Nels Peterson

PETERSON, RASMUSSEN

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 3/10/2011 at 18:48:55

Nels Peterson, who is concentrating his energies upon the operation of an excellent farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Denmark township, is a Dane by birth. His natal day was May 7, 1877, and his parents, Jens and Karen Peterson, never became residents of the United States, although the mother visited her son here for a year. The father had charge of one section of a government road and was conscientious and efficient in the discharge of his duties.

Nels Peterson, the fourth in order of birth of a family of seven children, attended the public schools until confirmed and later was employed and later was employed at farm work until seventeen years old, when he came with his sister to Emmet county, Iowa. From 1894 until 1904 he worked as a hired hand in this county but at the end of that time purchased the south half of the southeast quarter of section 4, Denmark township, to which he subsequently added the northwest quarter of that quarter, his present holdings comprising one hundred and twenty acres. The land is in a high state of cultivation, the buildings are substantial and of practical design and the appearance of the place bespeaks an energetic owner.

On the 28th of December, 1903, Mr. Peterson was united in marriage to Miss Bertha Rasmussen, whose parents, Lars and Kate Rasmussen, were born in Denmark but emigrated to the United States. The mother died in New York when her daughter Bertha was very small and is interred there, but the father is still living and resides in Ringsted, Iowa. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Peterson, namely, Artina, Carl, Viola, Berthina and Christina.

Mr. Peterson is an advocate of republican principles and supports candidates of that party when national issues are at stake but otherwise votes independently. He held the office of school director for four and his support can be relied upon in the furtherance of any cause calculated to benefit the community: He belongs to St. Paul's Danish Lutheran church and his dominant qualities are such as invariably command respect and esteem.

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.