Ragnhild Severson
February 2, 1848-February 3, 1933
Of all my ancestors, I think I would most like to meet my
paternal great-grandmother, Ragnhild Severson.
Regrettably, I know less about Ragnhild than many of my other
ancestors. I have no photos of her. I have no memorabilia linked to her.
Everyone who actually knew her was dead before I was born, so I don’t even have
family stories about her. All that remains that I can actually touch is her
headstone.
I have discovered so little about her early life. I know she
was born in Norway in 1848, but I have been unable to identify her parents or
her birthplace. I don’t even know her maiden name. I hope as I learn more about
Norwegian records and patronymics, I’ll be able to trace her family and
determine if any of the several possible parents listed in distant relatives’
Ancestry trees are the correct ones. 
Even the spelling of her married name, Severson, is in doubt. On assorted records, including census, birth records, church records, and her son’s World War I draft card, the surname was variously spelled Siverson, Syvertson, Syverson and Severson. The family headstones at Linden Church Cemetery in Brown County vary in spelling as well.
As of now, the first reliable records I have found are from the late 1860s after she emigrated to the United States with her husband, Ove Severson, and their infant daughter, also named Ragnhild. She was quite young when she arrived in America, possibly only 19 or 20. Her husband was several years older, but still so young to brave crossing the ocean with their tiny baby to land in a foreign country where they had no other family members for support.
The family passed through Wisconsin just long enough for the
birth of their second child, Siver, in 1869. By 1872 they had moved to Brown
County, Minnesota, where they homesteaded in Linden Township. Their second
daughter, Regina (my grandmother) was born there in March, 1872, and a second
son, Ole, was born in 1873, apparently dying just a year later. Young Siver also died in early childhood. Over
the next nine years, Ragnhild and Ove had four more children. The last child, another
son named Siver in honor of his lost older brother, was born in January 1882.
Shockingly, Ove was dead just months later, killed at age 41
in a farming accident. According to unsubstantiated family lore, he was crushed
by a horse. Regina was left a widow with
an infant and five surviving children, approximate ages 3, 5, 7, 10 and 14. The
two oldest were girls. I can imagine how desperate she must have felt. How
could she prove up the homestead, run the farm and feed her children? The
everyday “women’s work” of the era was physically punishing and exhausting, and
now she had Ove’s work as well.
Many women in similar circumstances remarried as quickly as
possible, needing a man to help run the farm. Ragnhild chose to never remarry.
I long to ask her why she made that decision. Somehow, she managed to run the
farm. I don’t know if neighbors stepped up to help, or if she hired workers, or
if she and her children somehow managed on their own. However she accomplished
it, she kept control of her land and provided for her family. My brother turned
up records from the 1890s that list farmers who founded the local creamery and
grain cooperatives. There were dozens of men listed, and one woman, Ragnhild.
She was a pioneer in every sense of the word.
Eventually, her oldest son Ole became her partner in the
farming operation, with the remaining children marrying or moving away. In her
old age, Ragnhild and Ole sold the farm and moved into the nearby small town of
Hanska, where she lived until her death at 85 years of age. By that point, she had
outlived five of her eight children, and several of her grandchildren. 
She must have been an amazing woman—probably more determined and strong than soft and loving. Life in nineteenth century America was far from easy under the best of circumstances, and her life brought challenge after challenge and loss after loss. But she survived. She persisted. She didn’t let her gender limit her. She would have been a fascinating person to talk to, to listen to, and to learn from.
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