Ole Peterson
Trondhjem, Norway

Excerpted from the History of Dunn County (1925), p. 431-432

Ole Peterson, a resident of the village of Wheeler, of which he is the present clerk, and who has had an active career of many years as lumberjack, merchant and farmer, but is now retired, was born in Trondhjem, Norway, Dec. 23, 1855, son of Peter and Isabel Peterson.  The mother died in Norway in 1870, and in 1882 Peter Person came to American, two years after his son Ole, and located in Menomonie, where he worked for a short time for the Knapp, Stout & Co. Company.  He then went to Pierce County, an died at Brookville in 1886.

Ole Peterson as a boy attended school in his native land and there learned the harness maker's trade.  In 1880 he came to this country, locating in Menomonie and entering the employ of the Knapp, Stout & Co. Company and working for them subsequently in the woods and mills and also in their harness shop.  That service came to an end in 1889 when Mr. Peterson went to work in the general store of Erick Fonus at North Menomonie, where he was employed until 1894. In June of the latter year he gave up the mercantile avocation to engage in farming, buying a farm of 120 acres in the town of Sherman, the size of which he later increased by the purchase of 40 acres more, thus making a farm of 160 acres. He cleared and improved the land, put up a new set of buildings and followed general farming and dairying there until the fall of 1909, when he moved to Wheeler.  Here he bought a dwelling and four four years conducted a general store. He then trade the store for a farm of 160 acres in the town of Hay River, which four months later he exchanged for his present residence property in Wheeler, also getting 40 acres of land on the deal.  Later he acquired another tract, of 80 acres, which he trade for a fine brick residence on the Stout Road in the city of Menomonie, and which he still owns.  he has rendered good service on the school board and in 1915 became town clerk, in which position he served until 1922, when the village of Wheeler was incorporated.  He then became village clerk and has since continued to perform the duties of that office. Thus it is seen for for over 40 years Mr. Peterson has been an active factor in the development of Dunn County, either as an industrial worker, business man, farmer, or public official, and his reliability in every situation is well known to his fellow citizens.  He was married in Norway, Dec. 26, 1877, to Emma Josephine Groseth, who was born in Trondhjem that country, Jan. 15, 1857.  Mr.. and Mrs. Peterson have had ten children: Inga, deceased; Arnold, deceased; Carl, now in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Anton, of Poplar, Mont., where he is following the carpenter's trade; Inga (second), now Mrs. Edward Tischman of Eau Claire; Alice, wife of Harry Wilson of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Regna, who also lives ins Cedar Rapids and the wife of Hans Hanson; Rosa, deceased; Oscar, a farmer in the town of Sand Creek, Dunn Co., who married Borghild Downs, and Clarence of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who married Claudie Wilson. In addition to their own children, Mr. and Mrs.. Peterson have reared a grandson, Richard Sholden, who is the son of their deceased daughter Rosa. They are sincere and consistent members of the Lutheran Church.