POTTER United Families

His “History of the Belgian Farmers' Union” and his “History of the
in the Belgian provinces”, in 1880 and 1881, were awarded the Gold
medal by the Royal Academy of Belgium.
His work was highly valued by contemporaries and biographers, but
it also provoked criticism.
"The fact that he always worked on different works at the same time
("he rested from one work by working on another") and working
rather hastily ("he wrote his books on his proofs, he deleted, he
refilled, he glued and re-glued each piece separately"), his writings
exculpated redundancies and a lack of synthesis.
Frans de Potter was also active in various associations. He was,
among others, founding member (and from 1893 to 1902 ordinary
member) of the “History Circle” in Ghent, established in 1893 to
watch over the historical patrimony of Ghent.
He was one of the pioneers in the field of monument conservation.
When in 1870 rumors circulated about a possible demolition of the
Gravensteen, he was the first to point out the historical importance
of the castle.
The association to which Frans devoted most of his attention was the
David Fund, from the first name of a friend of his father.
The newspaper “Citizen’s Interests” wrote, just after the death of
Frans, that "his efforts in the David Fund, were the greatest service
to the Catholic party and the Flemish people in general".
Multiple contemporaries of Frans mention that his appeal in the
“Funds Letter” of December 20, 1874, to establish a "David Fund",
with as many divisions "as the Willems Fund”, was the foundation of
a cultural association that would soon become the strongest Flemish
organization for popular development.
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