Today is not the birthday of Henry Severn (1840-August 8, 1887), but it is the day he died at age 47, after being struck by lightning. There’s very little I could find out about where Henry, or his father William Severn, came from before arriving in Davenport, Iowa, in the 1850s, when Henry would have been a boy of ten. Their surname is apparently Welsh, which makes some sense since they brewed ales. Henry’s father bought the Thomas B. Carter, Ale & Porter Brewery in 1858, one year after it had opened in Davenport, Iowa. He renamed it the Severn Ale Brewery initially, but a few years later it was known as the Great Western Ale & Porter Brewery. Henry was brought on to work in the brewery, along with his brother George, but by 1866 Henry took over from his father and it was called the Henry Severn Brewery until 1877, when he quite the beer business, apparently owing to the lagers overtaking the ales he brewed in popularity. He moved to Stutsman County in the Dakota Territory, settling in Jamestown. It was there, while stacking hay with his son Charles, Henry was struck by lightning and died immediately.
Here’s his obituary from the Quad City Times in Davenport, Iowa, on August 8, 1887.
And here’s the second half of the obituary:
And Tavern Trove’s entry on Henry Severn has this account from the Jamestown Weekly Alert in the Dakota Territories:
According to the Jamestown Weekly Alert: Mr. Severn, in company with his son Charles, had for some days been camping out in the hills about ten miles northwest of Windsor, putting up hay. Mr. Severn has a claim in that neighborhood and was stacking the hay on the ground expecting that one of the family would winter there with his stock, in which he had considerable money invested.
Tuesday afternoon he and his son were stacking some hay Which had been recently cured, when the storm arose. The stack was situated in a low slough surrounded on every side by hills about thirty feet high, and as no rain was falling, and no danger apprehended from lightning, they worked steadily on endeavoring to get all the hay into stack before the clouds, which had been gathering all the afternoon, let fall their water.
The deadly bolt which so quickly and mysteriously ended Mr. Severn’s exist ence fell from a small cloud shortly after six’o’clock. Mr. Severn himself was on the stack with a pitchfork, and his son was standing on the hay rack gathering up the last forkfull to round up the stack and complete their day’s labor, when with a flash and ‘a roar the electric bolt descended. Iit passed through Mr. Severn’s body, through the hay and into the ground.
His son was stunned by the shock and fell into the rack, while the horses which were also much startled by the nearness of the flash and the loudness of the report, started off on a, run. Charles recovered in time to check the team after it had gone about fifty rods. He immediately returned to the stack and finding it blazing, called to his father to get down as the stack was on fire. Not receiving any answer he climed up on the hay and found the body of his father lying lifeless. In an excited state of mind he dragged the body a short distance to some weeds and mounting a horse rode to the ranch of W. P. Lampson, about six miles distant. With.Mr. Lamson and his father-in-law, Mr. Hall, he returned to the stack and started for home with the dead body. Leaving Mr. Lampson and the body at the ranch, Charles started for this city with the sad intelligence.
And here’s one more short obituary:
