IA 3rd Inf Co D. Residence: Canoe Township, Winneshiek County, Iowa. Born 1839 in Norway. Came to America at age 11 with his parents, settled in Dane County, Wisconsin. Civil War: Age 19. Enlisted 20 May 1861. Mustered 8 Jun 1861. Private. Promoted to Corporal 5 Aug 1862. Re-enlisted 4 Jan 1864, re-mustered 2 Feb 1864; transferred into Co C 3rd Veteran Infantry Battalion. Transferred into Co I, 2nd & 3rd Veteran Infantry Consolidated, from Co C, 3rd Battalion. Mustered out 12 Jul 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky. Post war: Married 16 Oct 1866 to Emily (Laumann) Bunker, a widow whose husband had died in 1865. She and Sever had been close friends before the war. After the war, he went to Lansing, Iowa; then to Bloomington, Minnesota. In Bloomington, he became postmaster. Elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 1887. Sources: (ISW-I p576) (“History of the Scandinavians in the United States”, by O. N. Nelson. Publ. Minneapolis, 1893. p384) (“Eighty Years at the Gopher Hole” by Minnie Ellingson Tapping, publ by Exposition Press, New York, 1958) (Ulvestad p278) (Decorah Republican, 27 Jul 1865)
