Alvin Martin Peterson was born on December 30, 1884 on a farm in Iowa County, Wisconsin. After graduating from the Marathon County Normal School in 1903, he taught in the county's rural schools and worked in the factories and mills of Wausau. He graduated from Stevens Point Normal School in 1913, and was supervising principal of the Adams-Friendship Public Schools from 1913 to 1915. Peterson entered the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1915 and received a Ph.B. (Bachelor of Philosophy) degree in English with a history minor in 1917. From 1917 to 1920 he was principal and superintendent of Minnesota schools in Moorhead and Mabel. From 1920 to 1923 he taught at West Allis High School and was principal at Lincoln School in West Allis, Wis. In 1923 Peterson and his wife, the former Mae Rose Draeger, retired to a 20-acre farm in rural Onalaska. The Petersons had two children, Robert and Margaret.
After his retirement, Peterson became active in local politics, serving as a member of the Onalaska City Council, the Board of Education, and the La Crosse County Board. Primarily, however, he devoted himself to the study and preservation of nature, particularly birds and wild flowers. Although he focused on the natural environment of La Crosse County, his study of nature took him to many parts of southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa. Peterson also wrote extensively on nature topics. In one of his letters, he wrote that “from 1922 to 1947, I averaged five manuscript sales a month, for an average of 60 a year, and a grand total of 1500 for the 25 years.” Many of these were short pieces published in newspapers and magazines, but Peterson also published as many as nine books, and wrote a newspaper column in the Record-Times (Onalaska) under the pen name “Jiminy.” Peterson was a regular entrant, with some success, in writing contests sponsored by the Regional Writers Association of Wisconsin, a creative writing organization.
