Syver Swenson Rodning was born in Hol, Hallingdal, in 1869 to Sven Olson Rodning and Tarand Olsdatter. He attended school and took a two-year course at Asker Agricultural School. He was a substitute teacher before immigrating to America in 1894. In America he served as a Norwegian teacher in different congregations of the Red River Valley. He studied at Augsburg Seminary in Minneapolis for three years but was in poor health and had to give up his studies. Instead, he began farming on his homestead in Benson County, North Dakota, in 1901. Later he went into the hardware and furniture store business with a cousin, Selmer Ellingson, in Epping, Williams County. He moved back to the farm in 1910. He married Bergit Bjella in 1907. They had six children. He became a citizen of the United States in 1900. In 1921 Syver was elected to office in Minnewaukan county and the family moved to the city. Syver was Register of Deeds for fourteen years and kept records of all real estate in the county. He was a writer and had several of his stories published in the magazine “Skandinaven.”