San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN ALEXANDER PETERSON
A native Californian and an
enterprising and prosperous rancher is found in John
Alexander Peterson, who is the owner of a ten-acre vineyard about four and
one-half miles southeast of Lodi on Harney Lane. He was born near Oakdale, Stanislaus County,
on July 20, 1875, a son of Jacob and Anna Marie (Hanson) Peterson. The father, Jacob Peterson, was born in
Schleswig, then a part of Denmark, and was a farmer in his native country. While still a young man, he came to
California, leased land near Oakdale, and later farmed a half section of land
which he owned at Grayson. In 1885 he
removed to Calaveras County, where he died on February 15, 1900, from the
affects of an injury received when his horse ran away. Our subject is the eldest of a family of nine
children: John Alexander; Mamie, the
widow of Fred Schon of San Francisco; Christ of Taft;
Jacob resides at Taft; Christina, Mrs. Henry Clauson
of Wallace; Bessie, Mrs. Walter Reiger of Taft; Peter
of Clements; Henry resides at Mariposa; one child died in infancy.
John Alexander Peterson received his
education in the Grayson school in Stanislaus County
and when his parents removed to Calaveras County he attended school at
Wallace. When he was seventeen years old
he left home and worked on different ranches in the neighborhood of his home;
then for some eight seasons he worked in the Gwinn mines; then tried his luck
in the mines of Tonopah, Nevada, for two years.
Not contented with mining life he returned to Lodi, where he bought his
home place of ten acres paying $450 per acre (he could have bought the same
property earlier for $50 per acre), six acres of which is in vineyard and the
balance in alfalfa; he has installed an irrigation system and has built a
bungalow.
The marriage of Mr. Peterson
occurred at the Gwinn mine on April 14, 1904, and united him with Miss Carrie Ludwig,
a native of Sutter Creek, California, and a daughter of Albert and Hannah
Ludwig. Her father was killed in an
accident and her mother is living at the age of seventy-two years. She is one of six children and was educated
in the Paloma district at Sutter Creek.
Mr. and Mrs. Peterson are the parents of two children: Alice and Ruth. In politics Mr. Peterson is a Democrat; he
has made a success of his work here and his ranch is now an excellent property,
well improved and valuable.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
878. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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