Contra Costa-Yuba-Trinity County CA Archives Biographies.....Peterson, John C. 1822 - 
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Author: W. A. Slocum & Co., Publishers (1882)

JOHN C. PETERSON.—Was born in Denmark, March 30, 1822, and resided there until
1843, during which time he received a common school education and served an
apprenticeship to the blacksmith's trade. In the last-mentioned year he
proceeded to the island of St. Thomas, one of the Danish possessions in the West
Indies, where he resided four years and a half, when he came to America. Having
landed in Tuckapo, Louisiana, he there hired as cook on board a vessel and
worked his passage to New York City. Thence he found his way in turn to Boston,
Pictou in Nova Scotia, Sayresport, Maine, then back to Boston, New York, and
from there to Savannah and Charleston. In 1849, the month being January, he
sailed from New York to California, by way of Cape Horn, in a craft of only
eighty tons, and after a successful voyage, landed in San Francisco July 17th of
the same year. But Mr. Peterson did not abandon the vessel in that harbor, for
he further engaged himself on board, as cook, when she was put on the route
between San Francisco and Stockton. In September he severed his connection with
that boat and became cook at the saw-mill of McCann & Parker, at Saucelito,
Marin county, where he remained until the Spring of 1850. He then, in
partnership with some others, purchased a whale-boat and journeyed to
Marysville, Yuba county, whence he went to the mines on the Yuba, there seeking
the "yellow stuff" until the following Fall. We next find our subject mining at
the Wyandotte Diggings, which field he left in the Spring of 1851 for Rich Bar,
on the Feather river. Six months after he moved to Yreka, Siskiyou county and
after prospecting for some time, we find him in Shasta county. In the Fall of
1851, he mined on Clear creek, where he struck good diggings. His next locale
was Weaverville, Trinity county, whither he proceeded in the Spring of 1852, and
there continued mining for five years, at Big Prospect and its vicinity. In
1857, he moved to the southern mines, where he passed the Winter, and in the
Spring of 1858, came to Contra Costa county. In the Spring of 1859, he settled
on his present farm of two hundred and thirty-five acres, in Sycamore valley,
five miles east of Danville, where he is chiefly engaged in farming. Married,
April 29, 1865, to Eliza P. Shaw, a native of Ohio, and has five children, viz:
Jessie, Lizzie, Ella, Emma, and Chauncey.

Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
INCLUDING ITS GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION;
TOGETHER WITH A RECORD OF THE MEXICAN GRANTS; THE BEAR FLAG WAR; THE MOUNT
DIABLO COAL FIELDS; THE EARLY HISTORY AND SETTLEMENT, COMPILED FROM THE MOST
AUTHENTIC SOURCES; THE NAMES OF ORIGINAL SPANISH AND MEXICAN PIONEERS; FULL
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF THE COUNTY; SEPARATE HISTORY OF EACH TOWNSHIP, SHOWING
THE ADVANCE IN POPULATION AND AGRICULTURE;
ALSO,
Incidents of Pioneer Life; and Biographical Sketches
OF EARLY AND PROMINENT SETTLERS AND REPRESENTATIVE MEN;
AMD OF ITS TOWNS, VILLAGES, CHURCHES, SECRET SOCIETIES, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
SAN FRANCISCO: W. A. SLOCUM & CO., PUBLISHERS
1882.

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