Peter Vertrees

Peter Vertrees was a prominent African-American soldier, minister, and educator, born as Peter Skaggs on December 16, 1840, in Edmondson County, Kentucky. Apprenticed at age five to Jacob Vertrees, he took the Vertrees name. From 1861 to 1865, he served as a cook and bodyguard under Dr. John L. Vertrees in the Orphan Brigade, the Sixth Kentucky Infantry C.S.A., and later received a pension from the State of Tennessee for that service. After the war, he came to Gallatin and began a sixty-one year Baptist ministry, establishing churches throughout the area. In each church he founded a chapter of the Sons and Daughters of Charity to help cover members' medical and burial expenses. In 1875 he organized the East Fork Missionary Baptist Association. Educated at Roger Williams University in Nashville, he opened a subscription school in the 1880s and, with funding from the Rosenwald Foundation, established several public schools. In 1888 he built a Victorian Cottage one block east of here. The Reverend Peter Vertrees died on January 18, 1926, and was buried in the Gallatin Cemetery.

Gallatin, Tennessee · United States