My maternal grandfather Frank W. (william?) Peterson was born in Avon, Illinois in 1878. His parents both died of scarlet fever when he was young and he and his brother J.A. Peterson moved into a neighbors house as orphans to finish public school. Frank served in the army during the Spanish American War, then went to Panama where he worked on the canal, returned to the states through Mexico and landed in Yoakum, Texas out of Beeville, Texas (South Central). He was a railroad clerk there and designed and laid out the municipal golf course. He married Ladye Zilpah McKinney and they had a son (my uncle Frank) and a girl (my mother). When my mother was young, they moved to Houston and he continued to work for the railroad.
Frank's parents immigrated to Illinois directly from Sweden as I understand it and I don't know their names. I think they married in Sweden although both sons were born in Avon. I did not see a Peterson in the Avon Plat register. I don't know what to add. I've researched my family tree back to the 1600s for most of my family (maternal side) but as to paternal side I'm at a dead end.
