Frank P. Peters, Orleans, then Washington Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Frank P. Peters resides at Bogalusa, Washington Parish, and holds the position of master mechanic in the service of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad. He was born in the City of New Orleans, July 9, 1881, a son of Ernest F. Peters, whose death there occurred in the year 1908. Ernest F. Peters was born in Hanover, Germany, and was a boy of nine years at the time of the family immigration to the United States, he having been reared and educated in New York City. He learned the art of telegraphy under the direct instruction of Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, and at the time of the Civil war he came to New Orleans in the capacity of telegraph operator under the local regime of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. The attractions of the fair old Crescent City caused him here to establish his permanent residence, and for the long term of fourteen years he served as telegraph operator at the old parish police station in New Orleans, his incumbency of this position having included the period of social and political unrest in the South, when the know nothing party was much in evidence, and when much of violence and general disturbance was rife. He finally engaged in mercantile business in New Orleans, and with this line of enterprise he continued his active alliance until his retirement in 1905, about three years prior to his death, at the age of sixty-two years. He was a staunch advocate of the principles of the republican party, and he and his wife were communicants of the Lutheran Church. Mrs. Peters, whose maiden name was Catherine Maulick, had the unusual distinction of being born in the City of Algiers, Algeria, in 1847, and she survived her husband about two years, her death having occurred in 1910. Julius H., eldest of the children, was a merchant in New Orleans at the time of his death, when he was but twenty-four years of age; Louise and her husband, John Baumer, both died in New Orleans, she having been forty-eight years of age when she thus passed away; Rose is the wife of Harry Nolting, of New Orleans; Ethel is the wife of John Davis, who has given nearly forty years of service as stockman in leading stationery establishments in New Orleans; Frank P., of this sketch, was the next in order of birth; Alvina is the wife of Albert Thompson, a manufacturers' agent in New Orleans. Frank P. Peters attended schools in his native city until he was fourteen years old, when he initiated an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade. In his four years of practical apprenticeship he advanced to the status of a skilled machinist, and in New Orleans he continued in the work of his trade until 1902. It is specially interesting to record that as a skilled artisan at his trade Mr. Peters has been engaged in its work for varying intervals in forty-two states of the Union and thirteen foreign countries, including Japan, Mexico, Central America, England, Italy, France and Canadian provinces. On the 1st of April, 1921, he assumed his present important position, that of master mechanic at the Bogalusa shops of the New Orleans Great Northern Railroad, his offices being maintained in time Mechanics Building, on Austin Street. In his long and varied career in the activities of his trade Mr. Peters has served with railroads, with sugar manufactories, with electric-light and refrigerating plants, with saw mills, with contract shops, with marine shops, and with other manufacturing concerns in the various places which he has visited in the course of his extensive travels. His work as a tradesman has included service at sea also. ]n politics Mr. Peters is loyally aligned with the republican party, an his fraternal affiliations are with Center Lodge No. 24-1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Bogalusa Lodge No. 1338, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Peters has large real estate interests in and near the City of Houston, Texas, in the World war period h~ held the responsible position of chief engineer for the International Ship Building Company at Pascagoula, Mississippi, and through this medium gave his quota of patriotic service. November 24, 1910, recorded the marriage of Mr. Peters and Miss Amy B. Crites, daughter of Capt. Stanley M. and Emma (Lapham) Crites, who now maintain their home in Houston, Texas, Captain Crites being a retired sea captain. Mr. and Mrs. Peters have two children, Paul Stanley, born February 27, 1916, and Jane Catherine, born February 2, 1922. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 34, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.