Necrology of Toledo's Woodlawn Cemetery

Earle L. Peters

Earle L. Peters was a prominent Toledo lawyer and former city finance director under Mayors Wiiliam T. Jackson and Solon T. Klotz. Born in Toledo in 1881, Peters was a life long resident of the city and played a major role in boosting Toledos economy after the Great Depression.

Peters received his education through the Sylvania school system and went on to study law at the University of Michigan. After receiving his law degree in 1905, Mr.Peters entered the law firm of Kohn, Northup, McMahon and Ritter. He stayed with them for several years before he began to practice with Clifford Whitmore. During the last few years of his life, he moved his office into the National Bank Building, where he practiced with his son Richard and Harley Watkins.

Peters entered the Klotz cabinet on January 1,1933. As a result of the depression the city of Toledo was paying in script and had only $35,000 left in the treasury. Together with Klotz, Peters formulated an austerity program that resulted in $1,500,000 available in the treasury by the time he resigned on August 1,1934. Prior to his resignation, Peters was named to a special national committee to draft a program that would provide federal aid to cities facing financial difficulties.

Furthermore, for forty-five years, Peters was also the director of the Peninsula Telephone Company of Florida, which later became part of the General Telephone System. For thirty years, he was the secretary for the Toledo Stove and Range Company, which went out of business in 1959.

Peters had a wife, Mary, and two children, Richard and Mary. Peters was a member of various institutions including the Toledo Club, Toledo Bar Association, Collingwood Presbyterian Church, and Rubicon Lodge, F&AM. Peters died on the 10 January 1961, at the age of eighty.Toledo Biographical Scrapbook, Local History Room, Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

Earle L. Peters's grave

(Photography of Woodlawn Cemetery by Josef Schneider.)