My Genealogy Hound

Joel Sever, a prominent farmer of Knox County, was born November 14, 1821, in Warren County, Ohio, and is the fourth of six children born to Hudson and Nancy (Heritage) Sever, natives of New Jersey, but married in Warren County, Ohio, where they came prior to their marriage with each other. Mr. Sever had been married once, and Mrs. Sever twice, before they became united as man and wife. The mother had two children by each of her former husbands. Mr. and Mrs. Sever settled on a farm in Warren County, and there resided until their respective deaths, in 1862 and 1865, the father being eighty-eight years and the mother ninety-two. Mr. Sever was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was in the two sieges of Fort Meigs, fighting under Gen. William H. Harrison. He was a farmer, which occupation he engaged in during the greater part of his life. Our subject received a common-school education, and at the age of twenty-one left the home of his parents, and began farming for himself on the old homestead, where he remained until 1850. He remained in Warren County until 1857, and then moved with his family to Knox County, Mo., where he had purchased a farm upon which he now resides. This he at once began to cultivate and improve but at the beginning of the late war organized a company of Home Guards, of which he was elected captain. This organization was sustained from April, 1861, to August of the same year, when a number of the company enlisted in the Twenty-first Missouri Infantry. March 4, 1862, our subject was mustered into the Missouri State Militia, where he remained in service until September, 1862, previous to which time he was captured at Newark, by Col. Porter, and held a prisoner a short time, but was then paroled and allowed to return home. He received an honorable discharge from the Union Army, September 1, 1862. He was a participant in the battles of Cherry Grove, Schuyler County, Pierce’s Mill, in Scotland County, and Newark, Knox County. Since the war he has been devoted to tilling the soil. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Henry and Amy (Benham) Shaver, natives of Ohio. This lady was born July 16, 1826, in Warren County, Ohio, and married to our subject November 21, 1844. To this union five children have been born (all living save one), as follows: Mary Adelia (wife of James Woodcock), Amelia X. (wife of Ed. J. Brown), Frank P. and Henry E. Our subject is a man of strong energy and will, and, although he has had many trials and disappointments, has persistently persevered, and is now a successful and prosperous farmer, of Knox County, owning a fine farm of 130 acres, well cleared and improved. He was a strong abolitionist. Previous to the war he was a Democrat, but is now a Republican. He cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk, in 1844. He is a worthy member of the F. & A. M., being a member of Paulville Lodge, No. 319. He is also identified with the G. A. R., James Marquess Post. He and his wife are Universalists.