History Corner

John Olaf Peters was one of the earliest founders of the town of Council.

He was born the day after Christmas in 1839 in Germany. When he immigrated to the U.S. in 1859, he would have been about 20 years old. In 1865 he came to Idaho City and mined for gold. At Garden Valley in 1878 he met and married a school teacher named Anna Easly (1843–1934). Their daughter, Maude, was born about a year later (1879). They also had a son, George, who died in infancy.

The 1880 census of Boise County, Idaho Territory, shows them as farmers in Garden Valley. Next, they moved to Boise where John ran a general merchandise store for a year and a half. In 1881 they moved to Weiser and had a small store.

By late 1882 John was operating the Weiser City Brewery and Saloon, in partnership with the owner, Conrad Grab. They sold “fine cigars, liquors and beer.”

In the spring of 1883 the Weiser newspaper reported that John Peters was building an addition to the Weiser brewery and also adding to his house. That October, he opened a saloon at Huntington, Oregon, under the management of Adam Kirsch.

At some point, Peters established a store at Ruthberg, which was a booming mining town along Brownlee Creek about 18 miles west of present-day Cambridge. It was apparently short lived, and, as Ruthberg began to fade, Peters set his sights on Council Valley as a place with growing potential for a store.

He made trips to Council, carrying dry goods on his back and in suitcases. His packs held mainly small items such as needles, thread, scissors, shoelaces, and button hooks.

In July of 1888 the Weiser paper said he was in Weiser getting supplies for his new general store that he had just opened in Council Valley. This was the first store here. The store doubled as the family’s home, and they probably didn’t own the property. The exact timing of when the store was established is not clear; it may have been as early as 1887.

The exact location of this store has been lost, but it was almost certainly on what is now North Galena Street, about 3/4 mile north of the Moser cabin (the present town). At the time, Galena was just part of a crude wagon trail through the valley. A school was built near that location in 1887 on the east side of the trail, so the school was probably there when Peters established his store. Anna Peters was one of the first teachers at this school.

Beginning in January of 1887, the Council Valley post office was located on the Kesler place very close to this location, and Martha Kesler was postmaster. There was no town in the valley at that time, but it soon looked as if a town might develop around the store, school and post office.

I’m trying to find the exact location of that first Peters store. It was mentioned in 1935 as being on “what is known as the Bedwell place.” If anyone has information, please let me know.

In August 1888 the Weiser Leader said: “John O. Peters was here Thursday last from Council valley. He reports his business as gradually increasing, and says that he will, in the coming week, commence the erection of a new store building 18 X 28 feet in order to have room to carry a sufficient stock for the accommodation of his trade.”

This store was soon built about where the M&W Market parking lot is today. Again, the new building served as store and home for the Peters family, plus it became the Council Valley Post Office – the first one here that was not just a box in the postmaster’s home. Anna Peters became postmaster November 1891 for about a year and a half.

Weiser Signal, December 18, 1990: “Our old-time merchant Mr. W. W. Cowins has sold his entire stock of general merchandise to Mr. John O. Peters of Council Valley, who will soon remove it to that place.”

In August of 1891, Bear Creek miner Arthur “Frenchy” David’s wife, Martha, had become so mentally ill that she was taken to the State Hospital for the insane at Blackfoot, Idaho. Their infant daughter, Elizabeth, was taken in by John and Anna Peters, and they cared for her for an unknown period of time.

By 1891 the Mosers had started building a new, much larger, house to replace their cabin. It was soon known as the “Moser Hotel,” as they offered such accommodations.

In May of 1894 Peters’ store burned to the ground. The loss of the only store in the community was a hardship for residents. The Salubria newspaper said “The insurance agent and receiver have not been here to inspect J.O. Peter’s goods, consequently everyone here is going on short rations.”

Peters apparently bought some lots from Elizabeth Moser after his store burned. (George Moser died that year; Elizabeth was a widow and started selling parts of their homestead, which clinched the location of the town of Council instead of the site north of the present town.) These lots were directly south of the Moser Hotel and included a large barn and feed corral. Peters built a new store there in the summer of 1894.

Two months after Peters’ store burned , Isaac and Lucy McMahan’s Alpine store burned down (July 1894) while they were at Salubria celebrating Independence Day. The McMahans moved to Council in August and leased Peters’ store. The McMahans called their new business the “Cash Store.”

Continued next week.