Peter Felt
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 |
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.
Early life and marriage
[edit]Born in Temple, New Hampshire, to an American Revolutionary War veteran, he was a descendent of English emigrant and Massachusetts colonist George Felt.
Peter Jr. was the fourth of the nine surviving children (out of 13) born to Peter Felt Sr. (1745-1817) and Lucy Andrews (1748-1805) and the second oldest surviving male.
His father Peter Felt Sr. (1745–1817) was one of six Felt brothers who served in the American Revolution, including at the Battles of Lexington and Concord; all survived, though two were wounded. His father served as a sergeant at the Battles of Saratoga. A shoemaker by trade, his father erected a commodious house in Temple, New Hampshire, that still stands.[1] His parents were married in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1769, by Rev. William Emerson, the grandfather of the noted American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.[2]
Peter Felt Jr. 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.[3]
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.[4]
Col. Felt erected a house at Smithville (Smith Village), southwest of New Ipswich Common, across the lane from his father-in-law, Ebenezer Fletcher, whose home still stands. His wife gave birth to nine children, six of whom lived into adulthood.
In 1810, Col. Felt 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.[5]
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. In 1828, Col. Felt was a member of the committee that purchased and established the town poor farm.
Journey to Illinois
[edit]In 1830, Col. Felt journeyed with his wife and young children, from Smithville by carriage to Troy, New York, then by canal boat to Erie, Pennsylvania, overland to Pittsburgh, and by steamboat down the Ohio River and 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 Col Felt's log cabin, on the southwest corner of Fourth and Maine streets, where the Gardner Museum, once the old public library, now stands.
With noted minister Rev. Asa Turner, he helped found the early Congregational church, possibly the first in the state. In 1832, a building was erected, called "The Lord's Barn." It was 30 feet (9 m) wide by 40 feet (12 m) long, though a memorial marker states it was 22 feet by 26 feet. Nonetheless, it was "a stark hut much admired," with the pulpit and seats "of planed boards," no upholstery, and no funds to purchase "a bell to call the people to worship."[6]
Col. Felt then turned to farming an 80-acre (32 ha) parcel that he purchased to the southeast of the blossoming city.
Col. Felt was among a party of pioneers from New Ipswich who emigrated to Quincy and Mendon Township about the same time, including the family of Unitarian minister Mary Safford.
Abolitionist cause
[edit]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.[7][8] 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.
Abolitionist Richard Eells erected a home near Col. Felt's on Fourth Street in Quincy, which became a significant stop on the Underground Railroad, assisting enslaved people, crossing the Mississippi river from Missouri, which was a slave state.[9]
Col. Felt's wife Polly M. (Fletcher) Felt 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 farm to Peter's eldest son Albert and moved to a farm near Columbus, Illinois, about 15 miles (24 km) from Quincy.
On October 9, 1863, Col. Felt's 23-year-old grandson, Pvt. Peter Leach Felt, son of Jeremiah A. Felt, perished at hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after receiving wounds at the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War.[10] Two years later, Col. Felt died in Quincy, Illinois, on July 31, 1866, at age 81. He was the oldest citizen of Quincy at the time.
The following year, 1867, Col. Felt's son, Jeremiah A. Felt, purchased land in north central Missouri. His grandson Charles Davis Felt moved there about 1880. He helped establish the new town, Mendon, along the railroad in 1888.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ The Felt Genealogy: A Record of the Descendents of George Felt of Casco Bay, listed in North America, Family Histories, 1500–2000 for George Felt, First Generation, John E. Morris (1893), page 19
- ^ Tollman, George. Concord, Mass.: Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1635-1850, Printed by the Town. Boston, T. Todd, printer, 1895.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Quincy Underground Railroad Museum | Dr Richard Eells House". www.quincyundergroundrailroad.org. 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2024-11-18.
- ^ 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.