Norwegian pioneer, Moravian missionary, physician, b. Christiansand, Norway. He attended the Mission Institute at Stavanger, Norway (1844-1848), and migrated to the U.S. in 1849 at the request of Norwegian Moravians in Milwaukee. Uniting the congregation there, he organized the first Moravian church in Wisconsin (Oct. 1849). In 1850 he was ordained a minister, and with Nils O. Tank (q.v.) founded a communal village called Ephraim near Green Bay. Often impulsive and rash, Iverson was suspicious of Tank's motives, quarreled with him, and in 1853, with most of the villagers, moved to a new site (also called Ephraim) near Eagle Island. In 1858 he was elected the first superintendent of schools in northern Door County. He helped establish the public school system in the area, and donated land for school use. In 1859 he helped build a church in Ephraim and organized a Moravian church in Sturgeon Bay. Iverson made frequent trips throughout Wisconsin, and in 1864, after incurring the opposition of the large Lutheran congregation in Ephraim, left to do missionary work in Illinois. Returning to Wisconsin in 1866, he founded a third Moravian congregation in Green Bay, but in 1883 was deposed from the church after being convicted of "gross moral delinquency." He then spent a year studying medicine in Chicago, returned to Green Bay, and practiced medicine until 1898; he then moved to Sturgeon Bay, where he continued to practice until his death. H. R. Holand, Hist. of Door Co. (2 vols., Chicago, 1917); Wis. Mag. Hist., 24; Proc. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 1908 (1909); Sturgeon Bay Advocate, Jan. 17, 1907; WPA MS.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
