PETERSEN, ADOLPH
The simple narration of the incidents in the early life of Adolph Petersen and the struggles which disciplined him into usefulness in this community add to the weight of testimony that the stamp of leadership among men cannot be obscured by untoward circumstances nor obliterated by the marks of hardship. He is a native of Struxdorf-Anglen, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where he was born November 22, 1858. His father was principal teacher in the school of the village, and when he died circumstances caused the emigration to America of the widow and her five children in 1872. While in New York, on the very threshold of the new world of opportunity, the little family met with disaster, the loss of all their means by theft, and they reached Davenport with no resources whatever.
Upon Adoph, the eldest of the four brothers, then twelve years old, devolved the responsibility of contributing as liberally as possible to the support of his widowed mother and the younger children. His first work was in a sash and door factory and from there he went on a farm, doing plowman's work before he was fourteen. Back into town he came and worked as a painter and as handy boy in grocery stores. His education was forwarded as circumstances permitted. For one and a half terms he attended the public night school conducted by Principal Roderick Rose, afterward mayor of Davenport. The next chapter of his life has its setting in a printing office, where he engaged as inky devil and nimble footed carrier in 1876. Here he seemed to feel that he had discovered his calling and life work and learned the printer's trade in its various branches, taking up as a consequence newspaper work, particularly on the German press.
In July, 1884, he founded his own paper, the Iowa Reform. Soon after he was joined in partnership by his brother Gerhard and this business arrangement has continued to the present time. The Reform was at first a weekly paper but later was given semi-weekly publication, and as such has been published regularly with growing favor. In 1909 occurred the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first appearance of this sterling German paper, the Iowa Reform. A splendid silver jubilee illustrated edition was issued to mark the occasion and this edition, going into thousands of homes, was greatly complimented and appreciated.
From its beginning until the present time Adolph Petersen has been manager of the newspaper enterprise. In the editorial and technical departments he has enjoyed the expert assistance of his brother Gerhard and also John Jebens, who has been associated with him for more than twenty years, August Westphal, and others.
Adolph Petersen has borne an important part in planning new enterprises for the welfare of Davenport and in forwarding them to success. His activity for public measures has had a wider scope than that bounded by corporation lines. It has been natural that the German portion of the community should have the major portion of his labor and his solicitude, and for the German people, especially of this region of his adopted country, he has toiled indefatigably and intelligently.
These efforts have been recognized in good measure. He is at this time president-first speaker-of the great Davenport Turngemeinde, also president of the German-American Press Association of the West, an organization covering the states of Iowa, Illinois, south Dakota and Nebraska, and in 1910 holding its annual convention in Omaha.
Adolph Petersen, a loyal and patriotic American, has found nothing inconsistent in cherishing a deep love for the land of his birth and an abiding admiration for her spirit, her traditions and her language. In his editorial writings he has steadily advised parents of German birth or descent to teach the noble mother tongue to their children, that their heritage in all that is best in the land beyond the sea be not lost to them.
This bio was extracted from the History of Davenport and Scott County, Vol. I and II, by Harry E. Downer, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1910 Chicago. It was transcribed by Elaine Rathmann.