Yolo County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



 
Peter PETERSON
 
That well known and highly esteemed citizen of Yolo county, Peter Peterson, was 
born in Skaane, Sweden, October 4, 1849, and was a student in the public schools 
in vogue there from the day he reached school age until he was seventeen years 
old, when he went to Denmark to become a student in the Gylland Agricultural 
College.  There he was duly graduated, and for a year thereafter he was foreman 
on a large farm.  That position he gave up to take up the study of civil 
engineering in the Scientific School at Lyngby.  When he had mastered a 
two-and-a-half years� course, in which he was given much field practice, he was 
graduated with the degree of C. E.  Then he entered definitely upon his 
professional career and practiced civil engineering in Denmark.  In the meantime 
he took a course in dairying at Aero, Denmark, where he graduated under 
Professor Pontopidan.  During his practice of civil engineering he made several 
trips to Sweden, professional duties calling him there.
 
It was in 1884 that Mr. Peterson located at Cedar Falls, Blackhawk county, Iowa, 
where he engaged in dairying and building creameries.  In the latter work he 
became well and favorably known throughout Blackhawk and Trinity counties.  In 
constructing a milk separator he invented a ball-bearing journal which he 
patented in 1887.  So far as is known that was the first ball-bearing ever 
invented and was the beginning of a revolution in machinery construction which 
has spread to machinery in nearly every department of manufacture.  That was in 
March.  In the fall of the same year he went to Brookings, S. Dak., where he 
bought a three hundred acre property and engaged quite extensively in farming 
and stock raising.  There he remained until 1908, gaining a reputation as a 
successful business man and achieving popularity as a citizen.  For some years 
he was supervisor of Elkton township, Brookings county, and he also filled the 
offices of school trustee and clerk of his township school board.  It was in 
1908 that he located at Woodland, Yolo county, and bought a small farm east of 
that city.  He sold the place in 1911, however, to the New Northern Electric 
Company, and purchased a residence on Elliott street, Woodland, with two acres 
of land.  He also owns a farm of eighty-seven acres at Moore�s Dam, eight miles 
west of Woodland, which he is improving.  Besides his pleasant home at No. 101 
Elliott street he owns three other houses in Woodland.  
 
Mr. Peterson�s marriage at Cedar Falls, Iowa, united him with Miss Anna Olsen, a 
native of Sweden, who has borne him two children:  Otto M. has charge of his 
father�s home farm; Clara Olivia is Mrs. Raffaeta of Woodland.  In his political 
affiliations Mr. Peterson is an independent Republican, and fraternally he is a 
devoted and helpful member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  In his 
dealings with his fellow men he is not only honest, but liberal, always giving 
the other party to a transaction as good a show as his own, even preferring to 
yield a point when there is a chance that the other man needs the benefit of it 
more than he does himself.  Charitable in his aspirations, he is liberal in his 
views on all questions vital to men and their fortunes.
 
Transcribed by Bea Barton
Source:  �History of Yolo County, California� by Tom Gregory.  Published by the 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913, pages 636 � 637.