy, committed suicide last week by cutting her throat with a razor.
Newspaper Obituary - Thursday, April 18, 1867 Pulaski Democrat - Pulaski, New York - The Amboy Tragedy - Thompson F. Potter and his wife Jane Ann, have lived in Amboy many years. They were poor, industrious, respectable people and the parents of four children. Often Mrs. P. has suffered from lameness in the limbs, but has managed to oversee her household manners properly. Thompson has a brother named Francis M., who went in the 122d Regiment to fight for the country, leaving his wife, the interests under the _eral care of Thompson. When this soldier went to the war he was the father of one child, but on his return he learned that his brother had been very intimate with Beatrice during his absence and the mysterious appearance of a baby in his family some two years ago, did not serve to remove his suspicions that something was wrong somewhere. This intimacy of Thompson and Beatrice was kept up after Frank had got back, and finally became so notorious and shameless that about two weeks since Frank told the faithless woman, whom he had married in Michigan. Five years ago, to pick up her duds and leave. With brazen indifference she proceeded to collect her close and traps, singing cheerful songs meanwhile, as if she were high-hearted innocence itself Thompson heard of the Foss, and informed his invalid wife, who had ever been through and devoted, that he could not see Beatrice go off alone. The tender hearted scoundrel then went to his brothers' house and confessed his adultery to Frank and made arrangements to accompany the festive Beatrice to parts unknown. Frank of course did not object to the project, but insisted that the mysterious two-year-old should accompany its disgusting parents. Thompson then went home and told his own wife of the proposed desertion, and advised her to break up housekeeping and put the children into respectable families, where they would be trained properly, while she should board with some of retired and quiet friend. He told her, for her consolation, that he did not blame her for what he proposed to do, that she had always been a faithful and worthy wife, above reproach and suspicion. He turned a deaf year to all her expostulations and entreaties, and with a coarse heartlessness, and brutality almost incredible asked her to assist him in putting up this clothes. And she, poor heartbroken, ignorant, spiritless woman, assisted him! And before he took his departure with a lovely Beatrice and the baby, and one hundred and fifty dollars in money, he condescended to bid his wife, Jane Arm, and affectionate farewell, and to inform her that he was going to Michigan, where she would never, never hear from him again. The worthy pair tore themselves away from the bosom of their families one pleasant day near the close of March. Jane Ann complied with the wishes of her husband and speedily found places for her four children, while she herself hired her board at Mrs. Shoen's in Amboy. Her crushed and desolate heart still clung to the worthless wretch who had so basely deserted her, and she would weep and upbraid herself and apologize for him, saying "If I hadn't been sick and lame, for the last year, Thompson wouldn't have left me." The last scene of all in this sad, eventful and sickening history we published on Saturday. The youngest child, Gertrude, came into Mrs. Shoen's to get her things and go away to her new home. The sight of this darling daughter, less than five years of age, and the thought that she must be separated from her forever; the memory of her once happy home and pleasant family now disgraced and ruined; and the dreary night of desolation and despair spreading endlessly before her, completed the overthrow of her shattered reason, and taking her false husbands razor she went into an outhouse, kneeled down, and with one stroke severing arteries and veins and windpipe, she sent her sad soul into the presence of its master. The coroner's jury decided that Thompson's desertion of his wife produced her insanity and the _suicide. If the spirits of the departed ever condescend to keep company with such despicable villains as Thompson, it is to be hoped that the ghost of his murdered wife will haunt his bedside and dog his footsteps, and turn every cup of their joy into _ _ wood. -Syracuse Journal.
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- 1867
d. May 1877 (Age 48 years)