Peter Lavies

Peter Lavies or Lavis, Sr. (ca. 1790 - ca. 1876) was an American farmer, tavernkeeper and sometime moneylender from Root Creek, Wisconsin, who was postmaster there, and served three one-year terms as a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Milwaukee County. His son Hubert Lavies succeeded him at different times as postmaster, and as Assemblyman.

Lavies was born in Niederdrees (now part of Rheinbach) in the Kingdom of Prussia, approximately 1790. In 1844 he, his wife Margaret, and their three sons and four daughters came to the Greenfield, Wisconsin area from Prussia, buying eighty acres of land at the interception of what are now Cold Spring Road, South 76th Street, and Forest Home Avenue. In addition to farming, he ran a tavern, was postmaster, and even lent money since there were no banks nearby (he charged interest rates from seven to ten percent).

By 1864, when his son Hubert Lavies became postmaster of Root Creek, Peter was a widower, and retired. He would die at the age of 86 as the result of a fall from a wagon.