My Genealogy Hound

Peter Goetz, a farmer and cotton grower, of Randolph County, Ark., was born in New Orleans, October 17, 1829, and received his education in a German Lutheran school of that city. He worked in his father’s wood yard in New Orleans while young, and afterward operated a saw-mill in Kentucky, and for seven years shipped lumber to his native city. He then sold out and moved to the “Hoosier State,” and, after operating a mill on Anderson Creek for about two years, he sold out and returned to New Orleans, where for two subsequent years he was engaged in managing a grocery store. He next spent two years as foreman in a still-house, then filled the same position in Mobile, Ala., for a year and a half. He then resided successively in New Orleans, Kentucky (where he built a saw-mill, but sold it soon after), Kansas, where he became the owner of considerable land, and remained seven years; then traded his property there for a section and a half of land in Randolph County, Ark. He afterward sold the whole section and a half for $25, and then rented a saw mill, which he operated two years, accumulating sufficient money thereby to purchase his present land, paying for it $12 per acre. It embraced 162 acres, and he has 110 acres under fence, and is as rapidly as possible improving it and putting it in a good farming condition. When the war broke out he joined the Confederate forces, and served in the Twenty-fourth Kentucky Cavalry, for three years, under Morgan. He was in numerous battles and skirmishes, and served until the close of the war, when he returned home. He was married in Louisville, Ky., to Miss Agnes Rarick, and four children blessed their union: Peter, Maggie (wife of Oscar Garber), Lizzie F. and Charley. Mr. Goetz is a Democrat and a member of the I. O. O. F. He is a son of Nichols and Elizabeth (Schlosser) Goetz, both natives of the Kingdom of Prussia, Germany. They were married in New Orleans, and died there. The father kept a store and lumber yard. The great-grandfather was a native German, and was foreman of some iron works. He lived to be over one hundred and ten years old.