Peter Felt

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Felt-Tobey-Scott House, Temple, New Hampshire, Erected by Peter Felt (American, 1745-1817) in 1789

Peter Felt (November 3, 1745—January 2, 1817) was an American patriot from New Hampshire who served at the Battle of Saratoga, the decisive victory for the Continental Army considered a turning point in the War. He was promoted to Sergeant under Gen. William Whipple, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence. He was one of six brothers who served in the American Revolution. All survived though two were wounded.

Peter Felt was born November 3, 1745, outside of Boston, Massachusetts, at Lynn, a member of the Felt family of politicians, ministers, mariners and shipping businessmen. Peter was father to thirteen children and the first shoemaker in his Hillsborough County village, later a manufacturer and the first to construct hats out of cloth, "hence the hat was called felt." He is named on the Revolutionary War memorial at Temple, New Hampshire, where his Federal-style home, from 1789, remains.

Marriage

Peter came first to New Hampshire from Massachusetts "in 1763 or before" and settled on an “S.E. lot” in Temple, followed shortly by his brother Aaron, who bought an adjacent lot. The town was incorporated five years later in 1768. Peter was the first shoemaker in town.

On November 8, 1769, Peter Felt married Lucy Andrews (November 24, 1748–March 26, 1805), at the Congregational Church at Concord, Massachusetts, joined in union by the Reverend William Emerson—grandfather of Ralph Waldo Emerson, later to become the American essayist, lecturer and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the 19th century. Ms. Andrews descended from Robert Andrews, owner and captain of the armed and fated ship Angel Gabriel, sailing with settlers from Norwich, England, subsequently lost in a storm at Pemaquid, Maine, August 15, 1635.

On August 3, 1781, Peter donated one pound and nine shillings for the construction of a meeting house at Temple. He was among those of Temple who in September 1786 laid out the Old Burying Yard. In 1781, he was a selectman and in 1788, a constable.

American revolution

When the Revolutionary War broke out, Peter was 31 years old. His brothers Jonathan, Joshua and Samuel Felt were present at the Battle of Lexington and Concord that started the war. Peter first served as a private, for one year, from January 7, 1776, in Colonel James Reed’s under Captain Ezra Towne, of the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment. Reed gathered the local militia and marched to Boston, where they fought with John Stark's 1st New Hampshire Regiment at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Town of Temple afterwards paid Peter “seven pounds and four pence” on top of his military wage. Peter's 17-year-old brother-in-law Jeremiah Andrews (1757-1826) served in a unit designated "The 3d Regiment of Foot” at the Siege of Boston until its disbandment. In 1777, Peter Felt volunteered again and was designated as Sergeant during the Saratoga Campaign, under Captain Gershon Drury in Colonel Moore's Regiment of Militia, also known as the 9th New Hampshire Militia Regiment, which was called up at Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, on September 29, under Gen. William Whipple, as reinforcements for the Continental Army. The Regiment marched quickly to join the gathering forces of Gen. Horatio Gates as he faced British Gen. John Burgoyne in northern New York.

With the surrender of Burgoyne's Army on October 17, Moore’s regiment was disbanded on October 27, 1777. Gen. John Stark gave to the regiment a Brass 4 pounder cannon captured at the Battle of Bennington. As a result of their meritorious conduct at the Battle of Saratoga, Whipple and Colonel James Wilkinson were then chosen by Major General Horatio Gates to determine terms of capitulation with two representatives of General John Burgoyne. Whipple signed the Convention of Saratoga, the effective surrender of General Burgoyne and his troops and was appointed, with several other officers, to escort Burgoyne and his army back to Winter Hill, Somerville, Massachusetts. Whipple passed the news of the victory at Saratoga to Captain John Paul Jones, who informed Benjamin Franklin, who was in Paris at the time. News of the victory proved valuable to Franklin throughout alliance negotiations with the French.

Jeremiah Andrews marched with his brother-in-law Peter Felt on the Saratoga campaign as well and later went reinforce the Northern Army at Ticonderoga in June 1777.

Peter's son, Peter, Jr., named his second son, born on June 17, 1814, for Jeremiah Andrews, but the boy died July 23, 1816, a little over two years old. The following year, 1817, five months to the day after the death of Peter Felt, Sr., Peter Jr., on May 2, named his third son for Jeremiah Andrews, presumably for the War hero and the dead son. Jeremiah Andrews Felt died at age eighty-eight.

Brothers

Felt Brothers of New Hampshire, Sons of Joseph Felt (1757-1842), nephews of Peter Felt. L-R, Asa George, John, Jeremiah Felt. Taken about 1865.

Peter Sr. was among the six sons of Aaron Felt (1716-1769) and Mercy Waitt (1716-1769), of Lynn, Massachusetts, all of whom served in the American Revolution. Peter's younger brother Joseph (1757-1842) was perhaps the first to join, enlisting May 4, 1775, at New Ipswich, N.H., mustered July 11. [Three of his sons are pictured.] He had served in Captain Ezra Towne's Company, Colonel James Reed's regiment, before his other brothers joined, and was in Capt. Ezra Newhall's company when taken prisoner at the Battle of Fort Washington, November 16, 1776. He was exchanged in January 1777, and received a wound for which he was pensioned in 1818. Joseph "was disabled from all labor in the wintertime by reason of a wound in the thigh at Fort Washington.” Joseph was 5 feet 4 inches, with a fair complexion and gray eyes. His occupation was farmer, age eighteen. He was said to have served for seven years. He settled in Packersfield, N.H., with brothers Jonathan, Joshua and Samuel.

The eldest brother Aaron (1742-1801) signed the Association Test in 1776, and Jonathan Felt (1753-1807) accompanied Peter to Saratoga, between September and October 1777, and was a private in Captain Samuel King's company, raised for the defense of the seacoast. Jonathan enlisted July 11, 1775, for service of six months, five days. Brother Joshua (1751-1822) served in the first company which marched from Lynn to Lexington, April 19, 1776, and was wounded at Menotomy (Arlington), the only man in his company injured. Samuel Felt (1755-1827) answered the Lexington Alarm as well, serving under Capt. John Bacheller and at the Ticonderoga Alarm under Capt. Jonathan Brockway. He enlisted, 1778, in Capt. Robert Fletcher's company for the defense of Rhode Island.

Peter was a cousin of Captain Jonathan Felt (1748-1800), who served in the 4th Massachusetts Regiment and the 7th Massachusetts Regiment the entirety to be present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781.

Captain John Felt

Captain John Felt (1723-1785) was also a cousin. On February 26, 1775, John became the hero of the British repulse in their first attempt to invade the Colony, two months before Lexington, at North Field Bridge in Salem.

“Foremost among the friends of liberty, and the resolute and daring enemies of oppression and arbitrary power, stood Captain John Felt, who, without any disparagement to others, appears entitled to the distinction of the Hero of the British repulse at the North Field Bridge. He was at this time about fifty years of age. His frame, square, strong and muscular, denoted him a man, whom it would be the part of prudence to avoid in single combat. Salem possessed many men whose social position in life was perhaps superior;—men of wealth—of more erudition—of more influence in her public councils;—but none of greater moral worth, or irreproachable private character. He belonged to that class thus elegantly apostrophized by the poet:—

"Heart of the people—Working Men!

Marrow and nerve of human powers;

Who on your sturdy backs sustain,

Through streaming time this World Of Ours."

Salem witch trials

Peter Felt was the grandson of Ann Walcott (1686-1736), daughter of Jonathan Walcott and Deliverance Putnam.  Ann was the younger half-sister of Mary Walcott, one of the "afflicted" girls called as a central witness at Salem witch trials. Mary—the daughter of Jonathan Walcott and Mary Sibley (who died at age 28 in 1683)—was about 17 years old when her aunt first showed Tituba and her husband how to bake a "witch cake" to feed to a dog so she and her friends might ascertain exactly who it was that was afflicting them. Joseph B. Felt (an uncle) wrote: "March 11, 1692 – “Mary, the wife of Samuel Sibley, having been suspended from communion with the church there, for the advices she gave John [husband of Tituba] to make the above experiment, is restored on confession that her purpose was innocent.”  Ann Walcott married Peter’s grandfather Joshua Felt (1691-1744) in Salem on January 15, 1712.

Peter was a first cousin (twice removed) of Ann Putnam, another important witness (with Mary Walcott & four others) at the Salem trials.

Peter's first wife and mother of his children, Lucy Andrews, was the great-great granddaughter of John Andrews, who, with his four sons and two dozen neighbors, signed the petition of clemency for John and Elizabeth Proctor, central figures tried and convicted of witchcraft, the farmer and tavern keeper hanging August 19, 1692, his wife spared.

"It appears that the names of John Andrews and his four sons are all signed to this petition, to their eternal honor and credit. This document and list of names of those courageous, humane and tolerant men, compares favorably with any which has come down to us from the early colonial period of this country.

By their act they opposed the intolerance and superstition of the Puritans of New England, promulgated, represented and controlled by its clergy and magistrates, a class of rulers whose opposition or enmity it was dangerous to encounter. Their acts on that occasion were at the hazard of their lives. Many men and women during that troublesome period lost their lives for as slight causes while attempting to interfere with public affairs. It required stout hearts for our ancestors to sign and present that petition at that particular time, more perilous in some respects than the case of the resistance to the unlawful tax above cited. Human blood was then rated cheap as the penalty for resisting the authority and power controlled and executed by tyrannical rulers.

But our grand old ancestor and his neighbors were again fighting a righteous cause, for humanity and against ignorance and superstition. And while their efforts were futile to save the lives of both victims, for John Proctor was hanged, but his wife was spared. The wave of fanaticism receded and that reign of terror passed away-let us hope forever.”

Family

Peter Felt was the great grandson of one of the old Puritan founders of Charlestown, George Felt, of Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, a mason by trade, who came to the Colony with Governor John Endecott on the Abigail in 1628. Peter was a descendant of both the Walcott and Putnam families who were involved in the Salem witch trials of Massachusetts during the later portion of 17th-century Colonial America.

Peter’s third great grandfather (paternal) was Lt. Thomas Putnam Sr. (1615–1686), one of Salem's wealthiest residents and whose home remains in Danvers, Massachusetts, from 1648, as the oldest in the U.S. still owned by a descendant of the original family that had it erected. Thomas married Ann Holyoke (1620-1665), Peter's third great grandmother, on October 7, 1643. Ann's brother Elizur Holyoke (1618-1676) was an English colonist, surveyor, scribe, soldier, and the namesake of the mountain, Mount Holyoke, and indirectly, of the city of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Peter Felt was cousin to Edward Augustus Holyoke, an educator and physician, and Edward Holyoke, an early American clergyman and the 9th President of Harvard College.

Death

In 1789, Peter Felt erected "a large, square, and commodious mansion, which is still in good condition, and remains unaltered, being firmly built, and of the best material. The old oaken bucket,” suspended by a sweep, still “hangs in the well.” Later in life, he became a manufacturer. After his wife Lucy died in 1805, four years on, Peter Felt remarried, to Mrs. Polly Gilmore, at Jaffrey, New Hampshire, on March 21, 1809.

Eight years later, Peter Felt died at his Temple home, on January 2, 1817. He was seventy-one years old.

Home

After Peter's death, his widow likely remained in the home for some time. She died in 1869. By 1860, the home was owned by Peter Felt’s nephew, Daniel Felt (1799-1882), who came to Temple from New Ipswich in 1835. Daniel was selectman for eight years and a representative in the Legislature in 1855. Then Daniel’s son, Lucius Webster Felt (1844-1917), a farmer, lived in the home, which was "well preserved, and in many respects unaltered. The clapboards are nearly all original, split and shaved, and put on with wrought nails. There are the same doors, windows, and plastering, and the panel-work in the interior hardly shows a crack. In two rooms the windows are protected by wooden paneled double-shutters that slide inside the walls. The house contains nine fire-places, and four of them are furnished with iron fire frames, three being still in use. On the west side of the house is a one-story porch."

In 1903, the home was purchased by Charles William Tobey (July 22, 1880 – July 24, 1953) an American politician, who was a Governor of New Hampshire and a United States senator. Tobey dubbed the place “Colonial Farm” and raised prize-winning White Orringtons – one of which laid a record-breaking 251 eggs in a single year. He quickly became absorbed in Temple life and politics, serving as selectman and chairman of the school board. He served three terms in the State Legislature, and in 1924 was elected to the State Senate. Four years later he was elected governor, and in 1938 he won a seat in the U.S. Senate for the first of three terms. In 1962, Ken and Martha Scott, of Wayland, Massachusetts, purchased the property, which is today known as the Felt-Tobey-Scott House. It is Federal style and features “a fine academic doorway,” according to New Hampshire Architecture: An Illustrated Guide (Bryant Franklin Tolles). It features 12-over-12, double-hung wood windows, “Indian shutters” built into the walls, interior wood panels and a nine-foot fireplace. The barn on the property dates to the same period and underwent restoration by the Scotts.

Legacy

Peter Felt was said "to be the first to make hats out of cloth, hence the hat was called felt." His great grand nephew was Dorr Eugene Felt (March 18, 1862 – August 7, 1930), an American inventor and industrialist who was known for having invented the Comptometer, an early computing device, and the Comptograph, the first printing adding machine.

Peter and Lucy had thirteen children, four died in childhood. Eight of their nine children remained in New England for the duration of their lives, their second eldest surviving son, Peter, Jr., did not.

Peter Felt, Jr.

Peter Felt, Jr, (II) (December 1, 1784–July 31, 1866) was a farmer, cotton manufacturer, and member of the New Hampshire State House of Representatives, who erected a house that no longer stands across the road from his father-in-law Ebenezer Brooks Fletcher (February 5, 1761-May 8, 1831) in a place once known as Smith Village, Mill Village and Smithville, New Ipswich, N.H., where the Federal-style, colonial Fletcher home remains.

Peter, 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 22d regiment of the state militia. On June 4, 1807, he married Polly Mary Fletcher (1785-1840), daughter of New Ipswich natives Mary Cummings (1763-1847) and Ebenezer Fletcher, who was wounded in the American Revolution and wrote 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 New Ipswich, written by himself. They had nine children, six lived into adulthood.

About 1910, Peter Felt, Jr., began operating "a store" outside his home in "Mill Village," and, with Josiah and Joel Davis, converted the old iron-works on the north branch of the Souhegan into a cotton factory, which continued in operation until about 1826. He was said to have smuggled butter into Canada during the embargo in 1807. Peter, Jr., was on the committee at the dedication of the Third Meeting-House in 1813 and one of the subscribers for a new bell. From 1823 to 1830, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of New Ipswich Academy. In 1825, 1828, and 1829, he represented the town in the Legislature. From 1824-1829, he was a selectman in town council for New Ipswich.

In November 1828, two of their young children died: Caroline Augusta, age five, and George, age two. About a year later, Peter, Jr., and Polly left New Hampshire with their surviving five children (youngest age two) by wagon for Troy, New York, took the Erie Canal to Buffalo, a wagon overland to the Ohio River and a boat to the Mississippi River, landing at Quincy, Illinois in June 1830. Peter become a founding member of what was first called the Presbyterian Church, and later changed to the First Congregational Church, the first service held in his log cabin on December 4, 1830, with four Presbyterians, three Congregationalists, three Baptists, five of "miscellaneous beliefs," and Rev. Asa Turner, a graduate of Yale Theological Seminary who had arrived the previous month. They passed a resolution that "total abstinence was an indispensable term of admission to the church." By June 1832, “The great majority of our citizens can now come to Quincy and do business without whiskey."

Peter Felt, Jr., later erected the first frame house in Quincy, Illinois, on the site of his log cabin. His wife, Polly Mary Fletcher, died at Quincy at age fifty-five on August 27, 1840. Peter soon remarried and fathered Peter Francis Felt (1843-1919), who served in Company F, the 78th Illinois infantry regiment, during the American Civil War and was held prisoner for a time in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, after which he settled in Laclede, Missouri, in the furniture, implement and undertaking business.

Peter Jr. died at Quincy at 81 years and 242 days old, on July 31, 1866, and lies at Woodland Cemetery.

Jeremiah Felt

Jeremiah Andrews Felt (American, 1817-1906), Quincy, Illinois, son of Peter Felt, Jr. (1784-1866), grandson of Peter Felt, Sr. (1745-1817), of Temple, New Hampshire

Jeremiah Andrews Felt (1817-1906) was a grandson of Peter Felt, son of Peter Felt, Jr., and named for a brother who died in childhood and after his paternal grandfather's brother-in-law, Jeremiah Andrews, who served gallantly for New Hampshire in the Revolutionary War. The home of Jeremiah Felt still stands south of Quincy, Illinois. He married Adriana Leach (1819-1896), of Boston, and they raised ten children, all survived into adulthood. Jeremiah and Adriana are buried at Woodland. Their eldest son was Peter Leach Felt (1840-1863), who, like his uncle, served with the 78th Illinois but in company K.  He was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga, on September 20, 1863. It was the first major battle of the war fought in Georgia, the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theater, and involved the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg. On the final day of the battle, the 78th Illinois served a vital role as part of Mitchell's Brigade in reinforcing Thomas at the height of the Confederate attack and took 40 percent casualties. Peter lay on the battlefield through the night. Taken prisoner the following morning, he remained at hospital until his death on October 9, ten days after his tweny-third birthday, at Chattanooga, Tennessee, where lie his remains. Jeremiah reportedly traveled to find him but made it only to Nashville, Tennessee.

Jeremiah's youngest son Charles Davis Felt (1858-1949) was an early settler and farmer of Mendon, Missouri, who had a son Chester Arthur Felt (1885-1970), a banker, who married Bernah Loew Felt (1890-1981), the daughter of Swiss and German-British immigrants, both of whom lie at Mendon, whose sons were Arthur Emil Felt (1911-2002) and Charles Woodrow Felt (1913-1957), who was a Captain in the U.S. Army Dental Corps in England, France, Belgium and Germany during the Second World War and is buried at Salem, Missouri.

References

This article "Peter Felt" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Peter Felt. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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