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Bio-Pen Pictures

Theodore W. Petersen had been a resident of the Pacific Coast twenty-eight years, and of San Jose twenty-three years.  Born in Denmark, in 1837, he went to sea at fourteen years of age, and passed twelve years of his life on shipboard, and rose from cabin boy to the rank of Captain.  He came around Cape Horn in 1860 as Second Mate on the ship Ocean Pearl.  After being employed a number of years in other lines of business in this State, among which was the conducting of the Atlantic House, in San Jose, Mr. Petersen, in 1872, engaged in the manufacture of brick on the site of his present yard, in the south part of the city between Third and Fourth Streets.

 He rapidly built up a large business, and subsequently established a branch yard in Mountain View.  In 1883 he began to manufacture pressed brick, with superiority of quality as his motto.  From the first, Petersen’s pressed brick took the first rank on this coast, and at the World’s Exposition in New Orleans, 1885-86, he was awarded the first prize over all competitors for the best display of pressed brick.  He also has a certificate signed by the individual members of the Builders’ Association of California, in which they say his pressed brick are the best made on the Pacific Coast, and commend them in very flattering terms.  The greatest care is exercised in the manufacture of these goods, and no imperfect brick is allowed to leave the yard.  The aluminum from which these bricks are made lies immediately below the clay used for the common brick.  The superiority of Petersen’s pressed brick over those of Philadelphia and other factories, which enables Mr. Petersen to sell them at a much higher price, consists in their smoothness and uniformity.

 Theodore W. Petersen has been a resident of the Pacific Coast twenty-eight years, and of San Jose twenty-three years.  Born in Denmark, in 1837, he went to sea at fourteen years of age, and passed twelve years of his life on shipboard, and rose from cabin boy to the rank of Captain.  He came around Cape Horn in 1860 as Second Mate  on the ship Ocean Pearl.  After being employed a number of years in other lines of business in this State, among which was the conducting of the Atlantic House, in San Jose, Mr. Petersen, in 1872, engaged in the manufacture of brick on the site of his present yard, in the south part of the city between Third and Fourth Streets.  He rapidly built up a large business, and subsequently established a branch yard in Mountain View.  In 1883 he began to manufacture pressed brick, with superiority of quality as his motto.  From the first, Petersen’s pressed brick took the first rank on this coast, and at the World’s Exposition in New Orleans, 1885-86, he was awarded the first prize over all competitors for the best display of pressed brick.  He also has a certificate signed by the individual members of the Builders’ Association of California, in which they say his pressed brick are the best made on the color.  They were used in the construction of the Pioneer Building, the Odd Fellows’ Hall, the Union Club House,— the finest building in the State,— the Catholic Cathedral, and other prominent structures in San Francisco, and are used for the fronts of the new City Hall in San Jose.  The output of pressed brick of Mr. Petersen’s yard is about 7,000,000 bricks, which consumes 3,000 cords of wood in the burning, and gives employment to an average of seventy men.

In 1866 Mr. Petersen married Mary Doherty, in San Jose, whose birthplace was New York.  Mr. Petersen is a member of the A. O. U. W., and of the San Jose Board of Trade. 

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Transcribed by: Letisha Oddo   Pg. 401/402
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