Purcell Dow Ball (1892-1968)

From the Schenectady Gazette, December 20, 1968.

  Obscure Saratoga County, New York resident Purcell Dow Ball served one term as mayor of the village of Ballston Spa in the mid-1940s, having never before been active politically. Following his term, he served as a Ballston Spa village trustee for several years. The son of Simon and Carrie (Becker) Ball, Purcell Dow Ball was born on December 28, 1892, in Albany, New York. Little is known of Ball's early life and education and by 1919 had resettled in Saratoga County, New York.

  Purcell D. Ball married in November 1919 in Saratoga to Ada G. Green, who would survive him upon his death in 1968. The couple had two children, including a son, William J. Purcell Ball and his wife would move to Ballston Spa following their marriage, where Purcell would work at farming, and later was employed by the American Hide and Leather Co., where he would be a foreman in the business's shipping department.

  After decades of residence in Ballston Spa, Purcell D. Ball was drafted into local politics for the first time in March 1945 when he was named as the mayoral candidate for the newly established Citizens' Party. On March 20th Ball and the Citizen's Party emerged victorious at the polls, defeating six-year Republican incumbent Wright Scidmore by a vote of 812 to 784.

  Early in his mayoralty Ball assumed the role of honorary chairman of the Ballston Spa spring clean-up campaign, and in April 1945 issued a village-wide proclamation upon the death of President Franklin Roosevelt, declaring April 14 to be a day of mourning, and that "all business places be closed" during the hours of the president's funeral. Ball's term as mayor concluded in 1947 and in 1950 was appointed as a member of the board of village trustees, filling a vacancy. He would serve in that capacity into the mid-1950s and in 1951 held the additional office of sewer commissioner for the village.

From the Saratogian, February 17, 1949.

  Purcell Ball retired from the American Hide and Leather Co. in 1955 and continued to reside in Ballston Spa until his death at the Benedict Memorial Hospital in that village on December 18, 1968, ten days short of his 76th birthday. He was survived by his wife and children and was later buried at the Powell-Wiswall Cemetery in West Milton, Saratoga County, New York.

From the December 20, 1968 Schenectady Gazette. 

Delcour Stephen Potter (1843-1908)

Portrait from "The Men of New York", Volume II.

   Many oddly named members of the New York State Assembly have been posted here over the past four years, and that already impressive list grows ever larger with the addition of Saratoga County resident Delcour Stephen Potter, an attorney and three-term assemblyman from that county. The son of Stephen and Amanda Haskins Potter, Delcour Stephen Potter was born in the small Saratoga County town of Coveville on April 19, 1843.  He moved with his family to the town of Fort Edward while still a child and studied at the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute.

  In 1862 Potter took on the post of Assistant Paymaster in the U.S. Navy, and at the close of the Civil War began the study of law in Glens Falls, New York. After being admitted to the New York bar in 1866 Potter resettled in Schuylerville where he established a law office. Also in 1866 Potter married in Schuylerville to Anna Mary McNaughton (1841-1897), with whom he had two children, Malcolm and Bessie. 

   From the mid-1860s until 1890 Potter resided and practice law in Schuylerville, during which time he earned the reputation as "one of the best known lawyers in Northern New York", and in 1878  took on the case of Jesse Billings, a Ballston Spa resident then charged with the murder of his wife.  Along with fellow attorney Charles Hughes Potter successfully defended Billings, who (after a hung jury during the first trial) was acquitted during a second trial. 

   Delcour Potter first entered state politics in 1879, when he won election to the New York State Assembly. Taking his seat at the start of the 1880 legislative session, Potter served on the committees on General Laws, Affairs of Villages, and Public Education. Reelected to a second term in 1880, Potter would win his third term in the assembly in the fall of 1881, defeating Republican nominee Elihu Wing by a vote of 2,870 to 1.705. During the 1882 session, Potter continued service on the Affairs of Villages and Judiciary committees and was also named to the Committee on Insurance.

   Following his third term in the legislature Potter returned to practicing law in Schuylerville, and in 1890 moved his practice to Glens Falls in neighboring Warren County. Four years after his removal Potter formed a law partnership with Joseph Kellogg, and in 1893 became affiliated with the campaign of Addison Beecher Colvin, who would be elected as New York State Treasurer. Upon Colvin's entering the office of treasurer Potter was named as Capitol Paymaster, serving in that capacity from 1894-1898. 

   Active in several fraternal groups in addition to public service, Delcour Potter was a member of the Senate Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons and Elks Lodge of Glens Falls. A prominent booster for the Saratoga Battle Monument, Potter served as the treasurer of the Saratoga Battle Monument Association and is noted as having deserved " great credit for his exertions to keep intact the different sites of the Battle Grounds."

  Widowed in 1897, Delcour S. Potter died at age 65 at his home in Glens Falls on August 4, 1908. He had been ill for "a long duration" and was survived by his two children. His remains were later returned to Schuylerville for burial at the Prospect Hill Cemetery.

Potter's obituary from the Lake George News, 1908.