My Genealogy Hound

ARTHUR PETERS, the leading contractor and builder of Dunkirk, to whom many are indebted for the neat and handsome appearance of their residences and places of business, is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Copplestone) Peters, and was born February 1, 1846, in Cornwall county, a famous mining district in the southwestern part of England, both parents being natives of the same country. Samuel Peters (father) was born in 1820, and married Sarah Copplestone, by whom he had several children. He was a member of the Church of England, as is also his wife. He died in February, 1888, in his native country where he had always lived, aged sixty-eight years, and his widow still resides in Cornwall county, in her seventy-third year.

Arthur Peters was reared in his native county, and acquired his education in the public and private schools. At sixteen years of age he began to learn the trade of a carpenter, at which, in connection with contracting and building, he has since labored, and in 1869 came to the United States, locating at Sinclairville, this county, where he continued to reside until May, 1880, when he came to Dunkirk. He is now conceded to be the leading contractor of Dunkirk, and has built more than thirty buildings, at a cost of from one to ten thousand dollars, among the handsomest being the residences of F. B. Jackson, J. H. Lascelles and A. H. Whitney. About a score of men are constantly employed by him. In religion he is a member of the Episcopal church, as are all his family, and politically he is independent. He is a member of Blue Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and is a Royal Arch Mason.

In 1868, Mr. Peters married Laura Cossentine, a daughter of Charles Cossentine, of England. Four children have blessed their union, two sons and two daughters: Evaline A., Samuel A., Charles H. and Laura C., whose ages are twenty, seventeen, fourteen and twelve, respectively.