Peter Cameron (1809 - 1857)

Born 2 Jun 1809 in Deerfield, Oneida, New York

Ancestors

Husband of Emma C (Eastman) Wilson — married Mar 1846 in La Crosse, Wisconsin

Died 30 Jul 1857 at age 48 in La Crosse, Wisconsin

Biography

Peter's marriage to Emma Eastman was the first in La Crosse. Peter was a fur trader, having traded with the Indians throughout the East, and entrepreneur. He grew up in New York. He set up a trading post in La Crosse, built a saw mill, a shingle factory, and was working on building a steamboat and a canal that would connect La Crescent, Minnesota to the main channel of the Mississippi when he died in 1855.

Peter entered into a dispute over logs with another man, and killed him, in 1849. He was charged with murder, and placed in the Territorial Prison in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Some of Peter's employees kept the business going while he was gone. The jailer eventually got offered a better job, and in an interesting twist hired Peter to watch another inmate, a lunatic, for fifty cents a day. Peter was able to leave on bail, and later a verdict came in 1853 came of manslaughter, with a $2500 fine.

Emma and Peter had one child, a son, who died in infancy. His name was Peter Daniel Cameron. Emma most likely took her son's body and buried him in the Eastman family cemetery, near the homestead in McGregor, Iowa.

Sources

• "Emma Eastman" by Ron Harris