The dominant quality of the character of the wife of Bishop Henry
Codman Potter, of the diocese of New York, is undoubtedly charity.
Her maiden name was Elizabeth L. Scriven, and she was born in 1849 in
New York, coming of good American stock. She has been married twice,
her first husband being Alfred Corning Clark, who in his lifetime
controlled the Singer sewing machine interests and who also had
extensive real estate holdings in the metropolis. When Mr. Clark died
he left an estate of an estimated value of about $30,000,000, the bulk
of which, after a liberal allowance made to his four children, went to
his widow. All her life Mrs. Potter has given largely to charity and
philanthropic enterprises. She has done excellent work in New York in
connection with improvements in tenement houses, those that she owns
being ideal dwellings in regard to construction, light, ventilation and
sanitary arrangements. At Cooperstown, New York, which is her home,
Mrs. Potter has spent large sums of money in beautifying the village.
She gives annually a dinner to a thousand poor persons, and has a long
list of private pensioners. Her marriage to Bishop Potter took place on
October 1, 1902, at Cooperstown.