Andrew James Peters

Andrew James Peters (April 3, 1872 – June 26, 1938) was an American politician who served as the Mayor of Boston and as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is today best remembered for being a suspect in the death of Starr Faithfull.

Andrew James Peters
Peters circa 1918[1]
Mayor of Boston
In office
February 4, 1918[2] – February 6, 1922[3]
Preceded byJames Michael Curley
Succeeded byJames Michael Curley
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Massachusetts's 11th district
In office
March 4, 1907 – August 15, 1914
Preceded byJohn A. Sullivan
Succeeded byGeorge H. Tinkham
Member of the Massachusetts State Senate
In office
1904–1905
Personal details
BornApril 3, 1872
West Roxbury, Massachusetts
DiedJune 26, 1938(1938-06-26) (aged 66)
Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseMartha Peters
Alma materHarvard Law School
OccupationLawyer
Signature

Early years

Peters was born on April 3, 1872, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.[4] His family had been in Massachusetts since the first Andrew Peters arrived there in 1657. He attended Harvard University earning an A.B. in 1895 and a LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1898.[5]

Political career

Peters served two terms in the Massachusetts State Senate (1904, 1905). In 1906, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1907 to 1914.[6]

In 1914, Peters was appointed to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under William Gibbs McAdoo in the first administration of President Woodrow Wilson. He served there until 1918, when he began his term as Mayor of Boston, having defeated incumbent James Michael Curley in the 1917 mayoral election. He handled the Boston police strike in 1919.

Peters was considered for Governor of Massachusetts later in the 1920s, but was not nominated. He served as treasurer of a Massachusetts state campaign against money-hoarding organized at the request of President Herbert Hoover in 1932,[7] and was named to the Massachusetts Advisory Committee of the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in 1933.[8]

Personal life

Peters married Martha Phillips in 1910 and they had six children.[4]

Peters' cousin-in-law, Helen Faithfull, had a young daughter named Starr Wyman, later Starr Faithfull, who attracted his attention in 1917. A student of the Rogers Hall School in Lowell, Massachusetts, she spent summers with the Peters. He began to sexually abuse her when she was age 11,[8] dosing her with ether, reading to her from Havelock Ellis's books about sex, and taking her to hotels.[9] She drowned under mysterious circumstances off Long Island in 1931. When her diaries were found, the story came out,[10] and her stepfather produced evidence that Peters paid him and Helen to keep quiet.[11][9] Through a family friend and attorney, Peters denied "improper relations" with her.[12] He is reported to have had a nervous breakdown as a result of the scandal.[11] This story became part of the material used by John O'Hara in his novel BUtterfield 8. Peters is a key character in Dennis Lehane's novel The Given Day.

Peters died of pneumonia in Boston on June 26, 1938.[13]

See also

References
  1. The Municipal Register for 1918, Boston, MA: The City of Boston, 1917, p. 2
  2. "PETERS WILL BE ON HAND AT INAUGURAL". The Boston Globe. February 4, 1918. p. 3. Retrieved March 16, 2018 – via pqarchiver.com.
  3. "CURLEY TAKES OFFICE TODAY". The Boston Globe. February 6, 1922. p. 1. Retrieved March 16, 2018 – via pqarchiver.com.
  4. "A. J. PETERS DEAD; BOSTON EX-MAYOR; Head of City's Administration at Time Strike of the Police Took Place A FORMER CONGRESSMAN Served at Assistant Secretary of Treasury Under WilsonA Lawyer and Banker Two Degrees From Harvard Elected Mayor His Other Activities". The New York Times. June 27, 1938. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  5. Harvard Law School (1900). Quinquennial Catalogue of the Law School of Harvard University, 1817-1899. Cambridge: The Law School. p. 192.
  6. "Massachusetts", Official Congressional Directory, 1907
  7. "Campaign Against Hoarding to Open". The Evening Transcript. North Adams, Massachusetts. March 2, 1932. Retrieved March 1, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Russell, Rosalind (May 15, 2005). A City in Terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0-8070-9666-6.
  9. Landrigan, Leslie (June 8, 2015). "The Mysterious Death of Starr Faithfull Reveals the Sordid Secret of a Boston Mayor". New England Historical Society. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  10. "Murder Theory Still Persists". The Advocate-Messenger. Danville, Kentucky. UP. June 17, 1931. Retrieved March 14, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
  11. "DANGEROUS GAME STARR FAITHFULL, 1931 - NY Daily News". June 9, 2016. Archived from the original on June 9, 2016. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  12. "Boston Lawyer Speaks For Peters: Former Mayor Not Called as Starr Faithfull Witness". The Nashua Telegraph. New Hampshire. June 16, 1931. pp. 1–2. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  13. "A. J. Peters, Mayor of Boston during '19 Police Strike, Dies". Chicago Tribune. AP. June 27, 1938. Retrieved March 14, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
  • Goodman, Jonathan.: The Passing of Starr Faithfull. (London: Piatkus, c. 1990) ISBN 0-86188-844-8
  • Russell, Francis.: A City in Terror, 1919: The Boston Police Strike (New York: Viking Press, c. 1975) ISBN 0-670-22449-9
  • Russell, Francis.: The Knave of Boston & Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters (Boston: Quinlan Press, c. 1988) (pp. 68–84: "The Mayor and the Nymphet") ISBN 0-933341-79-2
  • City of Boston Statistics Department The Municipal Register for 1918 (1918) p. 2.
  • United States Congress. "Andrew James Peters (id: P000251)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

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