Biography - AUGUST PETERS

By the application of energy and sound business judgment August Peters has gained recognition as one of the substantial farmers of Honey Point township and is now the owner of a farm of two hundred and fifteen acres which yields a liberal annual revenue. He is a native of Franklin county, Missouri, born May 26, 1864, a son of Henry and Catharine (Rammart) Peters, both of whom were born in Germany. The father was reared as a farmer and came to America, taking up his residence on a farm in Missouri. Later he came to Mount Olive. Macoupin county, but moved back to Missouri, finally returning to Macoupin county and establishing his home upon eighty acres north of Mount Olive. Here he continued until his death, which occurred in 1880, his wife having passed away two years previous. In their family were the following children: Henry, who is now engaged as a coal miner at Mount Olive; Minnie, who married Fred Courting, a millwright and laborer of Mount Olive, and died twenty-five years ago; August, of this review; Fred, who died on a farm in Iowa ten years ago; Amelia, who died in infancy; John, who is engaged in farming in Iowa; Louis, who is working on a farm in Iowa; and William, who died at the age of three months.

August Peters lost his mother when he was fourteen years of age and his father two years later, thus being thrown upon his own resources at the age of sixteen. He began working as a farm laborer after the death of his father and so continued for nine years, at the end of which time he was married. He then started to farm on his own account, renting eighty acres three and one-half miles north of Mount Olive, this property belonging to Louis Eichmaier. After five years’ experience as a renter he had acquired the necessary capital and purchased one hundred and sixty acres on section 13, Honey Point township, upon which he established his permanent home. This was in 1895. In May, 1909, he purchased fifty-five acres in Montgomery county and has since cultivated both places to good advantage. His farm is highly improved and he secures an ample revenue by raising and feeding a good grade of cattle and hogs for which he is usually able to receive the best quotations in the market.

On the 19th of February, 1890, Mr. Peters was married to Miss Amelia Grossenheider, a daughter of William and Minnie (Pullman) Grossenheider, both of whom were born in Germany. The parents came to America fifty years ago and located on a farm two and one-half miles north of Mount Olive, Illinois, where the daughter Amelia was born. The father died at his home in March, 1881, and the mother on Easter morning, 1901. They were the parents of five children, namely: Annie, who married Henry Nehouse, a farmer of Gillespie township; Minnie, who became the wife of Henry Nehouse, a cousin of her sister Annie’s husband, and died April 16, 1891, in Gillespie township; Henry, who died on the old homestead in 1905; Ida, of Mount Olive, who is the widow of Frank Weers; and Amelia. To Mr. and Mrs. Peters six children have been born: Henry, who is twenty years of age; Adella, aged seventeen; William, thirteen; John, eleven; Amanda, eight; and August, three years of age. All of the children are at home and William, John and Amanda are attending district school No. 100, of Honey Point township.

Politically Mr. Peters adheres to the republican party. He has filled the office of school director of district No. 100 for twelve years past and is now serving his second year as a member of the county drainage commission, which is in charge of important work in progress at the present time. He and his family are members of the German Lutheran church of Cahokia township. As is indicated by the record herewith presented, Mr. Peters is a self-made man and his success is the legitimate result of his rightly applied energies. His life is proof of what may be accomplished by one who is actuated by the right principles, provided he is willing to labor diligently and deny himself in earlier years in order to become assured of abundance later in life.

Extracted 18 Oct 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 147-149.