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Co-founder of the Horton Manufacturing Company · Washing machines
On the record
John Claus Peters arrived in Fort Wayne shortly after the Civil War and, with another newcomer, Henry C. Paul, co-founded the Horton Manufacturing Company in 1871 — the "washing-machine people" of the city's industrial record. Horton's machines were the first contained washing machines produced at scale, and Fort Wayne Magazine's account credits the company with manufacturing, by 1924, half of the world's washing machines. Peters also owned and operated the Peters Box and Lumber Company and the Indiana Road Company, and in 1885 he built the Romanesque and Queen Anne style house at 832 West Wayne Street. His son Fred Peters became an executive of the Horton company — and the father of Jane Alice Peters, the Fort Wayne-born actress Carole Lombard, whose profile stands in this section. Peters's own birth and death dates were not verified and are not printed.
Find them on this page
- § 06 — people of the record
- § 05 — business
Sources: Fort Wayne Magazine, "Putting a spin on history" (May 2017), via fortwayne.com; University of Waterloo Archives, Electrohome fonds, Horton Manufacturing Company (Fort Wayne) files, 1945–49.