They had one daughter, Susan, (Mrs. Thomas B. Douglas), who lives in Washington, D.C. On July 16, 1949, he married Helen M. Charles, of New York City.

During his time in Congress he served on committees on military affairs, interstate and foreign commerce and helped formulate much influential legislation.

His first book, Hot Oil, published in 1936, summarized the arguments pro and con in reference to the question of federal control or nationalization of the petroleum industry.

Pettengill favored state rather than federal regulation and the highest degree of industrial freedom consistent with the conservation of national petroleum resources.

A strong critic of numerous New Deal policies, he was Chairman of the "No Third Term" campaign meeting at Carnegie Hall in 1940.

In 1940 he wrote, Smoke Screen to show that the increasing federal controls over every facet of American business had its counterpart in developments in Germany and Italy.

He retired from public life on July 1, 1956, and moved back to Vermont, where he continued to engage in writing and speaking in defense of constitutional government and the competitive free enterprise system.

His intense interest in the early history of Vermont and its settlers led him to write his fifth book, The Yankee Pioneers--A Saga of Courage, published in 1971.