'The Remarkable Life of Susannah Pottenger - Brown' - May 19, 2026

This neat program was on May 19, 2026, at the La Porte County Historical Society Museum in La Porte, Indiana. Gene Bukowski presented a program titled "From Tobacco Plantation to La Porte Pioneer Woman: The Remarkable Life of Susannah Pottenger-Brown." Susannah Pottenger’s life embodied the course of early American history. Susannah was a descendant of those escaping religious persecution in Europe. Many of these emigrants were willing to become indentured servants for the chance of a better life in Colonial Maryland. Susannah Pottenger was born during the French and Indian War and was raised on a Maryland tobacco farm. She was orphaned in Virginia during the Revolutionary War, survived the dangerous Kentucky frontier, and was widowed very young. Susannah Pottenger-Brown died in Illinois during the Civil War, aged more than 100 years.