Col. Peter Felt (1784–1866) was a New Hampshire politician and pioneer, among the early settlers of Quincy, Illinois. He joined the abolitionist movement and helped found the first congregational church in the State.
Peter Felt, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 1, 1784 |
| Died | July 31, 1866 (aged 81) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Cotton mill owner, politician, farmer |
| Years active | 1804 - 1861 |
| Known for | New Hampshire politician, state militia, abolitionist |
| Spouse | Polly Mary Fletcher |
Early life and marriage
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Born in Temple, New Hampshire to an American Revolutionary war veteran and shoemaker, he was a descendent of English emigrant and Massachusetts colonist George Felt. Peter Jr. was the eighth of the twelve children of Peter Felt Sr. (1745-1817) and Lucy Andrews (1748-1805).
He was known as "Colonel Felt," though "no one recalled the origin of the title." In a book published in 1824, he is listed as "Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel" in the 22nd regiment of the state militia.[1]
On June 4, 1807, he married Polly Mary Fletcher (1785–1840), daughter of New Ipswich natives Mary Cummings (1763-1847) and Ebenezer Fletcher (1761-1831), who was wounded in the American Revolution and wrote A narrative of the captivity and sufferings of Ebenezer Fletcher of New Ipswich.[2]
Polly Mary Fletcher gave birth to nine children, six lived into adulthood.
In 1810, Peter Felt Jr., with Josiah and Joel Davis, helped convert an old ironworks and held a stake in a cotton textile mill on the north branch of the Souhegan River for 17 years. He was a New Hampshire State Representative in 1825 and again between 1828 and 1829.[3]
He was a member on the committee for the Third Meeting-House in 1813 and was a subscriber for a new bell. From 1823 to 1830, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of New Ipswich Academy. From 1824 to 1829, Col. Felt was a selectman in town council.
Journey to Illinois
editIn 1830, Col. Felt journeyed with his wife and young children, from Smithville (Smith Village), in New Ipswich, by carriage to Troy, N.Y., canalboat to Erie, Pennsylvania, overland to Pittsburgh, and steamboat down the Ohio Riverand up the Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois.
That winter, in the later years of the Second Great Awakening, on December 4, 1830, a small group gathered for a religious service in his log cabin on the southwest corner of Fourth and Maine, where the Gardner Museum, once the old Public Library, now stands. He helped found the early Congregational church, possibly the first in the state, called "The Lord's Barn."
This building was 30 feet wide by 40 feet long, "a stark hut much admired." The pulpit and the seats were of planed boards, no upholstery, and there were no funds to purchase "a bell to call the people to worship."[4]
Col. Felt became a farmer on an 80 acre parcel he purchased. He was among a party of pioneers from New Ipswich who emigrated to Quincy and Mendon about the same time, including the family of American Unitarian minister Mary Safford. Col. Felt was declared an abolitionist after he joined others in signing a petition that called for a convention of those who held that “the system of American slavery was sinful and ought to be immediately abandoned. . ..”
Col. Felt was among the 17 signees who attended the Illinois anti-slavery convention organized by abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy at Alton in October 1837.[5][6] A few days after the convention, Lovejoy was murdered by a mob, becoming a martyr of the abolitionist cause opposing slavery in the United States.
Col. Felt's wife Polly M. Fletcher died in 1840, and he married a second time, in Quincy, the following year, to Alcey (Morey) Tanner, widow of Francis Tanner. They had one son together, Peter Francis Felt. About 1851 they sold the family to Peter's eldest son Albert and removed to a farm near Columbus, Ill., about 15 miles from Quincy.
On October 9, 1863, Col. Peter Felt's 23-year-old grandson, Pvt. Peter Leach Felt, perished at hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after receiving wounds at the Battle of Chickamauga during the American Civil War.[7] Two years later, Col. Felt died in Quincy, Illinois, on July 31, 1866, at age 81.
The following year, 1867, Col. Felt's son, Jeremiah Andrews Felt, purchased land in north central Missouri. His grandson Charles Davis Felt removed there about 1880. He helped establish the new town, Mendon, along the railroad in 1888.[8]
References
edit- ^ New Hampshire Political Manual and Annual Register. N.p., McFarland and Jenks, 1824, p.74
- ^ Fletcher, Ebenezer, 1761-1831. A Narrative of the Captivity And Sufferings of Ebenezer Fletcher of New Ipswich: Who Was Wounded At Hubbardston, In the Year 1777 And Taken Prisoner by the British, And After Recovering a Little From His Wounds, Made His Escape From Them, And Returned Back to Newipswich [sic]. [Madison, Wis.: S.F. Johnson, 1955
- ^ "The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Fellrath to Feminist". politicalgraveyard.com. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
- ^ Turner, Helen Calla. "Housekeeping in Quincy in the Thirties." Found in: Publications of the Illinois State Historical Library, Issue 21. United States, Phillips Bros., State Printers, 1916, p. 142-3.
- ^ "– The Rev. Mary A. Safford, A Women's Rights Advocate". www.hsqac.org. 2024-03-18. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
- ^ "Proceedings of the Ill. Anti-Slavery Convention: Held at Upper Alton on the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-seventh, and Twenty-eighth October, 1837 | Northern Illinois University Digital Library". digital.lib.niu.edu. Retrieved 2024-11-17.
- ^ Raymond, Steve. In the Very Thickest of the Fight: The Civil War Service of the 78th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. United States, Globe Pequot, 2012, p. 168.
- ^ Morris, John Emery. The Felt Genealogy: a record of the descendants of George Felt of Casco Bay. Hartford, Conn.: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., 1893.