PEHRSON, JOHN E.

PEHRSON, JACOBSON, JOHNSON, SWANSON, MAGNUSON, HOVEY

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 10/20/2003 at 12:57:37

Biography reproduced from page 446 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Diligence and capable management have enabled John E. Pehrson to acquire three hundred and twenty acres of Kossuth county’s fertile land, which he is successfully cultivating. His birth occurred in Sweden, on the 17th of June, 1862, his parents being Per and Regina (Jacobson) Johnson. The parents remained in the old country, where the father devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. Their family numbered five, and our subject, who is the youngest, is the only one to have become a citizen of the United States. In order of birth the others are as follows: Johanna, Charlotte Christine, Mary Beatrice and Tilda. The parents are deceased, the father having passed away in 1884, and the mother in 1894.

John E. Pehrson was given the advantages of a common-school education in his native land, where he also acquired his agricultural training, assisting his father with the operation of the home farm until he was eighteen years of age. He then left the parental roof and the succeeding year was spent in Sweden at carpenter work. At the expiration of that time, he decided to put to test the wonderful stories he had heard regarding America, and took passage for the United States. The first four months of his residence in this country were spent in Minnesota, where he worked as a farm hand, subsequent to which he came to Swea township, Kossuth county, obtaining employment with a construction crew of the Northwestern Railroad, and made his home in Greenwood, now Harrison township. He was ambitious and enterprising and in his effort to acquire a better knowledge of the language of the country, he attended the district school located two miles north of Swea City, during the winter months, when his time permitted. From here he went to Wisconsin, and worked in the pine woods and sawmills for two and a half years, following which he once more located in East Chain, Minnesota, where he was employed by George Nutt for seven months. He subsequently returned to Kossuth county and took up his residence on a farm in Swea township owned by his father-in-law, John Swanson, which he cultivated with such excellent success that in 1885 he was able to buy eighty acres of his present homestead. He later increased his holdings by the purchase of another eighty acres adjoining, and on another occasion he acquired a quarter of section 16, this township. The latter he rents to his son, Robert E. Pehrson, but his original hundred and sixty acres he cultivates himself. His fields are devoted to diversified farming in connection with which he raises high-grade shorthorn cattle, four of his herd being registered, and Poland China hogs. He has been very successful, as he applies himself with unremitting diligence to whatever he undertakes, and his efforts are correspondingly rewarded. His farm is well improved and fully equipped with everything essential to modern agriculture.

On the 28th of December, 1884, Mr. Pehrson was married to Miss Augusta B. Swanson, a daughter of John and Anna (Magnuson) Swanson, natives of Sweden, where the father worked as a farm hand. He emigrated to the United States in 1872 and located in Pennsylvania, remaining there for three years. At the expiration of that time he returned to Swea township, Kossuth county. Here Mr. Swanson bought a farm which he cultivated with increasing success until 1900, when he withdrew from the work of the fields and removed to St. Peter, Minnesota, where he is living retired. The mother is deceased, having passed away on the farm on December 31, 1892. Mrs. Pehrson is the eldest of four children, the others being Axel Emil, a barber in Minneapolis; Mabel, who resides with her father in St. Peter; and a son, who died in infancy. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Pehrson numbers twelve: Robert Edof, who is farming in Eagle township; Esther Lorentia, the wife of Edwin C. Hovey, a farmer of Eagle township by whom she has two children, Theodora Blanche and Arden Julius; Peter Arthur, who is home; Oscar Siegfried, who is assisting his father with the cultivation of the farm; Anna Christine, who is a member of the Swea City high-school class of 1912; Edna Judina; Roy Milton, Judith Alvida, John Bernhard Alvin and Emily Alvina, who are attending school No. 5 of Eagle township; and Florence Evelyn and Edith Bernice.

The family are all members of the Swedish Lutheran church of Swea township, and Mrs. Pehrson belongs to the Ladies Aid Society. The political support of Mr. Pehrson is given to the republican party, and although he takes an active interest in all township affairs he has never held an official position. He is one of the substantial and enterprising agriculturists of his community, and is a stockholder in the Cooperative Creamery Company and Farmers Elevator Company of Swea City, and he also owns stock in the Swea City Telephone Company. He well merits such success as has crowned his efforts as it has been won by earnest and persistent endeavor and unceasing diligence, his career in America having been begun without any capital save an inexhaustible supply of determination and energy.