Historic Canute
Peterson Home

Canute Peterson, an early Norwegian convert to the LDS church in 1842, built his Ephraim residence in 1869, as he began a legacy of leadership in Sanpete County in many ecclesiastical roles such as Bishop, Stake President, and Patriarch.

“Elder” Canute Peterson served three separate proselytizing missions to Scandinavia, following his own conversion in 1842.  In 1942, He came to Utah.  In 1952, he was called to Norway to serve a mission.  He served for four years on this mission.  He returned in 1856, with a company of 400 Saints.  In 1871, he was again called to preside over the Scandinavian Mission where he served for two years.  When he returned he brought a company of 900 Saints with him to Utah.

 As these converts, by the hundreds, arrived in Utah to gather at “Zion”, Peterson played a large role in guiding and providing for them. As an important leader , not only in Ephraim, but in Utah as a whole, he was described as “a man who blesses and is blessed; who loves and is loved; who respects and is respected..”.

Canute Peterson made the journey to Utah in June 1848, and married his first wife Sara Ann Nelson on July 2, 1849. He had hoped to settle in the Salt Lake valley, but was disappointed when almost all of the good farmland had already been taken. He then opted for Lehi, Utah where he built a log cabin during the winter of 1850-51. Between his time spent on several missions in Scandinavia and taking care of his multiple wives, because of polygamy, which was practiced by many in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints community at the time, Peterson contributed much and became a leader in this community.

Canute Peterson and his son Peter built their Ephraim home in 1869 out of brick and stone hauled from a quarry which was nearby. He also built two more houses, for his other two wives Maria and Charlotte, partially because of the increasing disapproval of the United States government of polygamy. Both of these homes were built to the north of his own Ephraim residence.

The home, as well as the two others built for Peterson’s two other wives, stands today as one of Ephraim’s oldest pioneer homes and of one of its most prominent citizens.

This home was restored by the Cache Valley Bank and is part of their building on 100 South and Main Street.