Peter Percival Elder (born New Portland,

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

, September 20, 1823; died

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

, November 19, 1914) was an American politician, businessman, and newspaperman. Born to a farming family in northern Maine, Elder was educated at schools in Farmington and Readfield, Maine and then became a teacher. An

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

, Elder moved to Kansas in 1857 to aid the Free-State cause, settling in Franklin County, which he later helped organize, serving on the first county board of commissioners. In 1859 he was elected clerk of the territorial house of representatives. In 1860 he was elected to the state senate under the

Wyandotte Constitution The Wyandotte Constitution is the constitution of the U.S. state of Kansas. Amended many times (including a universal suffrage amendment in 1912), the Wyandotte Constitution is still the constitution of Kansas. Background The Kansas Territory wa ...

. In 1861 he was appointed agent for the Osage and

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

Indian tribes at Fort Scott, and he helped keep those tribes friendly during the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, even raising Osage recruits for the Union army. Elder resigned his position in 1865 and took up residence in the new town of Ottawa, building the first large house there. In 1868 he was elected to the state senate to fill a vacancy. In 1870 he served as chairman of the Kansas Republican central committee, and was elected the sixth

Lieutenant Governor of Kansas The lieutenant governor of Kansas is the second-ranking member of the executive branch of Kansas state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket with the governor for a four-year term. The lieutenant governor succeeds to the o ...

serving under Governor James M. Harvey. From 1875 to 1877 and in 1883 he served in the

Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...

; 1877 he was elected Speaker. In 1890 he was again elected to the house of representatives, this time on the "

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

" ticket, and was again Speaker. Elder pursued a various of businesses in Ottawa. He was the president of a railroad which built tracks from Ottawa to

Olathe Olathe ( ) is the county seat of Johnson County, Kansas, United States. It is the fourth-most populous city in both the Kansas City metropolitan area and the state of Kansas, with a 2020 population of 141,290. History 19th century Olathe ...

. He operated a banking business and was later president of the First National Bank of Ottawa. He resigned from the bank in 1873 to devote more time to his large interests in farming and stock raising. In 1896 he founded the ''Ottawa Times'' newspaper and was its publisher and editor for some years. Elder married Catherine Felker (1824–1912) in 1845; they had two children, Aldamar (1854–1951) and Olena (1846–1910). Aldamar was a prominent local businessman and was himself elected to the Kansas House of Representatives, as a Democrat, in 1910.

Publications

''P. P. Elder's Financial History: Ups and Downs from 1862 to 1880'', Ottawa, Kansas (undated)listing for the ''Financial History'' in a populist pamphlets collection
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References

External links

* 1823 births 1914 deaths People from New Portland, Maine Politicians from Ottawa, Kansas Businesspeople from Kansas Lieutenant governors of Kansas American newspaper editors 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) United States Indian agents Republican Party members of the Kansas House of Representatives Writers from Maine Writers from Kansas Abolitionists from Kansas Abolitionists from Maine 19th-century members of the Kansas Legislature {{Kansas-politician-stub