The Andrew Peterson Society

Who was Andrew Peterson?

Andrew Peterson was born on October 20th 1818 in Vastra Ryd parish, Ydre hundred in the county Ostergotland. His parents, Petter Jonsson and Ingrid Samuelsdotter, were farmers in Sjoarp. Andrew worked as a farm hand on other farms in the area, but after his father's death in 1846 he moved back to Sjoarp to take over the farm.

In the spring of 1850 Andrew left Sweden for North America. He left the area where he and his ancestors had lived and worked for many generations. He did not go alone, however. His sister Gustava and fourteen locals from Vastra Ryd parish went with him. There were also people from other parishes in Ydre in the group of emigrants that started their long journey with Gothenburg as the first destination. In Gothenburg Andrew and the group embarked on a ship called Minona, leaving the port on May 19th 1850. Andrew was never again to see his native country.

The journey across the Atlantic was difficult, with storms, seasickness and even casualties among the passengers. We know this thanks to Andrew's diary from the crossing; a diary that has been kept for posterity. Anyway, Minona and most of her passengers survived the hardships and sailed into the port of Boston on July 2nd 1850.

Four weeks later he arrives in the Burlington district, Iowa, where he stays for 4 years. During these 4 years we have no records if Andrew wrote diary, but there are some of Andrew memory notes from this time kept in The Minnesota Historical Society Library. In this Library in S:t Paul, Minnesota are Andrew Petersons dairies from 1854 – 1898 kept.

Andrew Peterson Diaries including the Voyage 1850, from Sweden to Burlington, Iowa , and his whole settler life in Minnesota 1854-1898 are translated into American.
The translation’s can be found in Minnesota Historical Society Library, in Saint Paul, and in The Swedish Andrew Peterson Society exhibition in Asby in Ydre County.

In Iowa he joined a group of newly arrived Swedish baptists. In the summer of 1855 Andrew and an important part of the congregation moved on to Minnesota Territory, which still consisted largely of wilderness and was not yet a part of the United States of America. Andrew and the rest of the Baptist congregation settled down near Clearwater Lake where they each claimed a piece of land and started their new lives as settlers. Clearwater Lake, later known as Lake Waconia, is situated in Laketown Township, Carver county, some 50 kilometers west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The town of Waconia has gradually developed on the lake.