Our heritage : Sheyenne area, 1883-1980

Hans Peterson in the barber shop. Hans sold their house in Fessenden in 1951 where he was barbering and bought a farm in the Stony Lake area north of Flora. They moved in March of 1951 to the farm. The location was very pleasant, but the modern life was gone. It was an uphill struggle, first, to modernize, but secondly water could not be found right in the farmyard, so after 13 years the Petersons gave up farming and Hans went back to full time barbering. He had been barbering at Sheyenne and at Esmond, being in both towns several days at a time for each. He liked Sheyenne well enough to want to settle here. In 1964 the family bought the old post office and it was remodeled for their home. The basement housed the barber shop and the den. Hans Peterson passed away on September 17, 1978 after suffering a massive stroke December 28,1977. He is buried at Sheyenne Riverside Cemetery. Hans had had many hobbies during his lifetime but his first love was fishing. He helped many a fisherman with reels and repairing them so it was fitting that he invest in fishing equipment in his barbershop where he had retail sales. He was licensed watch repairman and practiced for several years. One hobby he enjoyed for a time was photography while in Fessenden. A closet (clothes) was converted into a "dark room." In his younger years he enjoyed skiing, hunting, motorcycling, boating and always fishing all through his lifetime. Hans lived a full life, cheerful and friendly. Life was never monotonous for him until he had health problems in 1976. From then on it was downhill until his death in September, 1978. Hans' widow, Emma, continues to live in Sheyenne and considers this her permanent home. P. A. AND SARAH PETERSON Pehr Antonius Peterson, better known in Sheyenne as "P.A.," "Anton," or "Tony," was born on Oct. 13, 1882, at White Rock, Minn. His parents, P. S. and Bengta Peterson, had immigrated to this community from Skane province in southern Sweden. When P. A. was a year old the Peterson family moved to the northwestern corner of the state, near Hallock, Minn. In 1885, his father went farther west to homestead in Dakota Territory. A year later, in October of 1886, P. A., his mother, and young sister Kate, joined his father. The trip from Minnesota was made by train to Devils Lake (the terminus of the Great Northern Railroad at that time), and from there on by ox drawn wagon to the farm in Valhalla Township, now 10 miles west of Sheyenne in Wells County. P. A. Peterson Sigrid Quoly Peterson The Peterson family's first home was a one-room sod house about 12' x 14', which was shared with another couple. P. A. attended the rural grade school, walking the 4V2 miles each way to the school house. The school term lasted about 2 months each year, usually June and July. P. A. took organ and voice lessons from Miss Martha Twist, a rural school teacher who boarded with the P. S. Petersons. He often played the organ or piano at church services, dances, and programs in the Sheyenne-Grandfield communities. P. A. lived with another family in Sheyenne while he attended high school. He brought along the organ so that he could continue to practice, as well as a cow, so that the milk could be exchanged for room and board. Later, in 1902-03, he attended the North Dakota Agricultural College at Fargo, where he studied steam engineering, veterinary medicine and bookkeeping. At the age of 21, P. A. struck out on his own and homesteaded in Williams County, N.D., about 8 miles from the Montana line. The next summer he returned to Sheyenne. At this time he met Sarah Qualey, who had come from her home near Spring Grove, Minn., to visit a sister and her family. P. A. and Sarah were married in Williston, N.D., on June 17, 1908. Sarah lived in the sod shanty on the Williams County homestead until the claim was proven. Her neighbors were another sister and her family, as well as a group of Sheyennites - Bernie Ostby and others. Meanwhile P. A. went to McCabe, Montana, where he set up a track grain buying station. The business prospered and Sarah then joined him in McCabe. Daughter, Thelma, was born here in 1909. P. A. was stricken with typhoid fever from contaminated water and was hospitalized in Minot, N.D., for 4 months. After a long convalescence, P. A., Sarah and Thelma decided to come back to Sheyenne, arriving in April 1912. P. A. became manager of Farmers Co-op Elevator (later Equity Co-op), a job he held until 1920. Son Harold was born in Sheyenne in 1916. In 1920 P. A. became manager of the newly organized Sheyenne Cooperative Elevator Company, a purely local cooperative with no national alliances, as was the case with Equity Co-op. P. A. was a leader in the development of certified durum and spring wheat seed for central North Dakota, bringing Sheyenne into prominence as one of the leading durum areas in the state. He also pioneered the selection and development of early varieties of open- pollinated seed corn and was one of the first in the area to advocate and promote the treatment of seed for control of smut, blight and other grain diseases. He retired as elevator manager in December 1946. From this time on he concentrated on his farming interests near Sheyenne and Williston. Throughout the years he was active in the community, serving on the village park board, board of education, and as a director of Farmers and Merchants Bank. He was a member of Augustana Lutheran Church in Grandfield. Sarah died in 1945; P.A. in 1962. 166 ; Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.