NP, MAP 9/13/1883

From the Memphis Appeal
 
September 13, 1883
 
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
 
   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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