Edward Mann Peters (8 May 1881 – 3 March 1948)

Walking along the road that runs adjacent to Old Main Street, I happen to come to a stone inlaid in the ground with only a name “Edward Mann Peters” and two dates beneath 1881 – 1948. Who is this man and what did he do?  Let’s just check out the census records for Marshfield and see. The 1940 census shows him alive and well living on Ferry Hill Road with his wife, Betty A, who appears to be ten years his junior.  This indicates she was born around 1891.  Wait!  There is another lady at the bottom of the household list identified as his mother-in-law, Sarah C. Shattuck. Sarah was born in New York about 1856. She moved in with them sometime since 1935 from Hillsboro, New Hampshire.  So, now we can safely determine his wife’s maiden name was Betty A. Shattuck. This census indicates he was also a bit of a workaholic as he worked about forty-five hours a week which is understandable if you own your own practice.  He also has one son, his namesake, Edward Mann Peters, Jr living with him.  Junior Peters is about thirty-two years of age now.  We know from his stone Senior Peters lived eight more years.

Let us see if we can find out more about this Senior Peters parents, and if he had any siblings. Ah! We find him at age nineteen, in the 1900 census records, his father was apparently deceased or in the service.  His mother was listed as head of their household at that time and this census was taken shows them as residents in the Town of Medford, Massachusetts.  She is listed as Mary Peters, born in 1851.  Both his parents were of Scottish descent.   Edward was the oldest of four sons living with their mother at 148 Cottage Street in Medford, Massachusetts.  He and his siblings were Edward M. Peters, Jr -  b. May 1881, Robert W. Peters – b. June 1883, Lewis H. Peters – b. February 1885 and Alexander C. Peters – b. June 1889.   Their mother was a hat trimmer.  At this time, Edward is listed as an insurance clerk and his brother Robert was a clerk in stationery.  The other two boys were in school.

What happened to his father?  Well, further research pulls up an actual marriage record showing Edward M Peters of Medford, Massachusetts showing Betty as his second wife. It also gives her full name as Bernice Adeline “Betty” Shattuck of Nashua, New Hampshire. They were married on the twenty-second of June 1929 in Nashua, New Hampshire.  She was the daughter of John L and Sarah C. (Hartney) Shattuck. Betty worked as a secretary and he was in insurance.  Oh, I can almost hear him making excuses telling his first wife how work is picking up and he will be late almost every night as he starts having an affair with the new girl (secretary) in the office. As things get more serious, he asks his first wife for a divorce.  This is all shown in the marriage record to his second wife. We also know now that Edward was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts and his new wife was born on the seventeenth of April 1892  in Francestown, Hillsborough, New Hampshire.  We still have no clue as to his father.

Another record found indicates Edward was a member of the Mount Hernon Lodge of Masons.  Now we have a complete birth record indicating he was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts on the eighth of May 1881.  We also see when he died was the third of March 1948, presumably Marshfield, Massachusetts but not clear to say exactly.  He was the son of a tin smith,  Robert L Peters and his wife, Mary Edwards. Both his parents were of Scottish descent.

The first draft he registered in was in 1918, at which time he was living at 1920 O NW Street in Washington, DC, he was thirty-seven and working for the Federal Government as an assistant deputy in the War Risk Bureau of the Marine and Seamen’s Division.  He was married to his first wife, Margaret A. of Allerton, Massachusetts.  He was a tall man of medium stature with blue eyes and sooty hair.  This marriage ended in divorce.

He also registered for the World War II draft in 1942.  He was sixty years of age at this time, and living at 22 Shepherd Road in West Medford, Massachusetts. This document shows he was receiving his mail in Boston at his place of business, E. M. Peters Co, Inc. at 4 Liberty Square.  However, his second wife he gives as living on Carleton Road in Marshfield.

His father, Robert Lindsay Peters, was born in twenty-fourth day of December in 1850 at Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland and died in West Medford, Mass on the twelfth of December 1892. He and his wife, our subject’s parents, are buried in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Medford, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary, also from Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland was born on the twelfth of January 1851. She died on the sixth of June, 1946 at Medford.  Perhaps 22 Shepherd Road listed on his draft registration for WWII was his parents address. 

Edward’s second wife, Bernice, died in Weymouth, Massachusetts on the eighteenth of November, 1974.  She was the youngest daughter of Jon Lewis Shattuck and Sarah Clark Hartley.  It does not appear he had any children by either marriage.