The Love Story of Potter Creek Part 1

In addition to the Benjamin Lyons family of Salemville, there was another colored family living a short distance away whose story somehow entwines with the family name of Lyons. The Robert R. Love family lived not far from New Enterprise in Bloomfield township near Maria. The headline of his obituary, printed in 1920 in the Altoona Tribune reads, “Ex-Slave Dies Aged 103 Years,” and tells the amazing story of his coming to Morrisons Cove.

Robert R. Love was born Dec. 20, 1816, of slave parents, George Love and Dollie Wans near Culpepper Court House, Culpepper County, Virginia. Both parents were...