Bio of SVENSON, Peter S. (b.1844), Wright Co., MN
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444            HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY 

  Peter S. Svenson, better known as Peter Errickson, is an influential 
farmer residing on forty acres of good land in section 12, Marysville 
township. He was born July 27, 1844, in Sweden, son of Swan Errickson 
and Anna (Peterson) Errickson, and grandson of Errick Bengston and Stina 
(Kajsa Bunstrum) Bengtson, and of Peter and Anna Anderson. In 1861, Swan 
Errickson, with his wife and three of his children, Swan, Nels and Mary, 
came to America. Peter S. and Kajsa were left in the old country. The 
family came to Iowa, and the father secured work for the summer. Here 
a child, Amuel, was born, August 1, 1861. They continued to engage in 
farming for two years in Iowa.  In 1863 they came to Wright county, 
and here another daughter, Augusta, was born March 11, 1864.  Upon their 
arrival they located on eighty acres of wood land in section 12.  They 
erected a log cabin, which is still standing, and started farming in the 
wilderness.  His first crops were planted with a hoe.  His first harvest 
of wheat he sold at $2 a bushel for

445   HISTORY OF WRIGHT COUNTY

seed. Assisted by his sons and a yoke of oxen, he cleared the land and 
in time became a prosperous man. Often when supplies were low he walked 
to St. Paul, bringing home salt and flour on his back. Swan Errickson 
died July 7, 1909, at the age of eighty-nine. His wife died in 1901 at 
the age of seventy-eight. They were of the Lutheran faith, and assisted 
in building two churches of that denomination in this locality. Peter 
S. Svenson came to the United States in 1866, and joined the rest of the 
family in Wright county, and filed on a tract of eighty acres in section 
12. He here built a log cabin, and here, in 1872, he brought his bride. 
The first year he put in the potatoes among the stumps with a grub hoe. 
At times he had no salt to eat on the fish he caught in the creek, and 
which were his only food for days at a time. In order to obtain oxen he 
purchased two calves and waited until they grew. He worked hard, night 
and day, and in time reaped the reward of his labor. He is prosperous 
and respected, and his opinion on all rural subjects is highly valued. 
He has helped to build three churches, is a Sunday school teacher, and 
has been church sexton for six years. Peter S. Svenson was married,
November 13, 1870, to Mary Utterberg, and they have had eleven children: 
Anna was born April 28, 1871; Charlotte was born February 13, 1873; 
E. Albert was born August 18, 1874, and died April 4, 1895; 
Ida E. was born November 1, 1875, and died August 23, 1876; 
Caroline was born December 15, 1876; Albertina was born November 3, 1878, 
and died March 21, 1887; Axel was born March 22, 1880; Gottfried was born 
October 6, 1881; Beda was born May 11, 1883; and Tillie and Elden (twins) 
were born May 30, 1885. Mary Utterberg was the daughter of Johan and 
Mary Peterson, Utterberg being the name officially conferred upon 
Johan when he joined the Swedish army. In 1867 they came to America, 
bringing their seven children: Kajsa, Ole, Mary, Carrie, John, Nels 
and Charles. They first located on fifteen acres in Rockford township, 
this county. They built a log house that is still standing, erected 
other buildings, and in time added 160 acres. Johan was the sexton of 
the Lutheran church for a number of years. He died in 1900 at the age 
of eighty. His wife died in June at the age of seventy-eight.