Mingo County, West Virginia Biography of JAMES W. PETERS This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** 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 The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 591 Mingo JAMES W. PETERS has been one of the progressive and successful exponents of the real estate business at William- son, judicial center of Mingo County, and has contributed definitely to the material and civic upbuilding of the city and county. Mr. Peters was born at Parisburg, Giles County, Virginia, April 7, 1864, a son of John D. and Mollie (Sublett) Peters, both likewise natives of the Old Dominion State, where the respective families were founded in an early day. John D. Peters was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war, doing scout duty. During the entire period of the war he was in a Virginia regiment under the command of General Lee. He was a shoemaker by trade, was in- fluential in public affairs of local order, served as mayor of Radford, as justice of the peace for many years and also as assessor of Giles County, Virginia. As a young man he taught successfully in the schools of his native state, and there he and his wife continued to reside until their deaths. James W. Peters attended the schools of his native town until he was fourteen years old, when, owing to the ill health of his father, who also had given earnest service as a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, he be- came the main support of the family and assumed active charge of the home farm. The ambitious youth applied himself diligently to getting out timber and firewood on the home place, hunting game, and otherwise worked vigorously to support the family and also to gain advancement. He gained excellent reputation as a woodsman, and guide, and this led to his being employed as guide and pilot in con- nection with the first or reconnoisant survey for the con- struction of the line of the Norfolk & Western Railroad from Virginia through to the Ohio River, he having been but sixteen years old at the time. He aided also in the final location of the line and also as guide to the English engineer who represented the English capitalists who were interested in the promotion and construction of the new railroad. To Mr. Peters is thus due much credit for the work he did in connection with the defining of the line of this railroad through Virginia and West Virginia, As an expert rifle shot he was retained as guard in charge of convicts who were employed on the construction work, and after the road was completed he acted as mail carrier at the general offices of the company at Parisburg, Virginia. Finally he learned telegraphy, and thereafter he served as operator and station agent for the Norfolk & Western Rail- road at Bramwell, Elkhorn and Richland, West Virginia. In 1892 Mr. Peters left the employ of the railroad and en- gaged in the hotel and mercantile business at Gray, West Virginia. Seven years later he sold his business at that place and purchased the hotel known as the Esther Arms at Williamson. After successfully conducting this hotel five years he sold the property and turned his attention ex- clusively to the real estate business, in which he had become interested at the time when he established his resi- dence at Williamson. He has since continued a leading representative of this line of enterprise in this city, and his operations, always fair and constructive, have done much to further the progress of the city and county. When Mr. Peters began work for the railroad he received $16 a month and board, and considered his compensation adequate. Later the railroad company paid him a salary of $200 a month. He has advanced to substantial prosperity, and that entirely through his own ability and efforts. He owns and occupies one of the finest residences at Williamson, is the owner of coal property of valuable order, and is spe- cially interested in the promoting of coal properties, the while he still retains his fondness for hunting and general outdoor recreation. He and wife are democrats in politics and are members of churches. In 1888, in Washington County, Virginia, Mr. Peters married Miss Lettie Thomas, daughter of the late John L. Thomas, who was born in Vir- ginia, as was also his wife, her family name having been Winn. Mr. Thomas was one of the prosperous farmers of Washington County. He served under General Lee in the Civil war, was captured at the battle of Gettysburg, and thereafter was held a Union prisoner until the close of the war. Mr. and Mrs. Peters have three children: Ethel is the wife of S. D. Stokes, of Williamson, who is (1922) prose- cuting attorney of Mingo County; Gladys is the wife of Richard Dreschler, superintendent of the foreign-exchange department of the Buffalo Trust Bank, Buffalo, New York; and Clarence E., the only son, remains at the parental home and is associated with his father in the real estate business.