Find a Grave Memorial

MATTHEW HENRY PETERS.
Captain Seventy-fourth Ohio Infantry, United States Volunteers.
Died at Watseka, Illinois, May 11, 1918.

MATTHEW HENRY PETERS, a Companion of this Commandery since 1889, died at Watseka, Ill., May 11, 1918.

In his application for membership he gave his date of birth as June 6, 1843, but ascertained in 1895 that the year should have been 1841. He was a native of Bavaria, Germany, and his parents were George and Magdalena Peters, who came to this country while our Companion was an infant. They located in New Orleans, and while the subject of this memorial was a mere lad, his father and mother and two sisters died of yellow fever, leaving two small boys, as survivors of the family. They were placed in an orphanage and our Companion was given in charge of a cruel and dissipated tailor who treated him worse than he could have been treated had he been a negro slave. From this task master he ran away and became a street waif in a city of strangers, sleeping amid the bales of cotton on the wharves and in old shacks wherever he could find shelter. After a year or two of this hard life, a benevolent man by the name of Henry Roberts, ran across him and took him to his home in Springfield, Ohio, where the mother of his benefactor tenderly cared for him and sent him to school. In the meantime Mr. Roberts died and Matthew shifted for himself, working on a farm and learning also the trade of brick making.

By studying at odd times and late at night he acquired sufficient education to enable him to take up the vocation of school teaching, which he followed to success until the outbreak of the Civil War.

He enlisted soon after the fall of Fort Sumter, at Springfield, Ohio, in Co. E, 16th Ohio Inf., a three months' organization, and was mustered out August 10, 1861.

On December 23, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Co. F, 74th Ohio Inf.; was promoted to 1st Lieutenant of the same company, January 7, 1862; promoted to Adjutant March 1, 1864; to Captain, July 13, 1864, and assigned to Co. H of the same regiment. Detailed as Assistant Inspector General and served on Gen. George P. Buell's staff in 1865. Commissioned Major, July 12, 1865, but never mustered in that grade.

While in the 16th regiment he did duty in West Virginia and took part in the battles of Phillippi, Laurel Hill and Carrick's Ford. The 74th regiment was commanded by Col. Granville Moody, who was called ''the fighting parson," he having been appointed Colonel while still a Methodist preacher.

Major Peters' service was in the armies of the Cumberland and the Tennessee, and he was in the battles of Stone River, December 31, 1862, where he was severely wounded and reported killed. At the battle of Buzzard's Roost, while advancing on Atlanta with Sherman's Army, he had his right leg crushed and shattered by a shell. On December 21, 1864, he was wounded in the wrist at the battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn.

For gallant and meritorious services Major Peters received a medal of honor.

He became a member of the Grand Army of the Republic very soon after the organization of the Order and was Commander of William Post at Watseka, Ill., for forty years, in which city he settled in 1866.

The necessity of shifting for himself at a very early age prevented him from obtaining a thorough education, but he compensated for this by making the most of his natural advantages and was, in the largest sense, a self-made man.

For a while after leaving the service, he was engaged in the hardware business, which was not altogether congenial, and he soon left it to engage in the book and stationery business, in which he continued until November, 1879. While still in this occupation he acquired control of the Iroquois Times, and became its editor and proprietor, continuing such for over fifteen years.

During the war Companion Peters was a Republican and a strong supporter of President Lincoln's Administration and for some years thereafter continued in the same political faith, but with very many others left his party at the time of the Greeley Campaign, and during the rest of his life affiliated with the Democrats in National and State affairs.
After settling in Watseka he never changed his residence, but became one of the most influential and valued citizens of that city. He was elected Mayor for three terms, serving in that capacity for six years.

While not a professional reformer, he had very decided views on many questions which, at the time he espoused them, were not popular. He had an intense hatred of the saloon business and was fearless in his opposition to its influence at a time when it was not popular to be on that side.

As early as 1879-80, while a representative in the Illinois Legislature, he was a strong advocate of Woman's Suffrage and other progressive ideas of modern civic rights and legislation.

He always took a great interest in all matters pertaining to the Civil War and was very active in Grand Army circles, serving one term as the Governor of the Soldiers' Home at Danville, Ill.

To his credit also belongs the distinction of organizing the first militia company in Iroquois county in 1874, when he was elected captain. This company afterwards became Co. A, 9th Battalion, Illinois National Guards, which Major Peters was elected to command.

His domestic life was a long and very happy one, he having been married to Miss Clara Lyon, of Sycamore, Ill., June 19, 1867, and she, with one son, Arthur V., survives him.
A man of unquestioned integrity, of unlimited generosity to those needing assistance, of engaging personality, he easily ranked as one of the first citizens of the city where he resided for over half a century and he left an abiding "good name which is rather to be chosen than great riches."

Edward D. Redington,
Chas. E. Baker,
Lucien B. Crooker,
Committee

[Source: Memorials of deceased companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States From 1912- until 1922]

Mathew H Peters