Phil Peters
Source: Progressive Men of Western Colorado, Published
1905. Transcribed by Nancy Overlander
The life of peaceful repose now enjoyed by Col. Phil Peters, in his neat cottage home at Montrose, which is a model of tidiness, coziness and good taste in arrangement, furnishing and adornment, would scarcely suggest to the casual observer that his past has been a succession of thrilling and intense experiences in many forms of action where danger was ever present and the utmost resolution, readiness and self-reliance were required; that his pulse has been quickened by the war drum's throb where a nation's life was the gage of battle; that his blood has been chilled by the Indians' whoop of defiance where the progress of civilization was at stake; that his nerve has been tried in the deadly brawl of the miner's camp where the worst passions of human nature are aroused to fury; or that he has felt both extremes of fortune and has not been seriously disturbed by either.
Yet such has been the case, and his is but one of many examples of the wonderful vicissitudes of American Life, especially in the West, and the equally wonderful readiness of American manhood to meet them. Colonel Peters is a native of Kentucky, born in Campbell County on January 7, 1842, the son of Sebastian and Eva (Walker) Peters. His father was of Russian parentage and born in Germany, whither the family moved from St. Petersburg, subsequently coming to the United States and ending their days in Kentucky. On his arrival in this country he located for a while in New York, and afterward lived in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and finally Kentucky, where he was a merchant and farmer. He died in 1869, aged sixty-six, being at the time on a visit to Franklin county, Indiana, near Brookville, where he was buried.
The Colonel's mother was a German by birth and came to the United States in childhood with her parents, who settled in Kentucky, where she was reared and married ad where she died in 1866, aged fifty-six, and was buried at Newport, Campbell county, near her home. The family consisted of eleven children, of who the Colonel was the third son. He remained in his native state until he was nineteen, but began to make his own living at the age of twelve, working on farms, his father's and others, and in rolling mills.
At the beginning of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in Company H, Third Kentucky Cavalry, of the Union army, and at the end of a three years of service he was mustered out as first sergeant. His regiment was known as the "Bloody Third" and he was with it in the thick of the fight wherever it was engaged. At the battle of Murfreesboro, where so many gallant men on both sides sealed their convictions with their blood, he received a serious wound, but it did not keep him long out of service. His regiment was almost continually in the field and he participated in more than thirty engagements himself. His title, however, his modesty obliges us to state, was not derived from his military service in the war, but came from his rank in the Stanford Guards, a militia organization of fine discipline and splendid presence at Louisville, Kentucky. After the war he returned to his native county and engaged in the sewing machine business with head-quarters at Louisville, acting first as traveling representative of the company which employed him and rising by merit to the position of general manager for the states of Kentucky and Indiana.
Later he was in business at Dayton, Ohio, for some time in the piano and organ business, where he employed a large force of men selling throughout the state. From there he returned to Louisville and bough the St. Cloud Hotel and for five years conducted it. He then sold out his hotel there and went to San Antonio, Texas, where he was a funeral director until 1879, when he came to Colorado and, locating at Leadville, followed mining and prospecting for seven years. He helped to found the mining town of Irwin and filled nearly all its local offices in succession in its early history. Here he was occupied in buying and selling mining properties in that region and others, and in the business experienced all the reverses of fortune to which the trade is liable, sometimes being worth thousands of dollars and sometimes not so much.
In 1882 he abandoned this hazardous life and coming to Montrose opened the Mears Hotel, the first hostelry in the town, which he conducted for two years, then engaged in farming and raising stock on his homestead one mile east of Montrose. This place which he took up as a wild body of land, unimproved and uncultivated, he has raised to the first rank in productiveness and made one of the most beautiful and attractive in the county by the good taste and elegance of its improvements. It is particularly notable for the cleanliness and tidiness of everything about it, the freshly painted condition of the buildings and fences and the general air of neatness and quiet elegance that pervades it in every part. The products to which he gives most attention on this farm is a fine strain of Percheron horses and some superior breeds of cattle, also thoroughbred hogs, which have a wide celebrity and a high rank in the markets. The Colonel has retired from active business himself and has his farm, which is not the sample sugar-beet farm of Montrose county, in the hands of a manager and overseer.
His is living in a cottage at Montrose wherein the same neatness and artistic atmosphere is manifest that is found on the farm. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Knights Templar, Odd Fellows and Elks, and has been influential in local affairs, holding township and municipal offices at times, and always forceful and serviceable in promoting the general interests of the community. He has ever been an ardent and practical believer in the cogency of organization, and has effected many combinations of factors for business and pleasure to the advantage of all concerned. His latest work in this line is the Fair and Riving Park Association of Montrose, which he has but recently formed and of which he is secretary. In 1864 he was united in marriage with Miss Christina Helbig, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, of German ancestry. They have three sons and three daughters, Phil C., Jr., George H., John C., Molly E., Rose M. and Alice M.