Biography - Peter Peterson
PETER
PETERSON was born in Fryksande, Vermland, Sweden, Nov. 21, 1866. His parents
were Per Person and his wife, Marit Bengtson, who were tenants on an estate.
The family came to America in the summer of 1869 and located in Meeker co.,
Minn. Six weeks after reaching this place, the father was accidentally
drowned while fishing in Lake Collinwood, and the mother was left in
destitute circumstances, to raise a family of seven children.
The subject of this sketch attended the country school and parochial school at Moore's Prairie, and was confirmed in the Swedish Lutheran Church of this latter place in 1882. From high school, at the age of nineteen, he entered the academical department of Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minn., and graduated from the collegiate department of that institution in 1892 with the highest honors of the class, and from Augustana Theological Seminary in Rock Island in 1894. After his ordination on June 10, 1894, he served the Mission Board of the Augustana Synod as missionary in Ogden, Utah, for one year. He then accepted a call to the St. John's Swedish Luth. Church of Essex, Iowa, and remained there over three years. On Nov. i, 1898, he entered upon his duties as pastor of the First Swedish Lutheran Church of Galesburg.
Rev. Peterson was married Oct. 17, 1894, to Miss Mathilda Johnson of Vermillion, S. Dak. Three children have been born to them: Elmer Petri Theodor, Aug. 5, 1896; Mildred Mathilda Ingeborg, Dec. 8, 1897; Rutl1 Sigrid Marie, Aug. 26, 1902.
Dec. 1, 1905, Rev. Peterson removed to St. Paul to assume pastoral charge of the First Swedish Lutheran Church in that city.
Rev. Peterson is at present a member of the executive committee of the Minnesota Conference and serves on the board of directors of Minnesota College at Minneapolis, and on that of the Deaconess' Institute at Omaha.
Extracted 17 Sep 2016 by Norma Hass from the History of the Swedes of Illinois, published in 1908 by Engberg-Holmberg Publishing Company, Part 2, Knox County, pages 30-48.
