| From the Memphis Appeal |
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| September 13, 1883 |
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| Thomas Peters |
| Formerly of Memphis, and One of the
Founders of Birmingham, Ala., the Pittsburg of the South |
| The Record of an Upright, Manly Career, of
a Life Spent in Good Works for His People |
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| From the Birmingham Age
we learn that the late Maj. Thomas Peters was born in October, 1829,
in Wake county, N. C. His father was James P. Peters, a descendent of
one of three English brothers, who settled in Virginia, near
Petersburg, during the reign of Charles II. In 1815 the parents of
Thomas removed to Maury county, Tenn., making their home near Spring
Hill. In 1830 they removed to Henry county, West Tennessee. The father
died while in Arkansas in 1853. The first effort of Thomas Peters to
earn a living for himself after a meager schooling was as clerk on a
steamboat plying on the Cumberland and Mississippi rivers, between
Nashville and New Orleans. One of his ruling passions was developed
early, when at the age of twenty-one he began to trade in lands, and
by shred and vigorous efforts became the owner of ten sections, which
he bought in North Mississippi, much of it from Indians, upon their
removal to the Western reservations. In 1837 Miss Ann Eliza Glasgow,
of Hardeman county, Tenn., was married to him. The same year he
settled at farming, when he got his wife. She died without children in
1842. In 1846 he took a second wife, who was Miss Sarah J. Irion, and
who died in 1859, leaving a daughter. Near this time, Maj. Peters, by
contract, built about thirty-five miles of the Memphis &
Charleston railroad, and was employed also in the construction of
levees on the Mississippi river. He removed to Memphis in 1846, and
began a real estate business, and was thus engaged when the war began.
Well advanced in years, he was as quick to take arms for his country
as the most ardent young patriot. He was appointed by Gov. Harris, of
Tennessee, chief quartermaster on the staff of Gen. Donaldson,
commander of the Tennessee troops, at the outset of the war. However,
when the Confederate army was more thoroughly organized, Maj. Peters
was appointed chief quartermaster, with the rank of major, of Gen.
Leonidas Polk's corps. Upon the death of the latter, at the battle of
New Hope church, Maj. Peters was transferred to service with Gen.
Bragg and afterward with Gen. Johnston until the Atlanta battles;
thence sent to Selma to take charge of all army transportation in the
Western department by rail and river. When the war closed he was at
Selma. It was during his military movements in Alabama that his
attention was directed to the signs of hidden wealth in the mineral
region of the northern part of the State. This country he then
predicted would be the richest of Alabama. Paroled at Selma, he
devoted his energies to buying and trading in mineral lands, until
1866, when he started to Minnesota to live, with his son-in-law, R. H.
Henley, who went thither to repair broken health. Maj. Peters, at
Chicago, found the North too cold, and returned to Alabama. With R. H.
Henley and G. H. McConico, he moved to Savannah, and was a short while
in the cotton factorage business. The ill-health of his son-in-law
again affected him, and in 1869 he moved to Elyton. Here he again
turned all his business interests into dealing in mineral lands. This
was when Birmingham was scarcely more than suggested. In all Maj.
Peters said and did of a business nature at this time he was prophetic
of the rapid progress of the country which came in the building of
Birmingham and the increased value and importance of the spot's
surroundings. It is well known that no man has done more to direct
attention to the coal and iron lands of Alabama, or to persuade the
settlement here of men who have become useful and valuable citizens.
There were many of these at his funeral yesterday, attesting by their
presence and their sorrow the high esteem he had won from them. He was
stricken down while devoting all his energies for the development and
prosperity of Alabama. Friends knew of his overstrained powers and
tried to dissuade him from leaving home. But his sanguine nature and
desire to do a lasting good before the threatened end should come
indeed, impelled him to go. He died in the harness; but his armor
reflected the light of a victory eternity's sun cannot dim. For it is
in the contemplation of the reward bestowed on a life complete in the
striving after all earthly good, for the sake of the heavenly best,
whither his faith has guided him. |
| The nearest living relatives
of Maj. Peters are his brother, Dr. G. B. Peters, of Memphis, Tenn.;
Mrs. Ann Young, of Marshall, Tex.; his grandson, Thomas Peters Henley,
son of Amelia L. Peters and Robert H. Henley, both of whom are dead,
and Mr. George B. Peters, jr. It is said that, commencing with ten
younger brothers and sisters, Maj. Peters has provided for the
education of forty-four orphan children. In what he had to do with
money he showed his leading characteristics, his faith, his hope and
his charity. His life was like that of the highest conceivable good
government for men, devoted to the greatest good for the greatest
number. |
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