Side A: The Peters Cartridge Company was once a major employer in the region, providing munitions for Allied forces during World Wars I and II. Organized in 1887, it was the first ammunition company to produce machine-loaded shotgun shells. After an explosion in 1890 that killed 12, the factory was rebuilt at this site. By 1916, brick and reinforced concrete buildings had replaced wood structures and a taller shot tower had been erected. Sister company to the King Powder Company across the Little Miami River, 3,000 men and women at Peters produced 1,500,000 cartridges per day in 1917 to supply munitions during WWI. In 1934, Remington Arms bought the company, enlarged it, and then sold it in 1944. The shot tower and smoke stack stand as a reminder that Peters was once the leader in ammunition production.
Side B: Gershom Moore Peters was born in 1843 near Circleville, Ohio. At 18, he joined the Union Army, contracted tuberculosis, and was discharged. He graduated from Denison University in 1867 and the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1871. In 1873, he married Mary Elizabeth King of Xenia while serving as a Baptist minister in upstate New York, where their two daughters were born. In 1881, he joined the King Powder Company as vice president and in 1885 invented a cartridge-loading machine that made possible the sale of automatic machine-loaded shells. After establishing the Peters Cartridge Company in 1887, he worked to improve the company-owned town of Kings Mills. An author and inventor with nearly three dozen patents, Peters made a great impact in the world of firearms and ammunition. He died in 1919 and is buried in Xenia, Ohio.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.