When William Henry Potter was born on 20 April 1863, in Crawford, Pennsylvania, United States, his father, Daniel N. Potter, was 35 and his mother, Mary Jane Hites, was 23. He married Lydie B. Klaus about 1885, in Indian Township, Payne, Oklahoma, United States. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 5 daughters. He lived in Martin, Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States in 1910 and Cobb, Bryan, Oklahoma, United States in 1920. He died on 2 April 1922, in Texanna, McIntosh, Oklahoma, United States, at the age of 58.