POTTER United Families

gone for 70 years, that: “He had not eaten his bread in idleness...",
wrote the liberal Volksbelang in August 1904, following the death of
the Catholic “Flemish character” Frans de Potter.
Other sources as well emphasize the enormous work ethic and study
spirit of Frans de Potter. The Ghent citizen was of modest origin. His
father Josephus de Potter was a teacher and his mother, Rosalie
Francisca Peirsegaele, a housewife. Frans only got primary education,
but managed, by self-study, to become prominent publicist and
historian.
He culminated as first permanent secretary of the Royal Flemish
Academy for Languages Literature in Ghent.
De Potter started his career as a writer with the publication of poems,
cantatas and novels. Successfully. According to Alphonse Siffer,
printer-publisher, friend and Catholic politician, Frans was "literally
covered with honours, prizes and successes.
His first book, “Brief History of Flemish Literature” was crowned in
1854 by the “Nederduitsch Taalverbond” in Antwerp.
His “Cantata Artevelde”, written following the foundation of the
famous statue in Ghent, was crowned in 1863 with the “Price of the
Fine Arts & Literature Society of Ghent”.
The same Society crowned De Potter again in 1866 for his “Yearbook
of Saint George's Guild of Ghent”, and yet again in 1870 for his
“History of the Municipal Feasts in Flanders”.
As a young man, Frans de Potter participated frantically in
competitions and price camps that were written by various "Flemishminded
companies”.
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