John Fox Potter nicknamed "Bowie Knife Potter" (May 11, 1817May 18, 1899) was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer and judge from Wisconsin who served in the Wisconsin State Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives. Early and family life Born in Augusta in Massachusetts' District of Maine, Potter attended common schools and Phillips Exeter Academy. He married Frances Elizabeth Lewis Fox Potter (1818–1863) of Portland, Maine. Her father George Fox (1791–1864) and unmarried sisters would move to Wisconsin and farm alongside the Potters. Their son John Kendall Potter (1853–1864) barely survived his mother. However, their children Rebecca (1841–1908), Alfred (1843–1915) and Frances (1847–after 1900) did survive and have children. Career Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1837, Potter began his legal practice in East Troy. He served as a judge in Walworth County from 1842 to 1846. A Whig, Potter was elected a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and served a term (1856–1857). He was a delegate to the 1852 Whig National Convention and 1856 Whig National Convention. With the demise of the Whig party, Potter became a Republican and became a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1860 and 1864. Member of Congress Wisconsin voters elected Potter to the United States House of Representatives in 1856 and he won re-election twice. Thus, Potter served in the 35th through the 37th Congresses (1857 to 1863). Potter received his nickname in 1860, as a result of an aborted duel with Virginia Congressman Roger A. Pryor after Illinois Congressman (and abolitionist) Owen Lovejoy's remarks concerning the 1837 murder of his brother Elijah Lovejoy. Pryor had edited Potter's follow-up remarks to eliminate a mention of the Republican Party, to which Potter had objected, then Pryor challenged Potter to a duel, but his seconds objected when Potter chose bowie knives as the prospective weapon, decrying his selection of weapon as "vulgar, barbarous, and inhuman." The incident received considerable press, and Potter's friends afterward often accompanied him when on Washington's streets, lest he be accosted again to test his mettle. Potter served as chairman of the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions from 1859 to 1861 and of the Committee on Public Lands from 1861 to 1863. In this latter role, his committee handled the Homestead Act of 1862. He was condsidered one of the "Radical Republicans" due to his support for African-American civil rights and the belief that not only should slavery not be allowed