Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2017 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Memorial Record of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago - 1895 [495-501] F. H. PETERS - The PETERS family first located in America as early as 1635, consisting then of HUGH, WILLIAM and THOMAS. The first named of these, the only one whose lineage can be traced to the present time, was an English clergyman, born in Fowey, Cornwall, England, in 1599. He graduated at Cambridge in 1622, and in 1635 came to this country, in company with his brothers WILLIAM and THOMAS, landing at Plymouth. Here he took a leading part in the organization of the Colonists and administered to both their religious and their civil welfare. Returning after- ward to England he was executed for high treason, for having been, as charged, aiding in the death of KING CHARLES I., of England. He was a writer of renown, one of his leading works having been written while he was confined in the dungeon await- ing execution. This work was entitled "A Dying Father's Legacy to an Only Child." He succeeded ROGER WILLIAMS as a preacher in Massachusetts and excommunicated his adherents, the doctrine of WILLIAMS being repudiated by PETERS. At the death of HUGH PETERS, the lineage of the family is not distinct, and can be traced back only to SAMUEL PETERS, a grand- nephew of HUGH, who was born in Hebron, Connecticut, December 12, 1735. He also was a clergyman and died in New York city, April 19, 1826. He was graduated at Yale in 1757, traveled in Europe the next year, and in 1759 took orders in the Church of England, in London. Returning to Connecticut in 1760, he took charge of churches in Hartford and Hebron. EBER PETERS, a descendant of HUGH PETERS and the great- grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Connecticut, in 1765, and married a MISS McCOLLOM, a thorough- bred Highland Scot, whose brothers located near Lake Erie, south of London, Canada, where the descendants are now said to be very wealthy. JUDGE HENRY G. MILLER, of Chicago, is a relative of this family. EBER PETERS' eldest child, NORMAN, was born in 1788, and was the grandfather of FRANK H. PETERS, and died in 1874. EBER PETERS was a manufacturer of iron, and lived till his death in Litchfield, Connecticut. He set the first whole tire on a wagon-wheel in the State of Connecticut, about the year 1796, which performance was witnessed by about 3,000 people! so skep- tical were they concerning the possibility of accomplishing such an undertaking. NORMAN PETERS was a contractor on what was called "CLINTON'S ditch," or the Erie canal, and followed the business until the canal was completed. In the meantime he bought a farm in Cayuga county, New York, twelve miles north of Auburn. By his first marriage NORMAN wedded a MISS SMITH, and had five children. For his second wife he married, in 1827, MARY ELIZABETH HILL, daughter of JONATHAN HILL, of Litchfield, Conn- ecticut. Soon after their marriage they removed to Cato, Cayuga county, New York. The mother of NORMAN PETERS' wife was the only daughter of an English Lord named BABCOCK, whose estate was near Liverpool, England. LORD BABCOCK was a Colonel in the English army, stationed opposite St. Louis, Missouri, after the French and Indian war of 1754. BABCOCK'S wife having died in England, he brought his child over to friends at Philadelphia, where she remained while her father was at his post near St. Louis. Having been suddenly called home to England just before the breaking out of the war of the Revolution, he died before having another opportunity of seeing his only child! He left a large estate in the old country, which was lost to the American heirs from sheer neglect. KING GEORGE III. gave LORD BABCOCK three square leagues of land opposite the site of St. Louis, about the year 1760. JONATHAN HILL, previously mentioned, was reared in Litch- field, Connecticut, and at the time of the Revolution espoused the cause of the crown, and on that account was driven away and was compelled to flee for his life. He went to New York and for better protection was placed on board an English ship commanded by CAPTAIN WARD, whose wife was the daughter of LORD BABCOCK, - the one left by her father at Philadelphia. While MR. HILL was on board this vessel CAPTAIN WARD became sick and died, and after a time MR. HILL wooed the widow and married her, she then being about twenty years of age. By his second wife NORMAN PETERS was the father of JOHNSON, JAMES, MANLY B. (father of our subject), NORMAN, THEODORE, DE WITT, CATHERINE (the widow of RUSSELL WALKER, of Olivet, Michigan), and MARY (the wife of JOSEPH HUEY, of Corsicana, Texas). MANLY B. PETERS was born in 1833, being the third son of NORMAN PETERS by his second wife. He was educated first in the common schools of the State of New York, and afterward attended college at Harpersfield, same State, where he graduated in 1852, in the same class with ex-CHIEF JUSTICE CHAMPLIN and wife. He then took up teaching as a profession, and in 1854, when not yet twenty-one years of age, he married SARAH M. SHELDON, of Cayuga county, New York. Of the ancestry of the Sheldon family but little is known, but it is supposed to be from Holland, as that nationality has been in New York for several generations at least; also the characteristics of the SHELDONS, both physical and mental, are like those of the people of Holland. MRS. PETERS' father, JUSTUS SHELDON, was a farmer of Cato, New York, who died in 1871, aged seventy-five years. He married ELIZABETH CORBIN, a model woman, who died in Cato, in 1857, at the age of sixty years. Besides MRS. PETERS, there were five children in the SHELDON family, namely: ELMER, a capitalist of Eaton county, Michigan, now aged seventy-six years; SYLVIA, who married a MR. SMITH in Cato and died there, leaving two children; HARRY, of Ira, New York, a farmer now aged seventy-two years; SAMUEL, deceased; ELIZA, the widow of JOHN OGILSBEE, of Meridian, New York, and now aged sixty-nine years. After his marriage MR. MANLY B. PETERS moved to the township of Kalamo, Eaton county, Michigan, where he followed the occu- pations of farming and school-teaching for two and one-half years, in the mean time clearing a farm in the dense wilderness. Then, about 1856, he emigrated to the State of Illinois, locat- ing in Snachwine, Putnam county, where he continued in agri- cultural pursuits; but after two seasons there he was induced by the gold excitement to go to the far distant West, namely to Pike's Peak, Colorado. He chanced to be in Kansas during the time of the border warfare, and was at Kansas City in 1858, when H. CLAY PATE went out with fifty men to capture JOHN BROWN; and was there also when the party returned, they having been cap- tured by JOHN BROWN, with eleven men! While at Pike's Peak, during a period of seven months, he aided in locating and sur- veying the city of Denver, having for his companion the famous KIT CARSON, the Indian scout. After prospecting in the Rocky mountains for about five months he returned to his home in Illinois. About the year 1862 he returned to Michigan, locating in the township of Geneva, Van Buren county, near South Haven, where he remained two years, engaged in farming and teaching, when he removed to Jackson county, this State, continuing the same occu- pations. In the spring of 1865 he removed to Eaton county, this State, and followed farming and teaching till 1871, when he em- barked in the lumber business at Charlotte, that county, and was very prosperous until the financial panic of 1873, which com- pelled him in two years to abandon his place. The year 1875 he spent at Lansing, the capital, and the fol- lowing year he moved to Ionia county, locating at the village of Portland, where he engaged in manufacturing and merchandising for two years. Then, the village of Lyons, same county, offering him inducements, he removed his business and residence to that place. In 1881 here moved to Manistique, in the upper penin- sula, and engaged again in manufacturing. In the meantime he had recovered largely from his former financial embarrassment and was enabled to engage extensively in the manufacture of handles of every description. The failure of a firm in the East with whom he had large contracts embarrassed him financially and for the second time he was forced to sus- pend. Possessing superior educational qualifications, he was ad- vised by his son to observe the old adage, - that "when one failed at everything else the law was the only thing left open to him," and to this he turned his attention. He read law under the guidance of his son, and was admitted to the bar of the State of Michigan before JUDGE STEERE at Sault de Ste. Marie, March 18, 1893, when he was past sixty years of age. He is now located in Manistique, Michigan, where he is enjoying a lucrative practice. In politics he was originally a Republican, but in 1871 he went with that branch of the party which nominated HORACE GREELEY for the Presidency, and since that time he has been identified with the Democrats. Of his nine children seven are living, namely: MARY E., the widow of WILLIAM POHLMYER, of Detroit, Michigan, now aged thirty-eight years; FRANK H., whose name heads this sketch; ELLA E., now thirty-six and the wife of J. V. BARTLETT, of Gould City, Michigan; HELEN R., aged twenty-nine years, married A. K. WHEELER, of Luce county, this State; ZETTIE F., now MRS. L. M. DAVIS, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and aged twenty-seven years; MR. DAVIS is the principal assistant civil engineer of the "Soo" railway, also treasurer and manager of the Mouse River Coal Com- pany, of Burlington, North Dakota; MRS. EMMA S. TYNDALE, of St. Paul, Minnesota, aged twenty-five years; and ADA S., aged twenty-three years and is the wife of D. K. SMITH, of Manis- tique, Michigan. MR. PETERS, the subject of this sketch, was born August 2, 1858, in Snachwine, Putnam county, Illinois, and was educated in the common schools of Michigan, completing his course at the high school in Charlotte, Eaton county. When not attending school he was usually engaged at the machinist's business, having an aptitude for this kind of work. He was eighteen years of age when his father's failure in business threw him upon his own resources, and he proceeded to learn thoroughly the machin- ists' trade, and followed this occupation at Portland, Ionia and Reed City, Michigan. In 1883, having been superintendent for the Witham & Anderson Lumber Company, of East Saginaw, during that year, he decided to undertake the study of law, for which he always had a predilection, being prevented from commencing it some years before by his father's failure in business. Accordingly he entered the office of M. STONE in the village of Reed City, Michigan, in the winter of 1883-4, and later the office of CHARLES A. WITHEY, of that place, - recognized as one of the ablest criminal lawyers of Michigan, - and he was admitted to the bar April 19, 1886, at Hersey, Osceola county, before JUDGE JUDKINS, after a thorough and lengthy examination. He at once opened an office in Reed City, and his first case was tried against his old preceptor, MR. WITHEY, resulting in a ver- dict in favor of MR. PETERS' client. From that time on his advancement was rapid, especially in the criminal branch of the profession. His first noted case was in the defense of DR. WOOD, of Hersey, charged with burning in the night time a dwelling- house of his brother-in-law, D. A. BLODGETT, the millionaire lumberman of Grand Rapids. In August, 1889, MR. PETERS removed to the Upper Peninsula, locating at Newberry, Luce county, and at once becoming the leading attorney of that county. Among the more important cases with which he has been connected in the northern peninsula are: The case of FISHER, charged with intent to murder, tried at Newberry, as defendant's attorney; the defense of the notorious DAN DUNN, charged with murder in Schoolcraft county, MR. PETERS securing the acquittal of the defendant; the MASTAU murder case at L'Anse, Baraga county, in October, 1894. This was a most noted case, the murdered man having been shot and killed in the night while asleep in his cabin by a charge of buckshot in the back, and the responsibility of the dastardly deed being a mystery. The prosecution had circumstantial evidence which pointed strongly toward MASTAU as the murderer. When he was arrested the murdered man's wife stated in court that he was the guilty man, and that the object of his deed was to obtain an opportunity to marry her. MR. PETERS was employed on the de- fense; but, arriving on the ground, he found public opinion so much against the prisoner that he endeavored to get time, and moved for a continuation of the case. This being denied by the judge, MR. PETERS challenged the array of jurors on a techni- cality, and the challenge being sustained the case was continued till October, when, after a hot fight of ten days, in the face of overwhelming evidence, he secured the acquittal of his client. The next important murder case upon which MR. PETERS was the defendant's attorney was at Manistique, in January, 1895. A foreman of the Chicago Lumbering Company, named TIM KANE, was stabbed to death by ISAAC STITCHER. Although the evidence against him was strong, and two of the ablest lawyers in northern Michigan were opposed to him, so well did MR. PETERS handle the case that after the jury were out for over sixty hours they were unable to agree, being equally divided. This case is now pending, and will be tried in June, this year (1895). In September, 1893, an express train on the Calumet & Hancock railway in the northern peninsula was held up by train robbers and $75,000 was stolen. Several detectives from the Pinkerton agency of Chicago were employed by the company, and the robbers were finally run down and arrested. MR. PETERS was employed as their attorney, and the case was so ably handled that he suc- ceeded in getting the men off with a sentence of only five years. Under the laws of Michigan, the men, had they been con- victed of the crime originally charged, would have received a life sentence. MR. PETERS was also a winner of the celebrated criminal libel suit of Marquette, after a hot trial through three courts. Editor JACKMAN of the Marquette Daily Times was convicted of libeling JAMES RUSSELL, managing editor of the Marquette Mining Journal. MR. PETERS stuck to the case through two trials, and finally came out of the Supreme Court of the State a winner with flying colors, and MR. JACKMAN was free. MR. PETERS is one of the leading Democrats of the northern peninsula. Espousing the cause at an early age, he has given lavishly, both time and money, to the success of Democratic principles in Michigan. His superior work has attracted the attention of such men as DON M. DICKINSON, Judge ALLEN B. MORSE, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of this State, and others, by whom he is held in high esteem. He has at different times been solicited to accept positions of trust by Federal appoint- ment, but did not feel justified in accepting, on account of the neglect of his professional business that would necessary fol- low. He has served in an official capacity, however, first as City Clerk of Reed City, Michigan; next as City Attorney of that place; and in 1890 was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Luce county. At the November election in 1894, in Alger county, MR. PETERS was a candidate for the office of Prosecuting Attorney by solicitation, and was declared elected; but his case was con- tested and the decision of the (Republican) canvassing board went against him. In 1892 he formed a partnership with S. W. SHAULL at Mar- quette, which continued for two years; he is now associated with his father in the practice of his profession, with offices at Manistique and Newberry. In 1879, in Lyons, Ionia county, Michigan, MR. PETERS was married to MISS ELLA FRANCES MILLER, a daughter of BENJAMIN A. MILLER, an officer of the Tenth Michigan Cavalry during the civil war. He died shortly after his return home, his death re- sulting from the exposure he suffered while a member of his regiment in GENERAL THOMAS' army in the siege of Nashville, which city was then besieged by the rebel general Hood. MR. MILLER was born and reared in Vermont, and came to Michigan just before the war. His occupation was that of teacher, and also of farming. He married SOPHRONIA A. WHITE, and their children were ELLA FRANCES, BURT A. and CARRIE E. Mr. and Mrs. PETERS are the parents of two children: EDNA BERYL, born September 11, 1886; and FRANK M., December 2, 1889. MR. PETERS is identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the order of Knights of Pythias, of which latter body he is Past Chancellor. ===========================================================================