Clark County WA Archives Biographies.....Johnson, Peter 1885 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com and   June 20, 2009, 2:45 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     PETER JOHNSON.  As a successful building contractor, Peter Johnson of 
Vancouver has attained an enviable reputation throughout the Columbia River 
valley, his operations having covered a wide radius of country, and he has 
gained recognition as an enterprising, progressive and reliable business man. 
Mr. Johnson, who carries on business under the name of the Johnson 
Construction Company, was born in middle Sweden, in 1885, and is a son of John 
and Christina Peterson, who were also natives of that country and died there.

     Mr. Johnson attended the excellent public schools of his native land and 
then learned the building trade. In 1905, when twenty years of age, he came to 
the United States and located in Cooperstown, North Dakota, where he was 
employed on farms for awhile. Leasing a tract of land, he then engaged in 
farming on his own account for about eight years. From there he went to great 
Falls, Montana, where he engaged in building contracting, in which he was 
fairly successful, and he continued in that line of business there until 1918, 
when he came to Vancouver. Here his ability as a builder and his reliability 
as a contractor soon gained recognition and during the subsequent years he has 
held a place in the front rank of the contractors of this section of the 
state, having handled contracts from the Canadian border to Wenatchee on the 
east. At Vancouver he erected the American Legion building, at a cost of one 
hundred thousand dollars; the Arneda school building, costing forty thousand 
dollars; the Central building, at a cost of eighty thousand dollars; and hotel 
Evergreen, the new community hotel, at a cost of one hundred and fifteen 
thousand dollars, and also built the I. 0. 0. F. hall at Centralia, the Galvin 
& Moore building and other large structures, as well as many smaller ones, and 
is now erecting at Vancouver the Columbian and Arts building, which he owns. 
At Wenatchee he built the Rialto Theater, the Deaconess Hospital, the 
Sunnyslope school and a number of warehouses, besides many fine homes in 
various parts of the country. He now owns a garage building, which he erected 
at Wenatchee. He is painstaking and thorough in everything he undertakes, and 
he realizes that satisfied patrons are the best advertisements.

     In 1905, in North Dakota, Mr. Johnson was united in marriage to Miss 
Carrie Peterson, a native of Sweden, in which country they had known each 
other, and they are the parents of three children, Lily and Elsie, who are 
students in the Oregon Agricultural College; and John, who is a student in the 
grammar school.

     Mr. Johnson is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the 
Kiwanis Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Builders Exchange of Portland. 
Mrs. Johnson is a member of the English Lutheran church and the Ladies Aid 
Society. Mr. Johnson has never had occasion to regret his coming to this part 
of the country, for he here found splendid business opportunities and with the 
passing years is making steady and substantial progress	along the line of his 
life work.  He is a man of correct principles, is loyal to his ideals, and his 
record here as business man and private citizen has gained for him the 
unqualified confidence and respect of all who have come in contact with him.

Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 925-926

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