#52 Ancestors 2024 Week 30 Boats: Captain John Peterson

 Maryland, with its vast network of navigable water, and ports at Baltimore and Annapolis, has long been home to shipbuilding and sailing traditions. My 4X-great grandfather, Captain John Peterson, born in Denmark about 1776, was among the many who followed those trades.  

By 1802, John Peterson was living in Maryland, where he became a naturalized citizen in December of that year. The City Directory shows him as a mariner living at 39 Ann Street in a boarding house along with a shipwright and a rigger. In December of the following year, he married Elizabeth German (Jerman) at the Basilica in Baltimore.  Captain Peterson and Elizabeth had five children: Elizabeth (1808), Barbara (1809), Margaret (1810) my 3x-great grandmother, John (1813) and George (1815). 

Captain Peterson was the owner of at least three ships: the Republican, the Marriott, and the Friendship, built in Dorchester County. I don't have images of any of his ships, but they probably resembled the Pride of Baltimore, shown at the left, a reproduction of an early 19th-century Baltimore clipper. This kind of topsail schooner was made famous by its success as a privateer and small warship during the War of 1812. It is possible that Captain Peterson's ships played these roles during that war. 

In 1820, John Peterson is found on the census of Baltimore, age 26 to 44, with a woman the same age.  Also in the household are two males under 10 (sons John and George) and two females, one under 10 and one age 10 to 15. 

By 1830, Elizabeth German Peterson had died, and the family had moved to Calvert County, where Captain Peterson purchased Long Point Farm and Spout Farm in the area now known as Peterson's Point, where St. Leonard's Creek meets the Patuxent River. The property is part of the present-day Jefferson-Patterson Park. 

Captain Peterson is supposed to have purchased Spout Farm in 1828 as a wedding gift for his daughter Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel Sollers in 1826.  Captain Peterson lived at Long Point Farm. 

The 1840 Census shows Captain Peterson, aged 60 to 69, living in Calvert County with a young man, aged 20 to 29 and a young woman of the same age. The young people were probably Captain Peterson's son George and his first wife, Susan Ireland Dorsey. The census also shows ten male slaves and three female slaves. 

Captain John Peterson died 23 February 1849 at Long Point Farm. He was buried at his daughter's home at Spout Farm and later removed to Middleham Chapel. His estate was administered by his son George and son-in-law, John Turner. 

Barbara Agnes Peterson married William Hammond Iglehart in 1825.  She married secondly George Ellicott in 1841.  She died in January 1866 in Ellicott City MD.

Elizabeth Peterson married Nathaniel Dare Sollers in 1826. She died in Calvert County MD 1 March 1873.

Margaret Peterson (my 3X-great grandmother) married Dr. John Turner in 1835. They had five daughters and three sons, including my 2X-great grandfather, John T. Turner (1850-1917.  The Peterson name continued in the family with my great-grandmother, Mary Peterson Turner (Dent). Margaret Peterson Turner died in Calvert County MD in 1872.  Dr. Turner died in Calvert County MD in 1896.

John Peterson died in Calvert County MD sometime before 1830.

George Peterson married first Susan Ireland Dorsey about 1840.  He married secondly Elizabeth Caroline Mills Ireland in 1863. He died in April 1870 in Calvert County MD.