Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  Washington: West of the Cascades.  Vol. 
III.  Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  p.605-606.

PETERSON, A.F.	

	A. F. Peterson, president of the West Coast Lumber Company of 
Aberdeen, is a western man by birth, training and preference, and the spirit 
of enterprise which has been the dominant factor in the upbuilding of this 
section of the country has always been manifest in his career.  His plans are 
ever carefully defined and promptly executed and he is notably energetic and 
reliable.  His birth occurred in Tacoma, Washington, in 1876, and his father, 
John Henry Peterson, became one of the early pioneers of that city.  He was 
born in Denmark and emigrated to the United States at the time of the war 
between his native country and Germany, for he and some of his friends would 
not submit to German rule.  In the pioneer epoch of Washington's development 
he became identified with its interests and shared in the hardships and 
privations incident to frontier life.  He generously assisted others whenever 
the opportunity offered and was a very active and prominent man in the early 
days of the state.  He removed from Tacoma to Port Blakeley, where he resided 
for a year, and afterward was a resident of Jefferson county until 1908, when 
he went to Vancouver island.  In 1875 he was married to San Francisco to a 
lady also of Danish birth, and they are now pleasantly located on Vancouver 
island.
	A. F. peterson is one of a family of seven children, all of whom are 
yet living, and he removed with the family to Port Townsend, acquiring his 
education in the schools of that place.  When a lad of but ten years he began 
working for a telephone company and was thus employed until he reached the age 
of twenty, since which time he has been active in the lumber and logging 
business, serving in various capacities and gradually working his way upward.  
His increasing powers and ability led to his organization of the West Coast 
Lumber Company in 1914 and since that time he has directed its affairs as its 
president.  This company does a wholesale business in lumber and shingles and 
also owns and operates mills at Wickersham, Washington.  With every detail of 
the business, Mr. Peterson has become familiar from long experience and is 
therefore capable of wisely directing the growing interests now under his 
control.
	In 1906 Mr. Peterson was united in marriage to Miss Madge Shannon, a 
native of Michigan, and they have become the parents of four children, 
Charlotte Dorothy, Kathleen Murtis, Frederick Caithness and Patricia Shannon, 
all now in school.
	Mr. Peterson is an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity 
and a life member of the Elks.  His political support is given to the 
republican party and he is a public-spirited citizen, enthusiastic in his 
support of his native state and believing firmly in its future.  In his 
business affairs and as a citizen he has wrought along ling contributing to 
the public good, and the family name has been an honored one in the state 
since his father arrived in Washington in early pioneer times.

Submitted by: Jenny Tenlen

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Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.