It takes a skilled artisan to create something that will last. A woodworker would have to know the types of wood, how to create joints, and how to sand something that will bring out the best in the wood. Many of these woodworkers worked in some of the most successful furniture companies around the country and the world. Walter Thomas Potter, who was truly an artisan with wood, made many of his pieces in the shop at the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater.

Potter was born on May 8, 1908, as Alvin Walter Ogle in Maryville, Tennessee. He had a brief tenure in the Navy and was less than honorably discharged. In 1928, he was found guilty of forgery in Tennessee and did a two-year sentence at Brushy Mountain Penitentiary.

  

Brent Peterson is executive director of the Washington County Historical Society, wchsmn.org.

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