Robert L. D. Potter

Robert Lewis Dorr Potter (February 5, 1833 – November 2, 1893) was an American lawyer from Wautoma, Wisconsin, who served four years as a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Senate.

Background

Potter was born February 5, 1833, in Hillsdale, New York. At the age of nine, his family moved to Egremont, Massachusetts, where he remained until about 20 years old, when he left to attend Union Law School in Easton, Pennsylvania, receiving his degree in 1857. In that same year he moved to Wautoma.

In Wisconsin

In 1860, he was District Attorney for Waushara County, Wisconsin. On July 1, 1863, he enlisted to fight in the American Civil War. He became a publisher of the Waushara Argus in 1867. In 1872, he was elected to the Wisconsin Senate, District 25 (at that time consisting of the counties of Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara), and served there until 1876. He then was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General of United States until May 1878. He is best known as the author of the "Potter Law", which created the first Wisconsin Railroad Commission

Personal life

He was married February 5, 1861, to Emeline Bingham; they had seven children. He died on November 2, 1893, in Berlin, Wisconsin.