Peterson, James

PETERSON, SMITH

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 2/14/2003 at 15:31:18

JAMES PETERSON

Among the wide-awake and energetic business men of Clinton is numbered James Peterson, of the firm of Peterson, Bell & Company. He has made for himself an enviable reputation in business circles, and occupies a position of no little prominence in connection with the political affairs of the city. His early home was on the other side of the Atlantic, for he was born in North Schleswig, then a part of Denmark, but now a province of Germany, October 20, 1853, a son of H. G. and M. N. Peterson, and was reared and educated in his native land.

With the hope of bettering his financial condition, Mr. Peterson came to America at the age of seventeen years, and first located in Columbus, Ohio, where he remained only a short time, however. He then removed to Sabula, Iowa, where he was first employed as a laborer on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, and then engaged in farming for a time. In 1873 he came to Clinton and entered the employ of C. Lamb & Sons, with whom he remained nineteen years, being yard superintendent for that firm for fifteen or sixteen years.

In 1892 Mr. Peterson formed a partnership with Charles F. Bell, under the firm name of Peterson, Bell & Company, and embarked in the manufacture of packing boxes and crates at their present location on Franklin avenue and the tracks of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad, which property they purchased from market gardeners. Their first building was only sixty by ninety feet, but they now have a floor space of over fifteen thousand feet, and the number of men employed by them has been increased from fifteen to eighty-five, so rapidly has their business grown. It amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars during the year 1900, when they shipped six hundred carloads of boxes and crates. Their goods are all sold by the carload and their patronage comes from a wide extent of territory. They sell principally to packing houses and manufacture soap boxes, crates for sewing machines, melons, etc. Their factory is equipped with all the latest improved machinery needed in their line, and they carry from one to four million feet of lumber in stock. The company was incorporated in 1896, with Mr. Peterson as president, and they have their office adjoining the factory on Franklin avenue.

Mr. Peterson was married in 1873 to Miss Catherine M. Smith, of Clinton, and to them have been born four children, namely: John C., now foreman in the box factory; Albert F., an employe (sic) of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company; Minnie B; and James G.

As a Republican, Mr. Peterson takes quite an active and influential part in national, state and local politics, and always attends the county and state conventions of this party. He has always taken great interest in what is now known as the fifth ward of Clinton. When years ago that part of the city was a corporation by itself and called Riverside, he served a number of terms as alderman and also as mayor one term, and for a number of years filled the office of school director, in which capacity he was instrumental in building what is know as the Lonfgellow school that was errected in 1883 and is to-day one of the finest common school buildings in Clinton. It is surrounded by a beautiful lawn and shade trees, which were planted by Chancy Lamb and today stand as a monument to his memory. Mr. Peterson is at present efficiently serving as alderman of the fifth ward and as a member of the school board. Socially he is a member of the Clinton Commercial Club and a director of the same, and is also a member of the Wapsipinicon Club, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and the Modern Woodmen of America. He eminently deserves classification among the purely self-made men of Clinton who have distinguished themselves for the ability to master the opposing forces of life and to wrest from fate a large measure of success and an honorable name.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.