IN THE KNOW
DID YOU KNOW?
Peters Township
was named after
“Indian Peter.”
Did You Know? We are looking for little-known facts,
history or other interesting stories about your community.
Please send your ideas to editors@icmags.com.
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H
istory can be full of convoluted stories and
whimsical fancy. And the history of Peters Township
is no different. Known today for its booming
housing and commercial markets there are more people
around who “came to Peters,” than “came from Peters.” In
fact, ask anyone what was here before all this, and you’ll
most likely get a quizzical look and the questioning answer
of, “Farms?” And they’d be partially right.
Peters Township did have an agricultural past, but even
before that, this community, which is just a 20 minute drive
away from Pittsburgh today, may well have been worlds
away from any civilization. It was mainly Native American
territory, yet claimed by Virginia. Delaware, Iroquois,
Mingo and Shawnee tribes called the region home. And
then, the familiar theme of colonists wandering in to claim
the land repeated itself, and the tribes were paid a sum
of $5,000 for everything we now consider southwestern
Pennsylvania.
Wandering around the wilderness was “Indian” William
Peters, who, aside from his name, little is known about.
Some speculate that Indian Peter was a true Native
American, who fished and lived in the woods. Another
school of thought posits that Peters was a white captive of
Native Americans who adopted their ways and gave himself
the “Indian Peter” moniker.
Still others believe that Indian Peter had nothing to do
with it – that the township’s name arose from a treaty of
the Mohawk brothers Abraham and Henry Peters. One last
theory records the name Richard Peters as the namesake,
since he was an official whose job involved mediating land
disputes with Native Americans. ■