John Peters, County Clerk, Albion, was born at Alton, Ill., in 1844, living there, engaged in the business of house and carriage painting, paper hanging, etc., until 1872, when he removed to Albion. He then engaged in the real estate business, and has located the homesteads of settlers in Boone County. He is also the land agent of the B. & M. R. R., and has sold for it nearly all the land sold by it in Boone County. He has been very energetic and indefatigable in his efforts to direct emigration to Boone County. In this he has been very successful. It is due to him more than to any other citizen that the county has been settled so rapidly. He is undoubtedly better posted regarding the lands of Boone County than any one else. He is now serving his fifth consecutive term as County Clerk of Boone County, having been first elected in 1873. In politics he is a Republican, taking a prominent part in the councils of that party. He was among the first to take up arms for the Union in the late rebellion, enlisting as a private in 1861, at Alton, Ill. in Company D, Tenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and serving until July 4, 1865, when he was discharged at Louisville, Ky. He was in the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Cumberland, taking part in nearly all the battles in which those commands participated. He is Past Grand of Albion Lodge, No. 83, I. O. O. F., and a member of Albion Lodge, No. 1396, Knights of Honor, at Albion. He was married, in Brighton, Illinois, in 1867, to Miss Sarah E. Widaman, who is a native of Montgomery County, Ohio. They have five children–Norman W., Blanche, Leona, Nellie and Guy.
