User:Flod logic/Andrew Peterson (settler)

Andrew Peterson (20 October 20 1818 – 31 March 1898), born Anders Pettersson, was a Swedish immigrant to the United States and settler. His diaries were the source material for author Vilhelm Moberg's series of novels, The Emigrants.

Life
Peterson was born 20 October 1818 in Sjöarp, Västra Ryd parish in Ydre härad, Östergötland, Sweden. His parents were farmers Petter Jonasson and Ingrid Samuelsdotter. Peterson grew up on the Sjöarp farm and worked as a farm hand until 1846, when his father died. He then moved back to the farm and took it over. In 1850, he emigrated to North America. Peterson spent the first few years working in gardens and farming in Burlington, Iowa. It was there that he met exiled Swedish Baptist preacher F.O. Nilsson; at the time, the Conventicle Act in Sweden outlawed religious meetings other than those of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden. Peterson was baptized by Nilsson and joined the group of Swedish Baptists.

After several years in Iowa, Peterson settled in Minnesota, which was then mostly wilderness. At 40 years of age in 1858, he married 23-year-old Elsa Ingman who he had met at a gardening show; the couple had nine children but no grandchildren. Peterson and his wife, along with Nilsson, founded the Scandia Baptist church in the Petersons' log home in Waconia. The church building constructed later was moved to Bethel University in the 1970s, while the congregation still exists under the name Oakwood Community Church in Waconia. Peterson and Nilsson held the first meeting of what would become the Minnesota Swedish Baptist Conference, later part of the Baptist General Conference (now Converge).

Peterson was an accomplished horticulturalist—he grew hundreds of varieties of apples and his orchard attracted a number of experts, to whom he gave tours. He continually experimented with growing apple trees suited to the climate and primarily supported himself through their sale. His work had quite an impact as "his efforts were primarily responsible for the establishment of a viable fruit industry in Minnesota." The United States Secretary of Agriculture noted Peterson's orchard and its "very thorough cultivation" in an 1893 report. Peterson was unanimously given an honorary life membership in the Minnesota Horticultural Society.

Peterson died 31 March 1898 in Clearwater Lake, Carver County, Minnesota. Elsa Peterson and the rest of the family continued to run the farm until she died on March 8, 1922.

Diary
From 1850 until two days before his death, Peterson kept a diary of his life as a settler. His diary of the stormy journey across the Atlantic is also preserved, as are his notes from his time in Iowa. The journals consist of brief notes about his wife, his nine children, his livestock and crops, his church life, and the Dakota War of 1862. His entries are written in simple Swedish, with a number of dialectal terms as well as a number of English words with Swedish endings and inflections (see Swenglish). His diaries were donated to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1939.

Adaptations
When Vilhelm Moberg traveled to the United States in 1948 to look for material for The Emigrants, he discovered Andrew Peterson's diaries at the Minnesota History Center's library in Saint Paul. Moberg studied the diaries, and thanks to them he had the source material he needed to depict the life of a farmer in the first Swedish settlements in Minnesota. The series consists of four novels: The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers, and The Last Letter Home.

The series of books was later adapted into two films, The Emigrants and The New Land (starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman) by director Jan Troell.

Astrid Lindgren, who found the diaries before Moberg, wrote about Andrew Peterson in her book of essays Liv kan vara så olika. Två människoöden. The essay is also included in the book Samuel August from Sevedstorp and Hanna i Hult.

In 1995, ABBA produced a musical based on Moberg's novels entitled Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina from Duvemåla).

A musical was also produced about Peterson's life entitled Andrew Peterson: The Genuine Pioneer Story (Andrew Peterson, en äkta pionjärhistoria).