Peter Lavies or Lavis, Sr. (''c.'' 1790 – ''c.'' 1876) was a German-American farmer, tavernkeeper and sometime moneylender from Root Creek,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. He was

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

there, and served three one-year terms as a Democratic member of the

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Assembly is controlled by the Republican ...

from

Milwaukee County Milwaukee County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At the 2020 census, the population was 939,489, down from 947,735 in 2010. It is both the most populous and most densely populated county in Wisconsin, containing about 1 ...

. His son Hubert Lavies succeeded him at different times as postmaster, and as Assemblyman. Lavies was born in Niederdrees (now a district of

Rheinbach Rheinbach () is a town in the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis district ( Landkreis), in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It belongs to the administrative district (Regierungsbezirk) of Cologne. Geography Situated south-west of Bonn and south of Cologne, Rhein ...

) in the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

, around 1790. In 1844 he, his wife Margaret, and their three sons and four daughters moved to the

Greenfield, Wisconsin Greenfield is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 37,803 as of the 2020 census. Greenfield is one of many bedroom communities in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. History On March 8, 1839, the Town of Kinnik ...

area from Prussia, buying eighty acres of land at the intersection of roads which are now Cold Spring Road, South 76th Street, and Forest Home Avenue. In addition to farming, he ran a tavern, was postmaster, and lent money since there were no banks nearby (he charged interest rates from seven to ten percent). By 1864, when his son Hubert Lavies became postmaster of Root Creek, Peter was a widower, and retired. He died at the age of 86 as the result of a fall from a wagon.Roesler, Robert. "Memories of Root Creek" ''Milwaukee History'' Vol 25, Nos. 3 & 4 (Fall-Winter 2002); pp. 58-60

References

1790s births 1870s deaths People from Rheinbach Prussian emigrants to the United States Wisconsin postmasters Farmers from Wisconsin People from Root Creek, Wisconsin Democratic Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly Tavernkeepers 19th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature {{Wisconsin-WIAssembly-Democratic-stub