KNUTSON, Peter

KNUSTON, STIMBY, PRESTHOLT, CHRISTIANSON

Posted By: Jennifer Gunderson (email)
Date: 3/13/2021 at 16:37:34

Peter Knutson, for the past thirty years a dealer in general hardware at Clear Lake, Iowa, owns the two-story-and-basement building his store occupies and does business under his own name, furnishing employment for four men. Also he owns the comfortable and attractive home on West Fifth street which he built and in which he and his family live.

Mr. Knutson is a Scandinavian. He was born in Norway July 15, 1844, and was a young man of twenty when in 1864 he left his native land and came to America. Here he landed with practically no capital. Like the majority of his countrymen, however, he had learned a trade and he was not afraid to work, and his experience here is interesting as showing what may be accomplished by an enterprising young man. He went direct to Minnesota and in Austin began in a small way in the boot and shoe business, shoemaking being his trade. Later he turned his attention to dealing in general merchandise, and in 1876 confined his business to hardware. Four years later he came to Iowa and settled at Clear Lake, and here since 1880, for a period of thirty years, he has conducted a prosperous business, handling a general line of hardware.

After coming to this country Mr. Knutson married a young woman of his own nationality, a Miss Olson who had emigrated from Norway to America in 1862. Of the children born to them, six are living, all natives of Cerro Gordo county, namely: Charles, engaged in the hardware business at Ventura, Iowa; George and Clarence, in the store with their father; Mrs. S. M. Stimby, Mrs. Dunsmore and Mrs. A. A. Prestholt, all of Clear Lake. One daughter, Mrs. Christianson, died at Clear Lake at the age of thirty-six years; and some others died in infancy.

Politically Mr. Knutson is a staunch Prohibitionist. He has served in various local offices, and at one time was the candidate of his party for the office of state treasurer. He belongs to the Gospel Missions, in which he is an elder.

Source: History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Transcribed by Jennifer Gunderson (Mar 2021)