My Genealogy Hound

HENRY PETERS is one of the earliest settlers in the Loup valley and one of the best known farmers in Buffalo county. He is a native of Germany, and was born October 21, 1833. His father, Henry Peters, Sr., a farmer by occupation, was a native of Germany, born in the year 1797. His mother, Catherina (Meumen) Peters, was also a native of Germany and was born in 1796. There were five children — three girls and two boys — in the father’s family of which Henry is the youngest. Henry lived in the old country until twenty-seven years old and was engaged in farming. In 1861 he came to this country and located at Connville, Ill., where he resided seven years and was employed part of the time as a common laborer and part of the time at farming. In 1868, he emigrated West and located in Cass county, Nebr., at first renting a farm and afterwards leasing school lands. He came to Buffalo county in the spring of 1875, and bought the claim on which he now resides, which he afterwards pre-empted. In those days the country in that section was wild and barren and very sparsely settled. Deer and antelope roamed through the valley in abundance, and elk, while not plentiful at that time, were frequently seen near his place. His nearest neighbor, in 1875, was three miles distant. He put out a small crop the first year and harvested from five acres of corn an average of eighty bushels to the acre. The following year his crops were entirely destroyed by the grasshoppers, and he was left in almost destitute circumstances. The grasshoppers ate holes through the blankets which were spread over vegetables and ate the cabbage roots in the ground. That summer and fall he earned money, with which to keep the family during the winter, by hauling a load in a provision train to the Black Hills country. In 1879, he had twenty-five acres of wheat, thirty acres of corn and twenty-one thousand young, growing trees destroyed by a severe hail storm. The hail stones were so large as to knock the horns off the sheep, break window-glass, etc. With few exceptions, he has had good crops. Mr. Peters was married March 27, 1859, to Tolcke C. Dires, who was born in Germany, January 15, 1836, and is the youngest in a family of three children born to John and Sofiah Dires, both of whom are natives of Germany. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Peters, as follows — Riche, John, Fred, Benjamin, Riche 2d., Henry, Louis and William.

Mr. and Mrs. Peters are both active members of the Lutheran church. Mr. Peters is a republican.