Peter J. Meloy was born in Benton, Wisconsin, on June 25, 1869. He moved to Townsend, Montana, in 1893, and bought A. E. Spriggs' interest in J. C. Stuart & Co., a retail lumber and coal business. Meloy and Spriggs became close friends and worked together to create Broadwater County from portions of the existing Meagher and Jefferson Counties in 1895. Meloy was active in local politics. He served as the Townsend postmaster in 1914, county treasurer in 1915, and was a member of the board of county commissioners from 1932 to 1938. He also served as agent for the Montana State Cooperative Extension Service and promoted the federal government's seed loan program.

Meloy became an influential Townsend businessman. In addition to the lumberyard, he was an investor in the Townsend Realty and Investment Company. He owned and operated Grayson Creek Ranch, a dryland farm, and raised China-Poland swine, which he marketed throughout the state. He was forced to sell the ranch during the drought of the 1920s, but later re-established it. Meloy was also associated with the Auditorium Co., the Townsend opera-vaudeville house.

In 1901 Meloy married Carrie Sherlock Season, a member of a Crow Creek Valley pioneer family. They raised three daughters and two sons. In 1949 Meloy retired and he and his wife moved to Helena. He died there on January 18, 1953.

The Grayson Creek Ranch Company was incorporated on May 4, 1910, by Peter J. Meloy, C. A. Whipple, John M. Kivlahan, and others to do a general livestock business, acquire water rights, construct ditches, and other purposes. The ranch was located about 5 miles up Grayson Creek, southeast of Townsend, Montana. By 1930, P. H. Murphy had become president of the company, with Carrie A. Meloy as vice president, and Peter J. Meloy as secretary-treasurer. The company's charter expired later that year.

In December 1930, Peter J. and Carrie Meloy, their two sons Henry J. and Peter G., and Christina Kivlahan, widow of founder John Kivlahan, formed a new Grayson Creek Ranch Company. For the next 18 years Carrie Meloy served as president, Peter G. Meloy as vice president, and Peter J. Meloy as secretary-treasurer. The company voluntarily dissolved on June 17, 1949.