California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ALFRED PETERSON. The success which has been achieved- by Mr. Peterson since identi- 
fying himself with the agricultural interests of Tulare county furnishes another proof of the 
opportunities offered by this section of California to men of resolute spirit and persevering in- 
dustry. It was during 1896 that he purchased his present property three miles east of Tulare. 
The original purchase consisted of only twenty acres, but at three different times he has added 
to the acreage until his landed possessions now aggregate three hundred and forty-five acres in 
one body, improved with the necessary buildings and fences, and planted to different crops for 
which the soil is adapted. One hundred and fifteen acres are under alfalfa. A special feat- 
ure of the place is the raising of stock, and fine grades of horses, cattle and hogs may be seen 
here, the sale of which adds not a little each season to the income of the owner. 

A native of Sweden, Mr. Peterson was born near Oskarshamn, Smoland. August 23, 1869, 
and is a son of Peter and Christine (Johnson) Carlson, natives of the same locality, where they 
still reside, the father being sexton in his home church and its cemetery. The grandfather was 
a soldier in the Swedish cavalry and served in the Napoleonic wars from 1812 to 1815. Since 
the establishment of the reformation by Martin Luther the various generations of the family 
have adhered to that faith, and Alfred Peterson was reared in its doctrines, but since coming to 
America he has been associated with the Methodist Episcopal denomination. He and his sister, 
Mrs. Selma Pospeshek, of Tulare county, are the only living children in his father's family, the 
other having died some years since. 

At the age of fourteen years, in 1884, Alfred Peterson came to America with his brother, Os- 
kar, and secured work on a farm near Long Point, Livingston county, Ill. After five years 
in the same part of the country, in 1889 he came to California and began to work as a farm hand. 
Four years later he entered into the threshing business and with a partner purchased and oper- 
ated an engine of twenty-four horse-power, continuing with his partner for the first two years, 
but afterward working alone until 1901, when he retired from the business in order to devote 
his entire attention to stock-raising. 

The marriage of Mr. Peterson, in Chicago, united him with Miss Hilda Anderson, who 
was born near Westervik, Smoland, Sweden, and like himself, affiliates with the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church. In politics he votes the Republican ticket. Since coming to Tulare county he has 
been identified with the Lodge, Encampment and Rebekahs of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
lows. Of recent years he has devoted much of his time to travel and in 1903 covered thirty 
thousand miles by steamer and railroad. Seven times he has crossed our own continent, and 
twice has returned to the old home to renew the associations of youth, the first of these trips 
occurring in 1901, when he enjoyed a pleasant visit with his father in Oskarshamn and with 
other relatives and friends from whom he long had been separated. While maintaining a deep 
affection for the land of his birth, he is nevertheless loyal to his adopted country and especial- 
ly to his chosen home in California, where he believes may be found the most fertile soil in 
the west. From an early period of his residence here he has been an advocate of irrigation, real- 
izing that the lack of water is the only drawback to the achievement of the most satisfactory re- 
sults in agriculture. At one time he served as a director in the Farmers' Ditch Company, from 
which his own land was irrigated, and in other ways he has endeavored to promote the irriga- 
tion facilities of his home neighborhood, nor has he been less responsive to other movements for 
the benefit of the people among whom he has cast his lot.