Fannie B. Severson was born on February 3, 1886, to Jacob F. and Eliza Rupp.  After completing high school, Fannie taught school in Eddysville, Ohio.  In 1915, Fannie married Samuel Zook, who she had met while enrolled in Goshen College, and together they 

moved to Rockford, Illinois.  Samuel taught music and German at Rockford Central High School.  During World War I, Fannie served as the Executive Director of the Red Cross at Camp Grant.

In 1920, Fannie and Samuel moved to Akron, Ohio, where Samuel died in 1929.  By this time Fannie had three children:  John, Josephine, and Robert.  Fannie resumed her teaching career in Akron, Ohio until she married Harry A. Severson on February 21, 1934 and moved back to Rockford.  Fannie died in Rockford on January 19, 1976.

image: Fannie Severson with an oar

In 1928, Harry purchased the J.H. Jeffery property, including a log cabin, which Fannie restored after she married Harry in 1934.  The cabin was used by the Severson family to host pig roasts, sleigh rides, and overnight camp-outs by the Girl Scouts.  Because of 

frequent vandalism, the cabin was donated and transported to the Wagon Wheel Resort in Rockton in 1969, where it was used as the depot and gift shop for the miniature trail railroad.

In May of 1928 and January of 1929, the Thomas A. Craig property was purchased.  The Craig house was used as a summer retreat by the Severson Family from 1929 through the 1950s.  At the Craig house, Fannie sponsored many special projects, including nature hikes, historical pageants, snowshoeing, wood cutting, deer watching and photography, mushroom hunting, and horseback riding.  (You can see the foundation of the Craig house between the parking lot and Montague Road).

The Severson Dells Dairy Farm was purchased from C. Herbert Lewis in 1929.  Harry used the farm to produce milk from his prize Guernsey herd and to show friends and local farmers the latest innovations in dairy production.  The stone farmhouse on the property is built of eighteen-inch dolomitic limestone quarried from the bluffs behind the dairy farm, and may date from the 1840s.  This would make the farmhouse one of the earliest structures built in Winnebago County.

The entire “dells” area was purchased jointly by Harry Severson and Howard D. Colman in 1924.  After Harry’s death, a division was made of the “dells” area between the Colman and Severson families.  

The Dells Deer Lodge, which is now used as the Severson Dells Nature Center, was built between 1952 and 1954.  The first design for the Deer Lodge was a large enclosed shelter house, which began prior to World War II.  The first plans, drawn in the late 1940s, included a large living room with a fireplace and two downstairs bedrooms.  The site chosen for the lodge was an old bur oak tree at the northwest corner of the building, estimated to be around 200 years old.  The paving bricks used for the kitchen and breezeway floors were taken from the old Illinois Central Railroad Depot in Rockford.

image: Harry & Jan Severson

Fannie donated the 369 acres Severson Dells Farm to the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District on April 30, 1975.  With the donation it was agreed that the land would be maintained and preserved to protect the flora and fauna native to the area in their natural state, and that the Forest Preserve District would develop the land and buildings for use as an outdoor education and wildlife study center.

This request by Mrs. Severson reflected the enjoyment and appreciation that she, her husband, Harry, and their family had derived from the Dells Farm.  It was her intention to preserve this enjoyment and appreciation of the Dells area so that others would have the opportunity to share and experience that wealth of knowledge derived from life and living things.

image: an excerpt from Rockford Register Star, Thursday, May 2, 1985

Montague Road, which lies on the northern boundary of this forest preserve, was originally a Native American footpath that gradually developed into a road as pioneers from New England and Midway (Rockford) began to settle the countryside in the 1830s.  The road is named for Richard Montague, who was one of the first dozen pioneers to settle Midway. Around 1843, Alonzo Hall, for whom Hall Creek is named, and his wife Melinda, came from Canada and homesteaded a tract of 1500 acres extending from what later became the 

Illinois Central Railroad right-of-way to include the present forest preserve.

There was once a dam that restrained the creek, and a sawmill where the handsome stand of white pines was converted into lumber.

image: Dolamite Cliffs at Severson Dells