Bio – Cecelia Squires Severson Brown (1901-2003)

Today is the 112th anniversary of the birth of Cecelia Squires Severson Brown, my step-grandmother. 

Cecelia was born on 19 November 1901 in Faribault, Minnesota to Guy Bedford Squires and Dollah Wakeman Squires. She was the oldest of seven children having five brothers and one sister. 

When Cecelia was about seven, the family moved to Kidder County, North Dakota, which is where she grew up. The Severson’s lived in Crystal Springs while the Browns also lived in Kidder county, however the Browns lived in Robinson and Merkle which are about forty miles away.  It is unknown if they knew each other at that time. 

About 1922, Cecelia married Henry Severson and they relocated to Staples, Todd County, Minnesota, where their first child, a boy, was born. Over the next 12 years they would have four more children, two boys and two girls for a total of five children.

I assume that Cecelia’s first husband, Henry J. Severson died, he was seventeen years Cecelia’s senior. In any event, on March 8th, 1975, she married Richard Earl Brown (Grandpa Dick)  They lived in her house in Motley until his death in January, 1990. Cecelia lived nearly fourteen more years dying on 21 December 2003, at the age of 102.  She is buried in the Motley Cemetery, in Todd county, just outside of Motley (Morrison county) Minnesota. 

My recollection of Cecelia was that she was very religious and very much a church goer and supporter.