Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens
Original Edition. 3 Vols. Des Moines, IA: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915-1916.
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Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.
LOUIS B. PEESO is now practically living retired in Spencer, although he is still the owner of valuable farm property to which he gives his supervision, his land returning to him a substantial and gratifying annual income. He is a native of New York , born January 31, 1867 . His father, Melvin M. Peeso, was married in New York state to Miss Lana Bowers and there retained his residence until May, 1870, when he came to Iowa, settling in Clay county, having made the journey by rail to Cherokee, Iowa, and thence by stage to Spencer. He obtained a stock of goods in Fort Dodge and in connection with L. C. Burgin opened the first general store in Spencer. He was closely identified with many events that left their impress upon the pioneer history of his part of the state. With ox teams he hauled the lumber from Lake Crystal , Minnesota , and built the first frame store building in Spencer and also the first frame dwelling. His store building was erected where the present courthouse now stands, but later a removal was made to Second and Main streets and for five or six years he continued to engage in merchandising. He then bought out four homesteaders adjoining the town and began farming, bending his energies to the development and improvement of his place, which was a half section and which came in time to be one of the attractive farm properties of the district. The last twelve years of his life were spent in the town of Spencer , where he lived practically retired. He was born March 2, 1834 , and had therefore passed the seventy-third milestone on life's journey when on the 22d of August, 1907 , he was called to his final rest.
Not only did Melvin M. Peeso contribute to the material development and improvement of his town and county but also to its political and moral progress. He was a stanch advocate of the republican party and he was a charter member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he gave generous support. Mrs. Melvin M. Peeso is still living in Spencer , Iowa . To them were born three children: Louis B., whose name introduces this review; Mrs. Mary A. Thompson, who was the first white female child born in Spencer, where she still resides; and Georgia, now the wife of William Hagarth, of Clay county.
Louis B. Peeso was but three years of age when brought to Iowa and throughout the intervening period, covering forty-five years, he has lived in Clay county. He is indebted to the public-school system for the educational privileges which he enjoyed and to his father for his business training. He has always been a farmer and for a number of years he continued to further develop and cultivate the home place, owning in addition to the home place three hundred and fifty acres a mile and three-quarters from Spencer, but since 1908 has lived in Spencer, leaving the active work of the fields to others, although he still gives careful supervision to the property.
Mr. Peeso was united in marriage to Miss Flora Webb, a daughter of henry Webb, who came from Wisconsin to Iowa in 1878 and followed farming in Clay county. Mr. and Mrs. Peeso have one child, Lana Grace. They are well known socially in Spencer and the hospitality of the best homes of the locality is freely accorded them.
Edwin C. Peters, of Sioux City , is a man of action rather than of theory. He has a ready mental grasp of situations and recognizes quickly their possibilities. It is these causes which have won him a dominant position in the life of Sioux City . The beautiful suburb of Morningside is a monument to his enterprise and various business projects have been carried forward to successful completion by reason of his well formulated plans and subsequent determination. It would be but a prejudiced view if one spoke of him, however, only as a business man, for he is a most public-spirited citizen and his cooperation can be counted upon to further any project that looks to the benefit and betterment of the community. He is now in the seventy-ninth year of his age but possesses the energy of a man of much younger years and in spirit and interests seems yet in his prime.
His birthplace was a farm in Chester county, Pennsylvania , and his natal day was October 23, 1836 , his parents being Robert P. and Elmira (Gregg) Peters. He supplemented study in a district school by a course in a local academy and at fifteen years of age he entered the Pennsylvania Normal School at Millersville , Pennsylvania , where he remained for two years. He afterward took up the study of law and was graduated from the National Law School of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the year in which he attained his majority. Through the succeeding year he was in the law office of A.P. Floyd at Niagara Falls and then entered into partnership with H.N. Griffith for the practice of law and the conduct of an insurance business.
At the beginning of the Civil war, in 1861, Mr. Peters was appointed by President Lincoln deputy United States marshal "for the arrest and detention of persons of known notorious disloyalty who were seeking to escape into Canada ." After a few months William H. Seward, then secretary of war, revoked the order for this special service and Mr. Peters was commissioned deputy collector of customs at Niagara Falls, filling that position until the spring of 1870, when, having disposed of his business interests in the east and resigned his government position, Mr. Peters came to Sioux City, and became identified with the banking house of Weare & Allison, becoming actively connected with the insurance branch of the business. From that time forward he has been prominently connected with commercial and financial activity here, and his efforts have ever been of a character that has contributed to general prosperity as well as to individual success. A year and a half after his arrival in Sioux City, in connection with George Murphy he purchased the insurance branch of the business from the bank and soon afterward they established the first savings bank of Sioux City, Mr. Peters becoming its vice president. Two years later the bank was merged into the Sioux National Bank, then being organized. About that time Mr. Peters sustained an injury to his head which unfitted him for business for nearly three years. He went to the Black Hills in 1877, having been appointed the first treasurer of Pennington county, South Dakota . Later he served there as probate judge, but with this brief interruption he has lived in Sioux City .
The second year after his arrival Mr. Peters purchased a large tract of land about a mile and a half southeast of the city limits, and with others who had come from Niagara Falls to the west he established a settlement to which he gave the name of Morningside. There he again took up his abode upon his return from the Black Hills in 1878 and today that suburb contains seven thousand inhabitants and is one of the most beautiful sections of Sioux City its growth and improvement being largely due to the efforts and enterprise of Mr. Peters. He became president of the motor line between Morningside and the county seat. In 1890-1 the company built a mile and half of connecting elevated railroad at a cost of four hundred thousand dollars, thus enabling them to operate their cars direct from Morningside to the center of Sioux City .
Mr. Peters became one of the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of Sioux City in 1893 and is still on the board. He has been president of the State Savings & Loan Association for twenty-four years and president of the Morningside Bank since its organization about three years ago, while he is also the chief executive officer of Peters, Guiney, McNeil & Powell, a firm doing an extensive rental, loan and insurance business. He is likewise president of the Graceland Park Cemetery . Upon the organization of the University of the Northwest at Morningside, now known as Morningside College he was made vice president and chairman of the executive committee.
On the 17th of November, 1864 , at Niagara Falls , New York , Mr. Peters was joined in wedlock to Miss Sarah P. Scott, a daughter of Benjamin Reynaldson and Lucy (Hill) Scott, who were natives of Horncastle , England . Mrs. Peters is a cousin of Sir Gilbert Scott, who designed the prince Albert memorial monument and was knighted by Queen Victoria . By her marriage she became the mother of ten children but only three are now living: Merritt Chesbro; Pierre Hugo; and Hope Scott, now Mrs. M.A. Fogg.
When the history of Morningside and Woodbury county shall have been written, the name of Edwin C. Peters will figure prominently in its annals, for no man has done more effective and beneficial work toward the upbuilding of that beautiful suburb or toward sustaining high standards in civic affairs. He has been most generous in his gifts to the city, one of which was a park which he laid out in 1889, and after caring for this for ten years he presented it to the city. It was given the name of Peters Park. The first improvement association of Sioux City was organized at Morningside and Mr. Peters remained its president for a number of years. He was president of the Sioux city Park Commission from its organization until the adoption by the city of the commission form of government three years later. He has recently retired from the treasurership of the city schools after fifteen years' service in that capacity, during which time he handled over five and a quarter million of dollars for the schools. Upon his retirement the school board unanimously passed the following resolution:
"Whereas E.C. Peters has served as school treasurer of the independent school district of Sioux City, Iowa, for fifteen years last past and has faithfully, honestly, intelligently and conscientiously performed all the duties of school treasurer during such time and has handled five and one-quarter million dollars of school funds during his term as treasurer without the loss of one dollar to the school district, therefore be it
"Resolved, By the board of education of the independent school district of Sioux City , Iowa , that we hereby tender a vote of thanks and appreciation to said E.C. Peters for his services faithfully and honestly rendered as school treasurer during his fifteen years' service in the interest of the school district."
Mr. Peters has been president of the Humane Society, the visiting Nurses Association and other organizations of similar character and throughout his life, as his means have permitted, he has given generously to charitable and benevolent work. He has now reached the seventy-eighth milestone on life's journey, but old age need not suggest as a matter of course idleness nor want of occupation. There is an old age which grows stronger mentally and spiritually as the years go by and gives out of its rich stores of wisdom and experience for the benefit of others. Such is the record of Edwin C. Peters, whose life has been in many respects a benediction and an inspiration to the community in which he has lived and the people with whom he has come in contact.
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