Miner, Garfield & Annabelle family and their descendants.

by Mona Taggart

The opening of the Rosebud Reservation for settlement, brought Dennis Miner's grandparents, along with many other settlers, to the area in search of dreams and new adventure. James Miner and Grace Margaret Kamp journeyed to America from Heerjansdam, Holland.

On August 30, 1880, J.A.G. (Garfield) Miner, Dennis Miner's grandfather, was born in Pleasantville, IA. At the age of twelve, Garfield and his parents moved to Greely, County, NE. It was there that Garfield met his future bride, Annabelle Ogden, where they both attended school in
Nebraska.The two attended school for only six months of the year. It is not known if they even received an eighth grade education. The couple were strong believers that their children receive
a good education and encouraged them to strive toward meeting that goal.

Annabelle's parents, James Ogden and Ellen Mellor, came to the United States from England about 1860 and set up residency in Brookfield Township,Trumbul County, OH. They settled in
Greely County, NE, in about 1880. Annabelle was born on December 2, 1882. Annabelle and Garfield were joined in holy matrimony on December 15, 1899. They resided on a farm near
Brayton, NE, where their first children were born, Harlow and Madeline Marjorie.

When the Rosebud Reservation opened to settlers, Garfield drew 160 acres of land, positioned fourteen miles south and one and a half miles west of Gregory, the SW 1/4 of Section 22-95-73 of Carlock Township. The acreage lay about two miles north of the Nebraska border.

It was in September of 1904, that Grandad and Grandmother, along with two children, moved to South Dakota. They each drove a wagon and horses, one being covered for a place to
sleep and their belongings and the other carried a few farm tools, explained Dennis. He continued, "In their journey moving here, they ran into several thunderstorms and would have to hang
their bedding and whatever out on the sides of the wagon to dry, while they continued their journey here."

The couple's first home was a tent. They had also dug a cave on the property.
They then built a granary to live in. But, before they had completed the granary, a snow storm came up and blew their tent away. They had to move into the cave for a night while work was
completed on the granary. The lumber for their first building was hauled from Bonesteel on running gear, while his grandparents sat on sacks of hay. "My grandmother, Annabelle, made that
trip, carrying a glass water pitcher that she treasured," stated Dennis.

Their first home was located north of the site where the present buildings are erected on the south side of Indian Creek. The present buildings were all built in 1916. Two other buildings,
the granary and the corn crib, were moved from the original homestead to the present location, after flooding on the north side of the creek forced them to relocate their homestead. Garfield
was a large man, six feet tall and weighed over 200 pounds. He had curly auburn hair and blue eyes. "My grandmother was a great bread baker, using starter dough for the process,"
recalled Dennis. "My grandparents had many bachelor neighbors and friends that she would bake for." Some of those neighbors they had at the time included John Allward, August Vakiner,
Joe Gordon, Mike and Jim Anderson, William Thomas, Bill Anker, John Danner, Bill Steppat, Dav Beck, Henry Fahrenbach, Charles Mahlman, Bob and Kate Keneally, Susie Anderson, Oscar Rue, Carl Larson, August Bortz, John Vakiner, Shelly, Socshe, Dillman, Graves, Shattuck, Culbertson, Knott and to the south in Nebraska Mel Pratt, Jack Libolt, Red Shepperd, Donasons, McConnels, Fred Ogden (great uncle), Snyders and the Pattons,² added Dennis. The grass in the area in those years grew real tall and quite often they would have prairie fires, so the settlers would all plow fire breaks around the buildings for protection.

The town of Carlock laid six miles to the north and east of where the Miners resided. "This (Carlock) is where they sold cream and eggs and did all of their trading and business. I
remember, my grandmother saying Carlock had a bank, jail, saloons, and stores. I don¹t know how many people lived there," said Dennis. The village of Paxton was four miles to the west of
Carlock. The town of Carlock began to decrease in population and business entities when the railroad went through Gregory. My father, Jerome and aunt Irene were both born in South Dakota. My father was born on April 23, 1916, stated Dennis. The first schoolhouse in the area was built in 1906 and was built out of sod on Section 25 along the Gregory to Mills road, fourteen miles south of Gregory. In those years, many girls from Indiana would come to the area to teach school. "My grandmother boarded the teachers," commented Dennis.

In 1907, Dennis's grandfather allowed himself ten cents a month for pipe tobacco and they were allowed a mere $10.00 a month for groceries. My grandparents, as were others, were
pretty self sufficient. They butchered and processed their own beef, pork and poultry, explained Dennis. "My grandparents, as well as my parents, always had a large garden and fruit
trees. In the fall everything was canned, vegetables and fruit. Meat was processed by smoking, or made into sausage and was also canned. In these days for the most part, these things
have become a lost art," commented Dennis.

On March 1, 1907, Dennis' grandparents' inventory included ten head of cattle, a plow, seven head of horses, three sets of harnesses, one disc, a wagon and a buggy, a harrow, a
cultivator, fifty-six chickens, four ducks, one lister, twenty head of hogs, 800 bushel of corn, twenty-five bushel of potatoes, a mower and rake. They owed $100.00 and had $35.00 cash
on hand, sold hogs at $5.35 per hundred weight and taxes were a mere $16.93. Their inventory on the farm on April 1, 1911, included twenty-nine head of cattle, four sets of harnesses, a
disc, 350 bushel of corn, eleven horses, two wagons, drill, 50 bushel of wheat, seventeen hogs, a cultivator, thirty bushel of oats, forty-three pigs, a buggy, a mower and rake, 150
chickens, two plows, a corn planter, a harrow and they owed $300.00 and had $65.00 cash on hand. In 1915, taxes jumped to $31.50. Later in 1915, they purchased the SE 1/4 of Section
22 and in 1916 they built the present house and the barn that remains to this day. These are the same buildings that my parents, Jerome and Lena and family, lived in, as well as me and my
family, and are still living in today, stated Dennis.

In the early days, threshing machines were steam driven and they burned straw or coal. Water for the engine was hauled from a local pond or stream. The first grain was stacked and later
came shock threshing, as there weren¹t many threshing machines in the country. Farmers had to wait in line and they helped each other from farm to farm.

By 1920, the farmers were raising more hogs and cattle. Eight to ten neighbors would get together and would start about 4:00 a.m. by eating breakfast. They then would haul eight to ten
hogs per wagon to Gregory and unload at the depot stockyards at about 4:00 a.m. the next morning. They were loaded on a train and shipped to Omaha, NE The owner of the livestock would then ride the caboose and be in Omaha, NE, the next morning. He or she would then be given a pass to ride the passenger train back home.

Occasionally, Chicago Northwestern Railroad would run a special train to Chicago, IL, with cattle. The neighbors would get together and drive cattle to Gregory and load in cattle cars for
the trip to Chicago, IL. Here again, as time progressed, large trucks took over the hauling of livestock, grain and about every commodity that is used in this country, commented Dennis.
I think my grandparents' first car was a Whippet in the 1920's, stated Dennis. Then came the dust storms and grasshoppers of the dirty thirties.

My grandparents and family went into raising turkeys and sheep. They purchased incubators and started hatching their own turkeys and would raise several thousand in a year's time. In
the fall the turkeys would have to be dressed, chilled and packed in barrels and shipped to Chicago, IL. Chicken eggs were also shipped to Chicago, IL, by the case, explained Dennis. I
remember my grandmother and dad talking about how the turkeys in the spring and the early summer, would chase and catch grasshoppers, but as the summer would go by, they'd get tired of
grasshoppers and just let them go right on by. I can relate to that, as some summers we'd have a lot of hoppers and the wild turkeys would do the same, recalled Dennis.

In the early years, Dennis remembers how his grandmother, Annabelle, would hatch her own chickens by setting twenty-five to thirty setting hens in wood boxes and they would be
turned out once a day to eat and drink and then would be put back to setting. "Those were the days of a lot of wood boxes," stated Dennis. "My mother, Lena, was born on November 22,
1917, to Tom and Isabelle Aspinall in Mullen, NE. As a little girl, she lived on a ranch about forty-five miles southwest of Valentine, NE" noted Dennis.

Jerome traveled to Grand Island, NE, after graduating high school to attend business college. "My father worked his way through college, working at restaurants, washing dishes or
whatever was asked of him and also worked at a gas station," stated Dennis. This is where Jerome met his future wife, Lena. The couple was married in September of 1938 in Grand Island,
NE. A wood schoolhouse was built three quarter mile east of the Miner farm and was called District 31. "I also attended District 31, as well as, my brothers and sisters, Gordon (Dennis), July
6, 1939; Donald, 1940 (deceased); Gerald, August 18, 1942; Sherianne, February 24, 1944 and Beverly, March 22, 1954. We attended high school in Gregory," advised Dennis. Donald's life
was cut short at the age of nine, when he became the victim of a dirt cave-in along the creek.

The District 31 schoolhouse for many years was used not only for school, but also a place for Sunday school for the youth and the adults that resided in the community.My grandparents,
as well as my parents, were members of the Fairmont Methodist Church and later members of the Methodist Church in Gregory. My family is also a member of the same church, commented
Dennis.I remember as a kid, spike pitching grain and alfalfa bundles and as years progressed, came windrowers and combines. The first tractor that was on this farm, a H Farmall, was
bought new in 1940 for $900.00 and a lister, disc and a go-devil were also bought at the time, recalled Dennis. The mechanical revolution in agriculture was now on it's way. As a kid,when I
was in grade school, we fed cattle in the winter time with a hay rack and horses. So I can say from the time my grandparents homesteaded up to when my parents, Jerome and Lena, took
over up to the middle 1950's, we used horses quite a little, commented Dennis. Working horses for the most part now days has become a lost art in agriculture. I still use horses to work
cattle, advised Dennis. My parents took over the farm/ranch operation in the early 1940's and built and added to the farm and ranch. My parents raised cattle, hogs, sheep and chickens, as
did my grandparents. As we siblings got older, they branched out into cattle feeding and backgrounding calves to yearlings,and also ran a cow herd, explained Dennis. His grandparents semi-retired and went into partnership with Jerome and Lena.

In 1943, the couple finally took over the operation. A house was moved from the north side of the creek, 1/4 mile north, to the home place where his grandfather and grandmother resided
until Garfield passed away on April 14, 1948. Annabelle resided in the home for one more year, until she relocated to Gregory in 1949. She passed away on January 8, 1968. Both of them
are buried at the I.O.O.F Cemetery in Gregory.. Garfield was known as an honest kindhearted man, a good friend and neighbor. He loved to joke and was a member of the school board of
District 31. He also sat on the Carlock Township board for most of the years that he lived in the community and was a member of the Gregory Masonic Lodge. Annabelle believed in hard work
and helping those less fortunate.

It was in 1948, that his parents got the local youth together and put together a 4-H club, that is still in existence today, the Ramis Ramblers 4-H Club in 1948. My brother and sisters were all
members, as were my children, Kris, Scott, Holly and Allen. 4-H was a big thing in our family, as was FHA, Vo Ag and FFA, commented Dennis. The first Friday night of each month was
anticipated by everyone to get together for the adults to play pitch and the youth to play after their 4-H meeting. Dennis remains a county leader and has dedicated the last twenty three years of
his life to the organization. His wife, Alice, has been involved with the organization for the past fifteen years. The club is still in operation and is under the direction of Darlene Totton and Ellen
Hoffman. Prior to electricity coming to the homestead, coal, corn cobs and wood were used for heating purposes.

In 1950, a 32 volt generator was used for electricity, before the rural electric cooperative arriving in 1952. The first telephone was a crank model. The phone was used until years later
when it was replaced with a dial phone.I remember our phone number was 5835 and our ring was two longs and one short. The reason it was this way was because we were all on a party
line. Everyone knew more about your business than one would know himself, chuckled Dennis. When Dennis wanted to call up a girl for a date, he would travel to Gregory to the hotel and use a pay phone. My parents could never figure out why I never called any girls at home. The nice thing about this type of system, if someone needed help, all they had to do was dial a number and someone was sure to hear you and be there to help. The name of our telephone company was Indian Creek Telephone Company. It was named after the creek that runs through the farm into the Keya Paha River, explained Dennis. He added, "Like I said, about going to town to use a pay phone, I was in Chicago, IL, in November of 1959 as one of the five 4-H representatives from South Dakota at the National 4-H Club Congress. I had a shorthorn fat steer in the 4-H division at the Chicago Livestock Expo. The steer placed 13th out of a class of 110,
so I was really proud of that," stated Dennis.

He continued the story, "While there, I met this girl from Yakima, WA, who was also at the 4-H Congress and also exhibiting a Hereford steer. We became friends over the seven days we
were there. Well, a couple weeks or so later when I got back from Chicago, IL, she called me at home and we conversed for a few minutes. Later on in the winter, dad had a township
meeting hereand board members at the time were giving me a hard time, as they thought I was getting married in the spring. So, this was the reason I went to town and used the pay phone in
the hotel to call girls for a date. Upon graduating from high school in 1958, Dennis was called to serve his country in the Army for three years, from 1962 through 1964. Dennis is a paid life
member of the American Legion. After completing his service, he attended college part-time at the University of Michigan where he received an associates degree in industrial management. On
May 29, 1965, Dennis married Anna Marie Blajonovich from Ecorse, MI. Dennis¹s brother Gary, farmed with their folks for ten years until the spring of 1978. Dennis then took a job in Trenton,
MI, and worked for the Chrysler Corporation for ten years as a foreman, and the last three years as the general foreman. Kris was born in Sioux Falls, while her siblings, Scott and Holly, were
born in Michigan. "Our three children worked on the farm and ranch as I did when I was growing up," commented Dennis. Ann passed away in 1988, due to a lengthy illness with cancer. "Later
on, with God's blessing, I met Alice Vakiner and her little boy, Allen. Alice and I have four children," stated Dennis.

Kris graduated from Gregory High School in 1986. She later graduated from SDSU in Brookings with a bachelors degree in mass communications and masters in social work. Kris now
works in a juvenile agency as a supervisor, overseeing eleven employees and resides in Prescott, WI, with her daughter Kylie. Scott resides in Loveland, CO, and has five children, Alicia, Josie
Ryan, Gabby and Sophie. He graduated from Gregory High School in 1988 and served eleven years in the military. Scott attended the University of Colorado where he obtaied a degree as a
registered nurse and currently works in the Pooter Valley Hospital in Ft. Collins, CO, as the emergency room supervisor. In the fall of 2003, he returned to college to obtain a degree as a nurse practitioner. Holly graduated high school in Gregory in 1996. She attended the University of South Dakota in Vermillion where she first obtained a bachelors degree in biology. She continued her studies and received her masters in neuro-science research and currently works for Abbott Pharmaceuticals, working in her own laboratory in Gurnee, IL. Allen, a 1999 Gregory High School graduate, is a member of the United States Army division and is currently stationed in Ft. Riley, KS, where he works as a diesel and track mechanic. Allen was born in Wyoming. Dennis also served as a school board member for six years in the Gregory Public School System.

The farm/ranch operation was run about the same until the 1970's when Dennis' parents retired and Dennis took over the operation. "I continued to run a cow herd and backgrounding
calves to yearlings and raised both feeder pigs and fat hogs," explained Dennis. "As the livestock industry changed and the cost of equipment increased, the farm changed with the times to
cow/calf and stocker operation, so as to decrease the cost of operation and to increase the weight of calves weaned per cow by backing up the calving dates and weaning or selling calves later," noted Dennis. Through the last 100 years, the farm/ranch operation has grown from the original 160 acres, as well as the Miner family."I might add that the farm and ranch life has
blessed me with the memories and an extended family and being able to stay as close to the basic ways of life, as one will ever get," Dennis stated gratefully. He added, "We are still living on
the original homestead and using the buildings that my grandparents built in 1904. The way I see it right now, I will be here yet, twenty-five years from now, good Lord willing. In closing, I
have to take my hat off to my grandparents, my parents and everyone¹s family that had a dream for adventure, the courage and strength to see it through to what our area is like today. I
guess, after all, if i wasn't for them and that dream, we wouldn¹t be here today!" concluded Dennis.