CLAUS PETERS.

CLAUS PETERS has fully tested the opportunities which America offers to her citizens for he came to this country empty-handed and by diligence and enterprise has risen to a position among the leading, influential and successful farmers of Woodson County, his home being on section fourteen, Owl Creek township. He was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, June 3, 1833, and is a son of Henry Peters, a farmer, whose ancestors

for many generations had been farming people of Schleswig-Holstein. He wedded Mary Rogers and both parents spent their entire lives in the fatherland. Their children were: George, who died in the old country; John, who also died in Germany; Claus, and Christiana, who when last heard from was living in the fatherland.

In early life Claus Peters learned the carpenter's trade and served for a year and a quarter in the Danish army. In 1866 he determined to come to America, hoping thereby to improve his financial condition. Accordingly, in September of that year, he took ship at Hamburg for New York and from the coast proceeded westward to Leavenworth, Kansas. He was a poor mechanic looking for a home and he put up a little frame house, twelve by fourteen feet, after which he worked by the day in order to get the funds necessary to carry on the work of development upon the claim which he had entered. The early years of laborious effort, however, were the forerunner of a more prosperous period. On the 7th of September, 1867, Mr. Peters was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Kose, who was born in Schleswig-Holstein. She died November 18, 1899. The children of this marriage were: Mary, who died at the age of eighteen years; Maggie, wife of August Goedeke, of Oklahoma, and Henry, born September 7, 1875.

In connection with general farming Mr. Peters and his son have handled cattle and hogs and have found this a profitable industry. They now own four hundred and five acres of valuable land on sections, fourteen, nineteen and twenty-three, and the farm is well improved with all modern accessories and with substantial buildings.

Mr. Peters takes little part in campaign or political work of any description aside from casting his vote for the men and measures of the Republican party. In religious belief he is a Lutheran and has served as one of the officers of the church. He has also rendered financial aid to the building of St. Paul's Lutheran church on Owl creek, and has done much for the upbuilding of the church and the spread of Christian truths as taught by that denomination. His life has indeed been a busy, useful and honorable one, and this record is such a one as to justify the confidence and esteem in which he is held by friends and neighbors.

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