“A self-made man is the description which best fits Karl Peterson, a manufacturer of Jamestown. He has a natural gift for mechanics and is of an inventive turn of mind, quick to grasp the possibilities in any circumstance which may arise, and equally quick to develop the new idea presented to him,” wrote John P. Downs and Frederick Y. Hedley in their 1921 History of Chautauqua County.
Karl Peterson’s father was the operator and owner of a summer resort in Sweden, where Karl was born in Malmö in 1866. For about a dozen years during the summer busy seasons he spent his time helping his father run the place.
One of his duties was to superintend the workings of the resort’s steam engine and his greasing and repairing, packing it away for the winter, and putting it together again each spring, gave him his first experiences in mechanics…