Butte County
Biographies
WILLIAM HENRY PETERS
WILLIAM HENRY PETERS.--William Henry Peters is holding a very important position with the Pacific Gold Dredging Company, a Guggenheim interest. The dredger is located and working upon a gravel bar five and one half miles up from Chico, on Butte Creek. The name of Peters is an honored one in the annals of California, particularly in Butte County. J. W. Peters, the father of our subject, was born in Tennessee, and there he learned the trade of blacksmith. When he was eighteen years old he came to California, crossing the plains with ox teams and for a time he ran a blacksmith shop at Marysville before coming to Chico. He was one of California’s pioneer blacksmiths, and being a good fellow, he counted his friends among the early Argonauts by the hundreds. He and the late John Crouch were bosom friends. His counsel was eagerly sought among the leading politicians for he was known as a man of good sound judgment and lofty ideals, and was public spirited to a fault. He married Miss Mary Ellen Cabel, who died in 1917, leaving several children.
William Henry Peters is hale and hearty, and a very competent mechanic, having learned the trade of blacksmith. He is still interested in his father’s home place on Butte Creek, about nine miles from Chico, which still continues to be an interesting center among the pioneers of Butte County, and where is dispensed a cordial hospitality.
Mr. Peters married Mrs. Emma Etta (Winders) Burke, a daughter of Arenia Thankful Winders, nee Lewis, who as a child was captured by the Mill Creed Indians, with two brothers who were put to death. Two children have been born of this marriage: Joda and James Peters. Mr. Peters is a self-made man and is a supporter of all improvements that help to build up Butte County.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1262-1263, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Joyce Rugeroni.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County
Biographies