Preceded by John A. Sullivan Political party Democratic Succeeded by James M. Curley | Preceded by James M. Curley Succeeded by George H. Tinkham Name Andrew Peters | |
Died July 26, 1938(1938-07-26) (aged 66)
Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts | ||
Andrew James Peters (April 3, 1872 – July 26, 1938) was an American politician. He was born on April 3, 1872 in Jamaica Plain, a section of Boston. His family had been in Massachusetts since the first Andrew Peters arrived there in 1657. Peters attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School. He served two terms (1904, 1905) in the Massachusetts State Legislature. In 1906 he was elected to Congress where he would serve from 1907 to 1914. In 1914 he was appointed to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under William Gibbs McAdoo in the first administration of President Woodrow Wilson. He served there until 1918 when he began his term as Mayor of Boston.
Peters' term as Mayor is remembered for his handling of the Boston Police Strike in 1919.
Peters was considered for the governorship later in the 1920s but was not nominated.
Peters' reputation also suffered because of his relationship with a young relative of his wife. He had married Martha Phillips in 1910, and together they had six children. Mrs. Peters cousin, Mrs. Helen Faithfull, had a young daughter named Starr Wyman, later Starr Faithfull, who attracted Peters' attention in 1917. He began to sexually abuse the eleven year old Starr and paid money to her mother and stepfather to keep the story quiet. Starr died under mysterious circumstances on Long Island, New York in 1931. The story came out damaging Peters' reputation (despite his denials of it).
The circumstances of Peters' relationship with Starr Faithfull eventually became part of the material used by John O'Hara in his novel Butterfield 8. Peters also plays a key role in Dennis Lehane's novel The Given Day.
Peters died of pneumonia on July 26, 1938.