Born on March 22, 1893 [1], Peterman's early business career was in logging and timber in Washington state.
For company use, he began to invest in modifying and rebuilding surplus military vehicles and older logging trucks.
One early invention, in association with an employee Ed Valentine, was the use of a drum brake not cooled by water.
During his time in Morton, Peterman introduced another advancement, the use of trailer rollers to allow logs to shift during transport, preventing momentum from carrying trucks off the road during cornering.
Peterman, who went by the nickname Al, was described as tall and "rangy", and reputed by townspeople to be kind and a "renaissance man in the logging world."