Greenbrier County, West Virginia Biography of JOHN PETERS. This biography was submitted by Sandy Spradling, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm History of Greenbrier County J. R. Cole Lewisburg, WV 1917 p. 232-235 JOHN PETERS. The Peters family is of German origin, with a strand of both Jewish and Indian blood in their veins, but little though it is. They were early settlers in America, the more noted of the family being one Samuel Peters, of Hebron, Conn., who gave to the reading world that wonderful satire on New England Puritanism un-der the name of "Blue Laws of Connecticut." There was an-other Samuel Peters of Hebron, also, who reigned over the State of Connecticut as its Governor, and this man is still honored in that State as one of its wise rulers. The names Samuel, John and Henry are common ones in that family. Samuel Peters, son of Jacob Peters, born November 27, 1772, who married Mary Stevenson, born September 28, 1773, was an early settler of Baltimore, Md. Their children were: Henry, born October 1, 1796; Robinson, December 18, 1797; Nathan, June 20, 1799; Wesley, October 10, 1801; Rachel, May 25, 1803; Stevenson, June 23, 1805; Leah, November 19, 1806; Mary, April 17, 1808; Andrew, August 15, i809; Gideon, August 29, 1811; Elizabeth, November 17, 1814; Lewis, March 23, 1816; Ebenezer, June 27, 1818. This branch of the Peters family settled in Ohio, mostly around Royalton in Fairfield county, and here grew up a multitude of people of that name. John Peters, of Ronceverte, is a great-grandson of John Peters, who sailed from Amsterdam, Holland, settling in New Jersey in 1794. He had three sons, John, Michael and George, the last mentioned of whom settled in western Virginia about the year 1810. John, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, married Sarah Smith, and by her had three sons, John, William and Henry, and six daughters, Sarah, Betsey, Polly, Nancy, Rachael and Louise, all of whom lived to be over eighty years of age, except John. He was a lawyer in Philadelphia, and died at the age of forty. Henry Peters, the father of John, of Ronceverte, settled in Deposit, N. Y., in i80j. He married Elmira Hulce, daughter of Sylvester and Abigail Hulce of Revolutionary fame. The Hulce family were related to General Doolittle, to the H~rkimers, the Hotchkisses and other Revolutionary families of considerable mil-itary distinction. It was from the Doolittle ancestors the Indian blood came. It originated from a romantic incident connected with the colonial history of Rhode Island in the earlier days of Indian warfare. Alexander, a brother of the Indian chieftain, King Philip, was found in a lone wood, wounded by a panther. He was discovered by John Doolittle, wilo, playing the part of the good Samaritan, took the wounded man to his own home, and then sent word to King Philip of what had happened. The coming to the home of John Doolittle, son of Alexander, brought about a marriage of that scion of the Indian race with the daughter of Mr. Doolittle; hence the taint of Indian blood now in the Peters family. The trace of Jewish blood is somewhat more traditional, but based on racial characteristics the marriage of one of this family to a Slav of the Jewish race. With hardly an exception, this family, like the Jewish one, have been successful in the different walks of life. Honesty and temperance have characterized them as a people, and thrift, of course, followed as a consequence, and generally speaking all of them have been identified with the Methodist Episcopal church. John Peters, of Ronceverte, largely partakes of all of the characteristics of the Peters family, and under whatever clime any of them may be found. He was born in Deposit, N. Y., on June 15, 1852. As his father and grandfather were before him, he has been a lumberman all of his life. For thirty years he rafted logs down the Delaware and the Greenhrier, having made in his career twenty-eight successful trips on the Delaware and one hundred and fifty-seven on the Greenbrier, and never met with an accident. In June, 1902, he piloted the last raft on the Greenbrier and in March, 1880, the last one on the Delaware. Since that time he has remained in the lumber business in one way and another, but about eight years ago he took an agency for the Standard Oil Company. On April 26, 1871, Mr. Peters married Josephine Post, daughter of Daniel, son of Stephen, one of the original Quakers who settled in Orange county, New York. That was in 1745. Her mother's name was Mary Fortner, whose father became an early settler at Deposit. They were Presbyterians. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Peters, namely, Nellie, John and Charles. Nellie married Bernard Austin and resides in Washington, D. C. John married Myrtle Achison and lives in Ronceverte. Charles is unmarried. He is a graduate of Dunsmore Business College, Staunton, Va., and has charge of his father's Standard Oil agency. Mr. Peters came to West Virginia in 1880 and to Ronceverte in 1888. He and his family worship in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a devout member. In several ways Mr. Peters has become a self-made man. He has been a close observer all his life, and upon that basis has become self-educated. He knows more about the starry heavens than most students from our high schools; he is a better woods-craftsman than some botanists, and is often engaged to make important estimates of large timbered tracts. He has one of the most interesting collections of old stone relics found outside of our large museums and he can tell what State produced any arrowhead or stone hatchet or other implement in his collection. His habit of closely observing things led him into the narrow walks of his religious life, also. By noting the habits of the tobacco chewer he was led to discard the vile weed from his youth; likewise the sordid life of the drunkard induced him to keep himself free from the flowing howl; and thus it comes about that John Peters can say that he never took a chew of tobacco nor was intoxicated. By close observance he is also enabled to say that every man knows just when he is and when is not in the narrow way, and thus comes the religious key to his religious walk in life.