Pehr August Peterson
Encyclopedia
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
. Peterson was founder and president of numerous furniture and machine tool manufacturing companies and one of the founders of Swedish American Hospital
Swedish American Hospital
Swedish American Hospital is a 357 bed non profit, teaching hospital located in Rockford, Illinois. The hospital is owned and operated by Swedish American Health System. The hospital was founded in 1911, opening its doors in 1918 following a period of fund raising...
.
Background
Peterson came from Ving, in the historical province of VästergötlandVästergötland
', English exonym: West Gothland, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden , situated in the southwest of Sweden. In older English literature one may also encounter the Latinized version Westrogothia....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. His father was a tailor. In 1852, when Pehr was six, the Peterson family immigrated to America and Rockford, Illinois. After four years the family settled on a farm in nearby Cherry Valley, Illinois
Cherry Valley, Illinois
The village of Cherry Valley, Illinois is a community of located in the Kishwaukee River valley, which lies primarily in Winnebago County, but approximately ten percent of the Village is located in Boone County. The village is within the Rockford, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area, and...
. Young Peterson worked on farms for years.
Career
Peterson set off on his own to work in WisconsinWisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
in lumber camps and sawmills, as well as in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
as a bookkeeper. He later put himself through business college. In 1875 he moved back to Rockford and began his career in the city's growing furniture industry. By the early 1890s Rockford was the second-greatest furniture-manufacturing city in the United States (Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city is located on the Grand River about 40 miles east of Lake Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 188,040. In 2010, the Grand Rapids metropolitan area had a population of 774,160 and a combined statistical area, Grand...
, was number one), with over two dozen companies, and P.A. directed over a quarter of them. He branched into leadership of several machine tool and other manufacturers, into banking, and in his later years even founded a department store.
Rockford Union Furniture Company was organized in 1876. Pehr August Peterson was elected company secretary because he could keep books. John Erlander
John Erlander
John Erlander was a Swedish born, American businessman and founder of Rockford Union Furniture Company.-Background:...
served as president, and his brother-in-law Jonas Peters served as treasurer-manager. Rockford Union Furniture Company was a cooperative association, with members helping to raise the initial capital for the business. It was the first of twenty-five area furniture factories that were formed as cooperatives.
When the Union Furniture plant burned down in August 1889, Peterson built another factory a mile away. By 1892 seven of twenty-five Rockford furniture companies were directed by Peterson. The Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
hit Rockford hard, resulting in the closure of twenty-seven factories in one day alone, including many Swedish-American furniture factories. P.A. himself went broke trying to keep his many interests afloat but turned down advice to declare bankruptcy. Instead, the former multicompany president worked at sales for a furniture firm just to keep steady income rolling in. By 1896 P.A. had repaid so much of his debt that the old creditors started to return businesses to his leadership and ownership.
From this point P.A.'s trajectory upward was virtually uninterrupted, and he became the most important figure in Rockford's industrial, commercial, and civic development for the next 31 years. Altogether, P.A. would come to own stock in fifty Rockford-based companies. He was one of the founders of the Swedish Building and Loan Association. Peterson served as president of Sundstrand Corporation
Sundstrand Corporation
Sundstrand Corporation was founded in 1926 as a merger of the Rockford Tool Company and Rockford Milling Machine Company in Rockford, Illinois. It was known as Sundstrand Machine Tool Company until 1959 when shareholders voted to change the name to Sundstrand Corporation.Sundstrand is known for...
. His diverse interests included Rockford Drop Forge, Rockford Class Bending Works, Rockford Life Insurance, Rockford Mitre Box, Mechanics' Machine, Haddorff Piano, Mechanics Tool, National Lock and Free Sewing Machine.
In 1911, in response to a great need for more healthcare services, Rockford's Swedish-American community, under the leadership of P.A. Peterson, decided to build a new hospital on the East Side. (Most of Rockford's Swedes, including Peterson, were Lutherans who lived on the East Side, which had only the Roman Catholic St. Anthony's Hospital.) Peterson was the chairman of the board of trustees of Swedish American Hospital
Swedish American Hospital
Swedish American Hospital is a 357 bed non profit, teaching hospital located in Rockford, Illinois. The hospital is owned and operated by Swedish American Health System. The hospital was founded in 1911, opening its doors in 1918 following a period of fund raising...
when it finally opened its doors on July 17, 1918 (construction had been slowed by the Great War), and served in this capacity until June 23, 1919.
Personal life
P.A. and his wife, Ida, had no children of their own, but they adopted two girls. For years they lived at 1219 Seventh Street. P.A. never drove a car, so this location was ideal for walking: halfway between the heart of Rockford's Swedish-American commercial center, farther north up Seventh Street, and the east-west line of factories (and railroad tracks) stretching across the south end of the East Side, fronting along 18th Ave.In 1918 Peterson purchased the Lake-Peterson House
Lake-Peterson House
The Lake-Peterson House, also known as Jenny's, is a Victorian Gothic Revival home in Rockford, Illinois, United States. The house was built in 1873, probably by prominent Rockford citizen John Lake - its first owner, but its architect is unknown. The house is a significant example of Gothic...
, as it is now known, as a private residence. This was at the time that P.A. was chairman of the new Swedish-American Hospital on Charles Street, and the house was directly north at 1313 E. State St. Peterson donated the Lake-Peterson House to Swedish-American Hospital in 1919, provided he and his wife be allowed to remain in it until they died. The somewhat oddly Gothic-tinged Victorian structure, on Rockford's main east-west street (State St. is U.S. 20, running from Chicago out to Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque, Iowa
Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....
), is today used for hospital executive offices and is on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Peterson was a deeply religious member of Trinity Lutheran Church, one of several Rockford churches belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod in North America (the Augustana Synod was the main Swedish-American denomination in America). He was a contributor to other churches, as well, and the Anti-Saloon League
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League was the leading organization lobbying for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century. It was a key component of the Progressive Era, and was strongest in the South and rural North, drawing heavy support from pietistic Protestant ministers and their...
. He was reputedly very generous not only with his peers (even competitors) among Rockford's business leadership but also with his companies' workers, often cosigning loans for them and giving personal checks to their widows.
Long before Peterson died in 1927 at age 80, he'd had an elementary school named after him. P.A. Peterson School stood on 21st Ave. between 8th and 9th Sts., a few blocks south of his old house on 7th St. and not far beyond the factories fronting on 18th Ave. On the day of Mr. Peterson's funeral, many Rockford commercial and industrial firms stayed closed in honor of Rockford's first citizen.
Peterson bequeathed one-half million dollars to "build a home for the Swedish aged of Rockford." The P.A. Peterson Home for the Aged finally opened in 1941 in a beautiful building at 1311 Parkview Avenue, on what was then the city's northeast edge, overlooking Sinnissippi Golf Course. (The home, not restricted to Swedish Americans, is now called the P.A. Peterson Center for Health and is a program of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois
Lutheran Services in America
Lutheran Services in America is a not-for-profit corporation that coordinates the work of nearly 300 independent Lutheran health and human service organizations affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or recognized by The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. It is headquartered in...
) In his will P.A. also gave another one-half million dollars to the Foreign Mission Board of the Augustana Synod and a like sum to establish a Rockford branch of the Young Men's Christian Association.
Additional sources
- Lundstrom, Linden J Centennial: 1854-1954, The First Evangelical Lutheran Church (Rockford, Illinois: The First Evangelical Lutheran Church. 1954)