Richard Peters

Richard Peters (November 10, 1810 – February 6, 1889) was an American railroad man and a founder of Atlanta, Georgia, in the 1840s. Early life Peters was born on November 10, 1810, near Philadelphia at Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Ralph Peters (1777–1842) and Catherine (Conyngham) Peters (1786–1839). His paternal grandfather was Judge Richard Peters Jr. (an associate of George Washington). Career The young Peters was educated in Philadelphia. He worked with the architect William Strickland and as a rodman (surveyor) with John Edgar Thomson for $1.50 a day. Thomson liked the 26-year-old's work and in late 1834 offered him a job as chief engineer for $1,000 a year to help with construction of the new Georgia Railroad. Peters paid $100 for a rough paddlewheeler trip into camp near Charleston, South Carolina, in the brutally cold February 1835. He worked on the state railroad for the eight years it took to complete it from Augusta, to the new town of Marthasville, Georgia. During this period, he developed what became a lifelong friendship with Lemuel Grant; they both bought land in the new town.