Another minor Fortean—and a miner one, too. Edward Peters was born Erwin (or Irwin) Herbert Peters in Michigan on 23 (or 20) October 1890. His parents, William and Freda, had immigrated from Germany and made shoes. In 1910, when he was 21, Edward was still living at home, unemployed, along with his sister, Augusta. Seven years later, though still unemployed, he had a profession: mining engineering. Some time during these decades, he completed three years of college.
By 1919, he had moved to Chicago and married Angelina Balsame, the daughter of Italian immigrants. (Augusta married around the same time, but continued to live with her parents.) They lived with her brother in Chicago at least through the next year. I can find no reliable information on Peters until 1935. At that time, he had moved to Dutch Flats, in Placer County, California, a German mining community. Five years later, he was back in Michigan, living alone in Clinton. The census listed him as divorced. His sister, Augusta, was living with another sister in Detroit; she had been widowed.
Peters’ name appeared in the 3rd issue of The Fortean Society Magazine, dated January 1940. Thayer thanked him for sending in clippings. His name did not appear again until the 8th issue, December 1943—after Thayer’s infamous attack on World War II as a fraud. Thayer noted that Peters had left this mortal coil and his “contributions to Forteana have appeared in the Magazine, and unfailingly enriched the archives.” (He had established a Fortean archive around 1940.)
The following issue carried notice that Augusta had donated Edward’s library to the Society and joined herself as a life member:
“Mrs. Augustus [sic: Augusta] Stetter, of Detroit, sister of late edward peters, has taken out a life membership in the society and “has donated to the Society Library, in the name of her brother, 37 volumes from his library. the books are largely mystical, or on comparative religions, mostly Oriental, but including four volumes of Jacob Boehme, and other rarities.” .... “Mr. Peters was of that old school of ‘seekers after truth’ which commands our respect in spite of all that modern, shallow, pseudo-sophisticates can do to bring scorn down upon it. mrs stetter shares the interest of all Forteans in those mysteries which neither science nor religion has satisfactorily answered, and, at an advanced age, continues to prosecute that search which has no end, with vigorous intellectuality and suspended judgment. We welcome her to the society.”
By 1919, he had moved to Chicago and married Angelina Balsame, the daughter of Italian immigrants. (Augusta married around the same time, but continued to live with her parents.) They lived with her brother in Chicago at least through the next year. I can find no reliable information on Peters until 1935. At that time, he had moved to Dutch Flats, in Placer County, California, a German mining community. Five years later, he was back in Michigan, living alone in Clinton. The census listed him as divorced. His sister, Augusta, was living with another sister in Detroit; she had been widowed.
Peters’ name appeared in the 3rd issue of The Fortean Society Magazine, dated January 1940. Thayer thanked him for sending in clippings. His name did not appear again until the 8th issue, December 1943—after Thayer’s infamous attack on World War II as a fraud. Thayer noted that Peters had left this mortal coil and his “contributions to Forteana have appeared in the Magazine, and unfailingly enriched the archives.” (He had established a Fortean archive around 1940.)
The following issue carried notice that Augusta had donated Edward’s library to the Society and joined herself as a life member:
“Mrs. Augustus [sic: Augusta] Stetter, of Detroit, sister of late edward peters, has taken out a life membership in the society and “has donated to the Society Library, in the name of her brother, 37 volumes from his library. the books are largely mystical, or on comparative religions, mostly Oriental, but including four volumes of Jacob Boehme, and other rarities.” .... “Mr. Peters was of that old school of ‘seekers after truth’ which commands our respect in spite of all that modern, shallow, pseudo-sophisticates can do to bring scorn down upon it. mrs stetter shares the interest of all Forteans in those mysteries which neither science nor religion has satisfactorily answered, and, at an advanced age, continues to prosecute that search which has no end, with vigorous intellectuality and suspended judgment. We welcome her to the society.”
