Richard Peters

Richard Peters (November 2, 1848 – May 24, 1921)

During the U.S. Civil War, his parents sent him abroad where he was educated at private schools in England.

Career After returning to America, he became a civil engineer and attended the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he was a member of the Theta Xi fraternity.

In 1917, after America entered World War I and despite his advanced age, Peters enlisted in the U.S. Army, and served in France at Château-Thierry (during the Battle of Château-Thierry) and Saint-Mihiel (during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel). For his efforts during the War, he was decorated with four Croix de Guerre and was awarded the Légion d'Honneur. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom. At the time of his death, he was the oldest member of the Charity Ball Committee of Philadelphia, having served for thirty years. the daughter of Samuel Morse Felton Sr., also a civil engineer and railroad executive, and sister of Samuel Morse Felton Jr., the Director General of Military Railways at the Western Front during World War I. Together, they were the parents of:

Edith Macausland Peters (1875–1930), Ethel Conway Peters (1879–1962), who married Smedley Butler (1881–1940), son of Thomas S. Butler and grandson of Smedley Darlington, in 1905.

Peters died on May 24, 1921, at the Women's College Hospital in Philadelphia.