Petersen, Niels

Niels Petersen was born on October 30, 1869, in Hadeslev, Schleswig, where he grew up on a farm and served a four-year blacksmith apprenticeship. Seeking freedom from military oppression, he emigrated to the United States in June 1888, joining his siblings in Woodbridge, New Jersey, where he worked at his trade and studied English. In June 1894, he moved west to Fresno, California, where he worked for H. Ahrensberg and George Larsen before opening a shop at I and Inyo Streets with Peter A. Borg. Petersen later bought out Borg and eventually partnered with Ahrensberg, ultimately becoming the sole owner of the general repair, wagon-making, and blacksmithing business at 702 I Street following Ahrensberg’s death on January 13, 1917.

In addition to his business in town, Petersen owned a fifteen-acre alfalfa ranch on Pierce near White’s Bridge Road, three and a half miles west of Fresno, where he engaged in dairying and lived with his family. He married Andrea Schmidt, a fellow native of Hadeslev, in Fresno in 1898, and together they had six children: Roy, Harry, Walter, Edna, Erna, and May. Active in his community, Petersen and his family were Lutherans, and he held memberships in both Dania and the Danish Brotherhood.