Richard Peters (Atlanta) - Early Career

Early Career

Richard Peters was the son of Richard (1780–1848) and his wife, and the grandson of Judge Richard Peters, Jr. (an associate of George Washington). He was born near Philadelphia at Germantown, Pennsylvania. His father was appointed as the fourth Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court.

The young Peters was educated in Philadelphia. He worked with the architect William Strickland and as a rodman 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 $1000 a year to help with construction of the new Georgia Railroad.

Peters paid one hundred dollars for a rough paddlewheeler trip into camp near Charleston, South Carolina in the brutally cold February 1835. He worked the state railroad 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 P. Grant; they both bought land in the new town.

When the railroad was completed, Peters was hired as superintendent. In that position he heard many complaints about the name Marthasville, which people thought took too long to write in log books, freight records, etc. He traded letters with Thomson on the subject and, when the latter suggested Atlanta, Peters began printing up thousands of circulars to distribute from Augusta to Tennessee advertising the new name. It was officially changed in December 1845.