American Medical Biographies/Peterson, Robert Evans
Peterson, Robert Evans (1812–1894)
Robert Evans Peterson, publisher, was born in Philadelphia, November 12, 1812, son of George and Jane Evans Peterson. He received a commercial education and engaged in the hardware business until 1834, when he married Hannah Mary, only daughter of Judge John Bouvier. He then studied law with his father-in-law and assisted him in editing his law works. He was admitted to the bar in 1843, and in order to absolve the debt of his clients, Daniels and Smith, booksellers, purchased their business, conducting it as R. E. Peterson & Co. On the death of his father-in-law, in 1851, he established with George W. Childs the publishing house of Childs & Peterson, which became involved in 1857–8. Mr. Peterson then retired from the publishing and bookselling business and took up the study of medicine. He was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania M. D. in 1863, but did not practise, devoting his life to study. He presented Judge Bouvier's valuable law library to the University of Pennsylvania.
His wife died in 1870 at the home of her son-in-law, George W. Childs, Long Branch, New Jersey, and he was married a second time, in 1872, to Blanche, sister of Louis M. Gottschalk, the pianist; after her death in 1879 he was married to her sister Clara.
He published Bouvier's "Law Dictionary" and Bouvier's "Institutes of American Law edited "Familiar Science a Guide to Scientific Knowledge of Things Familiar," Dr. Kane's "Arctic Explorations" and numerous textbooks. He was the author of "The Roman Catholic Church not the Only True Religion; Not an Infallible Church," 1869.
He died in Asbury Park, N. J., October 30, 1894.