My Genealogy Hound

EZRA M. PETERSON. Among the younger farmers of Greene County who are carrying on the work begun by their parents or grandparents, on tracts of land which were cleared by their ancestors many years ago, the gentleman above named is numbered. He now has two hundred acres of the old homestead on which he was reared and educated, and upon which his eyes opened to the light October 26, 1848. He is a worthy successor of his father, who, starting with ninety-eight acres of land, accumulated a landed estate of about seven hundred acres, besides rearing his family in comfort and bestowing upon them such advantages as the country afforded in their youth.

From his estimable parents Ezra Peterson received a careful training in the principles which should govern the conduct, and learned the useful habits which he has since followed. The traits of character which he derived from them by birth and training have given him the respect of his fellow-men, and the warmer feeling of friendship from those to whom he is better known. On October 31, 1872, he married Miss Arebelle A., daughter of Warren and Lanar (Adams) Ledbetter, she, like himself, being a member of the Methodist Church. They are the parents of one son. J. Warren.

The father of the gentleman of whom we write was Felix Peterson, who was born in Hardy County, Va., May 18, 1809, and died April 9, 1874, and came with his parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Harper) Peterson, to this county in 1815, the party also including John Peterson, a brother of Jacob, and a cousin. The fraternal group, of which he was the youngest member, comprised also Catherine, Mary, Christina, Samuel, Joel, Moses, Jacob and Hannah, the latter being the only one now living, her age being eighty-seven. Jacob Peterson died on the farm now occupied by his grandson, our subject, in July, 1859, at the extreme age of ninety-three years, having been born in March, 1766. His wife had breathed her last in 1833.

Felix Peterson grew to man’s estate in this county, spending nearly his entire life on Caesar’s Creek, where his father had located in his boyhood. He married Mary S. Weaver, who is yet living. She belongs to the Reformed Church and is a most estimable woman. Her parents, John and Martha (McCoole) Weaver, natives of Pennsylvania and Virginia respectively, came to Greene County in 1823, settling six miles south of Xenia on a farm of one hundred and thirteen acres. There the father died in 1848, leaving a widow and nine children to mourn his loss. He was the oldest son of John Weaver, Sr., who married Mary Senseney, the other members of the family circle being Jacob, David, Christian, Isaac, George, and a son who died young. This family lived for a time in Pennsylvania, whence they moved to Virginia and afterward came to this State. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Felix Peterson comprised seven sons and daughters, the subject of this sketch being the youngest and the others bearing the names of Martha, Lewis, Catherine, James, John and Harper.