Snowflake High School Educator Joseph Peterson
Snowflake High School Educator Joseph Peterson
Namesake for Peterson Building
For many Snowflake High School alumni, the Peterson building housed the school library on the main floor and classrooms on the top floor and basement.
The Peterson building, commonly referred to as the Academy Building, is named after Joseph Peterson. Peterson contributed significantly to Snowflake High School and the school’s predecessor, the Snowflake Stake Academy. He “guided the Academy from a hit-or-miss sometimes program to a fully accredited four year college prep high school.”1
He first came to Snowflake in 1898 from Utah after receiving a church calling to take over the struggling school. Peterson had a few stints being the principal and teacher at the new school. While teaching, Peterson went to University of California at Berkeley to pursue a degree in anthropology. He participated in several digs in California. After he quit college and returned to teach in Snowflake, he was asked to continue archaeological digs in Arizona for his professor from his time at UC Berkeley. Many of his discoveries are catalogued at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology in Berkeley.2
Looking to change careers, Peterson moved south to homestead in present day Lakeside. He suggested naming the new community Lakeside after the new lake dammed by the Show Low Irrigation Company and the name stuck. Peterson and his family were one of the first familes to settle Lakeside. While homesteading in Lakeside, Peterson served in the Arizona Territorial Legislation. Peterson returned to Snowflake to teach in 1909 until 1914.
Peterson was elected as the Navajo County Superintendent of Schools in 1914. He served in that capacity until 1920. During this time, he moved to the county seat, Holbrook. In 1919, his wife, Amanda Andelin, passed away from typhoid fever.
In 1922, Peterson served as a Navajo County Supervisor on the Board of Supervisors. Peterson eventually remarried in 1924 to Lydia Jane Savage Smith, a widow with two children. That year he also returned to Snowflake High School while the school transitioned from a private religious school to a public school. Peterson taught for 16 more years. He taught English and helped produce school plays, many that were performed in one of the natural large geological holes called the Sinks northwest of Snowflake.
Peterson retired in 1939 and died in 1943 of cancer. He spent 4 decades in public service for Navajo County from school teacher and principal, town settler, legislature, county supervisor, and county school superintendent. Peterson's legacy and impact can still be felt today in Snowflake and the surrounding communities.
Peterson’s daughter, Leora said that her father “felt himself a failure because he never made money sufficient for the comforts he wished for his family. Actually, he left a legacy that money could not buy. His influence for good, service rendered, the example he set of honesty and integrity all live in the hearts of those still living who knew him. He was a man for all seasons.”3
Peterson, Charles: The Snowflake Stake’s Academy Summertime Archeologist, 2006
https://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/arizona-joseph-peterson/
Schuck, Leora Peterson “Joseph Peterson”, 1978
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