1874 SETTLEMENT: MORE STORIES TO TELL

The Salem-Zion (North) Mennonite Church, located four miles east of Freeman, will play host to a special 150th anniversary observance of the Swiss-Volhynian settlement of the community next month. On Saturday evening, Sept. 7 and all day Sunday, Sept. 8, a series of programs and services will focus on and celebrate the immigration that brought Germans from Russia from eastern Europe to Dakota Territory beginning in 1874.

An opening worship service and presentation by Marnette Hofer and Tim L. Waltner of Heritage Hall Museum & Archives (HHM&A) will take place Saturday at 7 p.m. at the church, with an ice cream social to follow.

Then on Sunday, a 10 a.m. worship service will be led by Caley Ortman, Karen Andres and Corey Miller, with afternoon tours of historical markers scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. from the church bell tower. A celebration of choral music will conclude the activities Sunday night at 7 p.m. in Pioneer Hall.

Museum programming

As part of the 150th anniversary, HHM&A has been hosting a series of programs tracking the migration of this communities’ Anabaptist ancestors following the Radical Reformation of the 16th century, their journey to Russia around 1770 and their exodus from that land and move to America a century later.

A panel of three local historians — Norman Hofer, S. Roy Kaufman and Dan Flyger — have shared from varying perspectives during the three-part series, including during the museum’s Aug. 4 program on the pioneers’ arrival in Dakota Territory.

Their accounts were published last week.

Also sharing was Marnette (Ortman) Hofer, who offered additional context about what it was like when the Germans from Russia arrived in Yankton that fall of 1874 and the importance of what was the capital of Dakota Territory from 1861 to 1883.

Hofer said that, in the 1870s, Yankton was “the gateway to Dakota Territory” and noted that South Dakota’s railroads date back to 1872 when the original Dakota Southern Railroad completed its main line from Sioux City, Iowa to Vermillion and then to Yankton in February of 1873.

“The Missouri River had long been a major traffic way to Yankton, but the combination of river and railroad made Yankton the major warehousing center and loading terminal in the area,” she said. “Promoters predicted that that town was on its way to becoming the new St. Louis. It was the end of the railroad line, so just as many of our Germans from Russia immigrants were coming to Yankton and setting out for places north and west, others were also coming to this area.

“Remember,” Hofer continued, “the Civil War had just ended in 1865, and people were looking for new beginnings and new adventures.”

And people came.

In 1870, she said, the southern half of the territory — what later became South Dakota — had 11,776 residents. By 1880, that number was 98,268.

And just five years after that, by 1885, that number had grown to 263,411, and the number of platted towns went from 6 to 213.

“That era is referred to as the Great Dakota Boom and our forefathers were part of the railroads that shaped this region,” Hofer said, noting they created towns like Marion, Freeman and Menno, each located about eight miles apart to the southwest.

And Yankton was the perfect hub.

“With both the railroad and steamboat traffic, there were a lot of jobs available here,” she said. “Many of the early immigrants stayed in Yankton for a few days or months or even years to earn the money they needed to homestead on the open prairies.

Some of them stayed at the Germania House — a place where German-speaking people could go once they arrived in Yankton,” Hofer said. “It was a hotel, but more importantly, it was here that the immigrants could get a lay of the land. They could learn about where to go and where to get supplies without being taken advantage of just because they didn’t know the English language yet.”

She noted the Excelsior flour mill on Capitol Street, one of Yankton’s biggest industries that milled, packaged and shipped flour across the territory.

“Flour was such a staple for our forebears,” she said. “If they had bread and coffee, they were happy. And before the Hutterite colonies started up mills along the James River and such, this would have been where everyone got their flour from.”

Hofer also referenced the land office located at what is now 208 Walnut Street in Yankton, where settlers would finally come to buy or homestead land.

“I think it would be very interesting to research those early years our forefathers spent in Yankton,” she said. “There were some who rented homes in town. There were others who went out and dug into the hillsides and made a dugout sod home. Some worked to load and unload steamboats. Others found jobs working on the railroad. Some worked for local farmers. There are stories of exploring and going swimming in the Missouri River. I wonder what life was like in such a foreign place for these Germans coming from Russia.”

Hofer said that, after more than a month on the move, men found suitable places to homestead west and north of Yankton and made return trips to the land office in Yankton to secure the land before families embarked on the final leg of their journey.

Peter Jos. Waltner, who was nine years old at the time, wrote this about the arrival in Yankton, which led to the settlement of the greater Freeman community:

“As far as the tracks were built, we had been brought, and here we must remain in Yankton, Dakota Territory,” Hofer shared at the Aug. 4 program. “We had been on our journey over a month, at our goal, and yet still not quite at our goal. We rented lodging for a week. An empty store was available where we found room. The storekeeper brought a stove, set it up and showed the mothers how to bake and cook with it. Meanwhile, the fathers tended to a lot of the business …

“Slowly we advance further and further,” Hofer said. “Dwellings appear scarcer and scarcer. Finally, the day nears its end and the oxen desire some time to graze. They are unhitched and we begin to prepare for the night. The cows get milked, we drink the milk and eat the bread, and all have enough …”

Hofer concluded her remarks with both thanks and a broader perspective.

“Hopefully this will spark some interest in you going back and looking at your stories — your roots,” she said. “Something I remember Norman (Hofer) saying early on is, ‘this is our story, but I want you to find your story.’ And we certainly embrace that mentality.

“If you discover things, share them with us,” Hofer concluded. “Our archives are a collection of stories that have been shared by other people, and we continue to add to that, and that helps us in our mission of preserving and sharing the rich traditions that we talked about today.”

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