Growing up, Peter Dwight (1892-1970) was raised Baptist by his parents, John Scott Dwight (1855-1927) and Louise Mellett Dwight (1856-1919), in Wedgefield, South Carolina. As a young man, Peter attended Clemson Agricultural College. After graduation, he took a “lucrative position” with the Bethlehem Steel Company in New Castle, Delaware.1 Following service in World War I, Peter returned to Sumter County, where he worked as a fish salesman through 1930. In 1945, he married Helena Weinberg (1894-1973), daughter of Sumter merchants Samuel “Sam” Weinberg (1861-1955) and Kate Hirschman Weinberg (1871-1951) and converted to Judaism. By 1950, Peter was working as a salesclerk in a Sumter general store.
1 “News from Wedgefield,” The Watchman and Southron, February 24, 1917.