Christopher Syverson, the well-known proprietor of the Syverson Hotel in Glynden, Minnesota, has a remarkable background. Born in Norway in 1855, he immigrated to the United States in 1881 and settled in Glynden. Starting as a farm worker, he eventually owned a farm before transitioning to a successful meat market business. In 1908, he opened the Syverson Hotel, now managed by his son Augustus A. Syverson. With elegant and comfortable guest rooms, a beautifully decorated parlor and office, and a delightful dining experience overseen by Mrs. Syverson, the hotel has become a popular choice, especially among traveling salesmen. Christopher Syverson’s family and his son’s aptitude for hotel management contribute to the establishment’s success.
Christopher Syverson, the popular proprietor of the Syverson Hotel in Glynden, Minnesota, was born in Norway in 1855. He is a son of Syver Gilbertson and Gertrude, nee Knutson, both living, the father being now (1909) eighty-seven, and the mother one hundred and two years of age. Our subject, acquiring his education in his native land, in 1881 came to the United States and settled at Glynden, Clay County, Minnesota. He at once secured work on a farm at eighteen dollars per month, and in two years bought a farm in Spring Prairie, but instead of living there carried on a rented farm until 1893. He then gave up that occupation and, moving into the village, opened a meat market. Here he did a thriving business and, in connection with it, established and operated a wagon route through the surrounding country and had a fine trade among the farming communities until he retired from the business in December 1908.
The new Syverson Hotel, of which our subject is proprietor, was opened to the public in September 1908 and is under the management of Mr. Syverson’s son, Augustus A. Syverson, a genial and popular gentleman, whose chief delight is to please the patrons of the house.
There are in the hotel eighteen guests’ rooms on the second floor, all light and airy, beautifully decorated, and cozily furnished, while the parlor, with its handsome furnishings, and the spacious office, with its decorations in red and gold, and all finished in oak, give to the establishment an air of substantial and refined elegance that is at once attractive and restful.
The table, an attractive feature of this house, is under the direct supervision of Mrs. Syverson and is richly supplied with all seasonable delicacies and the more substantial viands required to meet the needs and gratify the tastes of the patrons.
Adjoining the office is an up-to-date lunch counter for the accommodation of those who prefer to order à la carte rather than patronize the dining hall. The house, built at a cost of $6,000, is an ornament to the city and, facing the Union depot, is especially popular with the traveling salesmen.
Mr. Syverson married, in the fall of 1881, Miss Mattie Jansen, who was born January 24, 1860, and settled in Glynden in 1879. They have had two children; the eldest, Luther, is deceased; the younger, herein spoken of as the popular manager of the Syverson Hotel, was born on the home farm in Glynden township in 1884 and acquired his education in the district schools and at the Agricultural College at Fargo. He has had some six years’ experience in connection with the railroad offices of Glynden and is an active, wide-awake young man whose training especially fits him for his duties as a hotel manager.
Source
C.F. Cooper & Company, History of the Red River Valley, Past and Present: Including an Account of the Counties, Cities, Towns and Villages of the Valley from the Time of Their First Settlement and Formation, volumes 1-2; Grand Forks: Herald printing company, 1909.