Peter Percival Elder (born New Portland, Maine, September 20, 1823; died Ottawa, Kansas, November 19, 1914) was an American politician, businessman, and newspaperman. Born to a farming family in northern Maine, Elder was educated at schools in Farmington and Readfield, Maine and then became a teacher. An abolitionist, Elder moved to Kansas in 1857 to aid the Free-State cause, settling in Franklin County, which he later helped organize, serving on the first county board of commissioners.In 1859 he was elected clerk of the territorial house of representatives. In 1860 he was elected to the state senate under the Wyandotte Constitution. In 1861 he was appointed agent for the Osage and Seneca Indian tribes at Fort Scott, and he helped keep those tribes friendly during the Civil War, even raisi