Emil A. Syverson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1525-1526 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	EMIL A. SYVERSON, who is president of the Farmers and Citizens' 
Bank, at Bryant, Hamlin county, was born in Fredrikstad, Norway, on the 
20th of September, 1869, being a son of Peter and Anna M. Syverson, who 
emigrated to America in 1872, locating in the state of Wisconsin, where 
the father engaged in the work of his trade, that of blacksmith. They 
are now living in Bryant, South Dakota. When the subject was but nine 
years of age he left home, his parents at the time being residents of 
Crawford county, Wisconsin, and started with a party of strangers for 
the Black Hills, arriving in Deadwood, South Dakota, in May, 1879. He 
remained in that section until the spring of 1882, at which time he 
returned to the home of his parents, in Wisconsin, where he remained 
until 1887, when he returned to South Dakota and located in Kingsbury 
county. He had in the meanwhile attended the public schools as 
opportunity offered, having been a student in the high school at DeSmet, 
this state, in 1888. He had previously to this been successfully engaged 
in school teaching for two years, and in 1889 he entered the Northern 
Indiana Normal School and Business College, at Valparaiso, Indiana, 
where he took a commercial course and was graduated as a member of the 
class of 1890. He then returned to South Dakota and located in Bryant, 
where he secured a position as bookkeeper in the Merchants' Bank, being 
but twenty years of age at the time. Two years later he was elected 
cashier and in 1900, at the age of thirty, he became president of the 
Farmers and Citizens' Bank of Bryant, South Dakota, of which position he 
is still incumbent. Mr. Syverson is a Republican in his political 
proclivities, and he served as first lieutenant of Company G, First 
Regiment, South Dakota National Guard, from 1894 until 1898, at Bryant. 
He has been a member of the Lutheran church for the past nineteen years. 

	In the city of Brookings, this state, on the 6th of August, 1892. 
Mr. Syverson was united in marriage to Miss Inga 0. Kragh, and they have 
two children, Ernest P., who was born June 3, 1893, and Alice M. who was 
born October 20, 1895.