1890 Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 489-491

CORNELIUS T. PEET is one of the early settlers of Iowa, having come to the state in 1844, settling on a tract of land that was then in the wild and unbroken prairie, he held it for seven years without molestation, and then secured his title to it by buying a land warrant issued to a veteran of the Mexican war. The warrant alluded to entitled the veteran to eighty acres, for which Mr. Peet had to pay only 90 cents per acre, Mexican land warrants at that time being sold by the returned soldiers from the war that gave us California for any thing or price they could get, when they wanted ready money, through brokers, although the warrants were worth their face value.

 

To the property thus attained Mr. Peet has added much more through judicious sale and subsequent purchases, and now has lands of much value in different localities. At that time the country was so sparsely settled that the census-taker, a blacksmith named Daniel Brown, never left his shop to make an enumeration, but just jotted down from recollection all the information required, as he knew everybody in his neighborhood and all about the affairs of each family, whose members constituted, for the county, a total population of one hundred and sixty-two.

Mr. C. T. Peet was born in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., December 4, 1822, and was reared to farming and hotel life. His education was acquired at the common school of his district, and in them was well taught in the rudimentary branches of English literature, which were afterward supplemented by a higher class of studies. After coming to Iowa, he studied law, was admitted to the bar, and, as there were but few lawyers in his vicinity, did considerable practice before the justices of the peace, although he did not give up his farming for the practice. The library of his father, who was a lawyer of some local note, had been within his reach, and this fact led him to study and practice the legal profession for a time.  Levi Peet, the father of our subject, was a native of New York State, and one of the five men who first settled Cattaraugus county when it was but a dense forest, and its only roads were Indian trails. Here he cleared off the farm on which C. T. Peet was born. He was engaged in law practice for many years in conjunction with farming, and for twenty-one years served as post-master. His death occurred on the home place in Cattaraugus county in 1862, at the age of seventy years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Eunice Carpenter, was a daughter of Frederick and Eunice Carpenter, of English descent, and natives of Massachusetts. Frederick Carpenter was a tanner, currier and shoemaker, and did quite an extensive business. To Levi and Eunice Peet eight children were born in the following order - Schuyler R., born in August, 1820, came to Iowa in 1846, and died here in 1878; Minerva, born in October, 1821, came to Iowa and was married to D. B. Noble, now a resident of Montana; Cornelius T., our subject; Silas L., born in April, 1824, still living near the homestead in New York; Johanna, born in July, 1825, and died in 1838; Levi, born in August, 1827, passed through all the border troubles in Kansas, and later, died in California; Frederick B., born in September, 1829, came to Iowa in 1852, and is here engaged in farming; Delotia P., born in January, 1832. The mother of this family died in April, 1840, and in 1841 the father married Eliza Putnam, a widowed sister of his former wife, and to this union were born three children, viz.-Abram, in September, 1842, and still on the old homestead; Eunice, in November, 1843, married to Samuel Stillman, and living in Dakota; Putnam, born in April, 1845, and now attending a medical college in Kansas City, where he makes his home. The Peet family came originally from Scotland, and for five generations, down to our subject, there have been born seven sons to each family.

In July, 1842, Cornelius T. Peet married Miss Mary Boggs, daughter of Robert and Louisa Boggs, natives of Onondaga county, N. Y. The father, who was a farmer, died in 1846, and the same year the mother came to Iowa, and joined her daughter and our subject, with whom she made her home until her death in 1850. To this union have been born the following children-James M., in New York State, in March, 1843, and at present a resident of Kansas; Robert L., born in 1845 - the oldest living child born in this Yankee settlement, and now a farmer of Minnesota; Peter T., born in August, 1850, and living in Kansas; Martha E., born in February, 1853, a graduate of the Kindergarten department of Emporia (Kans.) College, and for the past seven years a teacher in a graded school at Delphus, Kans.; Jerry O., born in April, 1857, living at Edgwood; Harry, born in December, 1864, a resident of Kansas City; John, born in June, 1866-in Kansas with his brothers. The mother of these children passed away from earth in January, 1869, at the age of forty-seven years, and in April, 1870, Mr. Peet took for his second wife Miss Hester A. Windsor, a native of New York State, born in March, 1841, and a daughter of Ebed and Mary Windsor, natives of Massachusetts. For about twenty years Mrs. Peet followed school-teaching, and since her marriage has taught two terms; she has been resident of Iowa since 1863.To this second marriage of Mr. Peet has been born a son-Lisle W., January, 1871.

In 1864 Mr. Peet enlisted for one hundred days in Company E, Forty-fourth Iowa infantry, and served in Tennessee and Mississippi, chiefly guarding railroads and bridges, but took no active part in any battle. After a
service of one hundred and twenty days he received his discharge at Davenport, Iowa, and again sought his home. A republican in politics, he was a representative from his county to the first convention his party ever held in the state, and has since filled numerous offices of trust and honor, from road overseer to county sheriff (from 1855 to 1857), and also represented the county in the state legislature for the fourteenth and fifteenth general assemblies. He has done most of the assessing for forty years, and was one of the three commissioners appointed by the legislature to lay out the road from Guttenburg to Independence. Mr. Peet is a high-toned and genial gentleman, and is possessed of all the hospitable instincts characteristic of his race, and his latch-string ever hangs outside his door as a welcome invitation to the passerby to enter his domicile. He is one of the most public-spirited men of the county, always ready to assist with advice and pecuniary aid any meritorious project, and in the early days spent fully one-half his time in helping settlers to locate their land; and doing it without fee or reward.

 

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