Harry Herbert Peterson (April 12, 1890 – January 23, 1985) was an American lawyer, judge and politician.

Background

Peterson was born in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, ...

. He was the son of Swan Alfred Peterson and Mathilda Christina (Gustafson) Peterson, both of whom were immigrants from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Peterson graduated from the

University of Minnesota Law School The University of Minnesota Law School is the law school of the University of Minnesota, a public university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school confers four law degrees: a Juris Doctor (J.D.), a Master of Laws (LL.M.), a Master of Science in Pa ...

in 1912 and entered private practice as an attorney at law in

Ramsey County, Minnesota Ramsey County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 552,352, making it the state's second most populous county, and was estimated to be 542,015 in 2024. Its county seat and largest city is Sai ...

. He married Mabel V. Norquist (1893-1972) on June 28, 1916. They were the parents of two children.

Career

He was elected Ramsey County Attorney to serve 1923–1924 and subsequently served as the

Minnesota Attorney General The attorney general of Minnesota is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of the U.S. state of Minnesota. Thirty individuals have held the office of Attorney General since statehood. The incumbent is Keith Ellison, a Democratic-Farme ...

during the Farmer-Labor administration of Floyd B. Olson, 1933–1936. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Peterson drafted and subsequently defended the constitutionality of the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Act, a signature Depression-era reform which sustained the principle that States could adopt moratoria on bank

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

s. Peterson went from the Attorney General's office to the

Minnesota Supreme Court The Minnesota Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The court hears cases in the Supreme Court chamber in the Minnesota State Capitol or in the nearby Minnesota Judicial Center. History The court was first assemb ...

serving there from 1938–1950, resigning to run for Minnesota Governor. Defeating

Orville Freeman Orville Lothrop Freeman (May 9, 1918February 20, 2003) was an American politician who served as the 29th governor of Minnesota from 1955 to 1961, and as the U.S. secretary of agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and L ...

in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party primary election, he lost the 1950 general election to the Republican candidate, Luther W. Youngdahl. Upon retirement, Peterson was active in the formation of the Midwestern School of Law where he served as Dean prior to its reorganization as the

Hamline University School of Law Hamline University School of Law was a private law school affiliated with Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1972 as the Midwestern School of Law by a group of legal professionals. In 1976, Midwestern School of Law w ...

. Peterson donated his personal law library to the new school and served on its faculty, later dying of a stroke in 1985.

References

Other sources

Minnesota State Law Library Archive of Judicial Biographies
1890 births 1985 deaths Politicians from Saint Paul, Minnesota Minnesota attorneys general Minnesota Democrats Hamline University faculty University of Minnesota Law School alumni American people of Swedish descent {{Minnesota-politician-stub