Andrew James Peters (April 3, 1872 – June 26, 1938) was an American politician who served in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and was the 42nd

Mayor of Boston The mayor of Boston is the head of the municipal government in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston has a mayor–council government. Boston's mayoral elections are nonpartisan (as are all municipal elections in Boston), and elect a mayor to a four ...

Early years

Peters was born on April 3, 1872, in

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...

, a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. His family had been in Massachusetts since the first Andrew Peters arrived there in 1657. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

earning an A.B. in 1895 and a LL.B. from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

in 1898.

Political career

Peters served two terms in the

Massachusetts State Senate The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the st ...

(1904, 1905). In 1906, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he would serve from 1907 to 1914. In 1914, Peters was appointed to be

Assistant Secretary of the Treasury A United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury is one of several positions in the United States Department of the Treasury, serving under the United States Secretary of the Treasury. History According to U.S. statute, there are eight Assista ...

under

William Gibbs McAdoo William Gibbs McAdoo Jr.McAdoo is variously differentiated from family members of the same name: * Dr. William Gibbs McAdoo (1820–1894) – sometimes called "I" or "Senior" * William Gibbs McAdoo (1863–1941) – sometimes called "II" or "Ju ...

in the first administration of President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. Peters served there until 1918, when he began his term as Mayor of Boston, having defeated incumbent

James Michael Curley James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Boston. He also served a single term as governor of Massachusetts, characterize ...

in the 1917 mayoral election. Peters' term as mayor is remembered for his handling of the Boston Police Strike in 1919. Peters was considered for

Governor of Massachusetts The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the chief executive officer of the government of Massachusetts. The governor is the head of the state cabinet and the commander-in-chief of the commonwealth's military forces. Massachuset ...

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 Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...

in 1932, and was named to the Massachusetts Advisory Committee of the

Home Owners' Loan Corporation The Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) was a government-sponsored corporation created as part of the New Deal. The corporation was established in 1933 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act under the leadership of President Franklin D. Ro ...

in 1933.

Personal life

Peters' reputation suffered because of his relationship with a young relative of his wife. He had married Martha Phillips in 1910, and together they had six children. Mrs. Peters cousin, Mrs. Helen Faithfull, had a young daughter named Starr Wyman, later Starr Faithfull, who attracted Peters' attention in 1917. Starr, whose wealthy relatives paid for her to attend the

Rogers Hall School Rogers Hall School was a college preparatory finishing school for girls with day and boarding students in Lowell, Massachusetts. Founded by Emily and Elizabeth Rogers, who donated their family's property for the school, it was open for 80 years un ...

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as ...

, spent summers with Peters' family. He allegedly began to sexually abuse her when she was eleven, dosing her with

ether In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again ...

, reading to her from

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality i ...

's books about sex, and taking her to hotels. Starr died under mysterious circumstances on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18 ...

in 1931. When her diaries were found, the story came out, and her stepfather produced evidence that he claimed showed that Peters had paid him and Starr's mother to keep quiet. Through a family friend who was also an attorney, Peters said that he had never had "improper relations" with Starr. Peters was reported to have had at least one

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

as a result of the scandal. He was never prosecuted for any crime in connection with Faithfull's death. The circumstances of Peters' relationship with Starr Faithfull eventually became part of the material used by

John O'Hara John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was one of America's most prolific writers of short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'Hara: Stories, Charles McGrath, ed., The ...

in his novel ''

BUtterfield 8 ''BUtterfield 8'' is a 1960 American drama film directed by Daniel Mann, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. Taylor won her first Academy Award for her performance in a leading role. The film was based on a 1935 novel of the same na ...

''. Peters also plays a key role in

Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including ''A Drink Before the War''. Of these, four were adapted a ...

's novel ''

The Given Day ''The Given Day'' is a novel by American writer Dennis Lehane published in September 2008; it is about the early twentieth-century period and set in Boston, Massachusetts, where its actions include the 1919 police strike, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, w ...

''. Peters died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

on June 26, 1938.

References

*Goodman, Jonathan.: ''The Passing of Starr Faithfull''. (London: Piatkus, c. 1990) *Russell, Francis.: ''A City in Terror, 1919: The Boston Police Strike'' (New York: Viking Press, c. 1975) *Russell, Francis.: ''The Knave of Boston & Other Ambiguous Massachusetts Characters'' (Boston: Quinlan Press, c. 1988) (pp. 68–84: "The Mayor and the Nymphet") *City of Boston Statistics Department ''The Municipal Register for 1918'' (1918) p. 2.

External links

Peters election results
at ourcampaigns.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Andrew James Mayors of Boston Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Party Massachusetts state senators Harvard Law School alumni 1872 births 1938 deaths Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts People from Jamaica Plain

Early years

Political career

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading

External links