John Andrew Peters (1822-1904), uncle of John Andrew Peters (1864-1953), a U.S. Representative, was born in Ellsworth on October 9, 1822. He attended Gorham Academy, and was graduated from Yale College in 1842.
He studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1844 and began his practice in Bangor in 1844. A member of the Maine State Senate in 1862 and 1863, he also served in the Maine House of Representatives in 1864.
After a terms as Attorney General of the State (1864-1866), he was elected as a Republican to the Fortieth, Forty-first, and Forty-second Congresses (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1873). He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1872.
A judge of the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (1873-1883), Peters served as Chief Justice from 1883 until January 1, 1900, when he resigned. He died in Bangor on April 2, 1904, with interment in Mount Hope Cemetery.
Additional resources
John Andrew Peters (1822-1904) Congressional Biography: https://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=P000252 (accessed January 6, 2021)
John Andrew Peters letters and portrait, 1861-1873. (Cataloger Note: Two handwritten letters and a portrait of a Maine lawyer and Supreme Judicial Court judge.) [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections]
The Peters Banquet: Tendered the Honorable John A. Peters, by the Penobscot Bar, on his retirement from the Chief Justiceship, February 1st., 1900, at the Bangor House. [compiled by Charles Hamlin] Bangor, Me. John H. Bacon. 1900.
Silsby, Herbert T. “Chief Justice John A. Peters.” Augusta, Me. Maine Bar Bulletin. [197-]
White, Peregrine. John A. Peters: A Memoir. Maine? c1906. [University of Maine, Raymond H. Fogler Library, Special Collections; Bangor Public Library]