My Genealogy Hound

ALEXANDER ST. PETERS was born in Paris, France, December 15, 1807, and is the son of Lewis and Mary Ann St. Peters. Alexander St. Peters came to Canada with his parents in 1815. They settled at Three Rivers, where the father died, in October, 1839. Young St. Peters began farming for himself at the age of eighteen. He immigrated to the United States before becoming of age and settled in Vermont. In 1835, he moved to Massachusetts, where he remained about eighteen months, and in 1837 moved to Iowa, settling in Benton county. He purchased a farm there and followed his chosen occupation for several years. In April, 1874, he moved to Nebraska and took up a claim in Cedar township, Buffalo county. The country was new then and settlers were few and far between. Wild game, especially elk, antelope and deer, was quite plenty, and it was not an unusual thing to see a few Indians passing back and forth to their hunting grounds.

Mr. St. Peters built a sod house, barn and other necessary buildings, and has since devoted himself diligently to improving his farm, which is, by the way, one of the best in the township. He suffered severely the first year or so from the grasshoppers, and at a time, too, when the destruction of an entire crop meant a great deal to him. He witnessed a great deal of terrible suffering among the settlers in those days, many of whom came near starving to death. They were indeed trying times, and the courage of men was put to the severest test. Alexander St. Peters married Mary Ann Hatcot, a native of Canada and of English descent. She bore him eleven children, as follows — Mary Jane (deceased), Franklin (deceased), Silvia, John J., Alba E., Annie, Laura, Charles, Stephen, William E., and Emma B. Both Mr. St. Peters and his estimable wife are active members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. St. Peters enlisted in August, 1862, in the Fortieth Iowa infantry, and served seventeen months. He was taken sick during his service, and after being confined in a hospital for some time was discharged. He is a modest, unassuming man and always tries to do what is right by his fellow-man.