WARNKVIST family

by Mona Taggart
In 1904, when this part of the Rosebud Reservation was opened to settlers, it was then occupied by the Sioux tribe. Before the Sioux moved into the lands of the Rosebud
Reservation, it was inhabited by the Aricara or Ree Native Americans. The Ree were eventually driven out of the area by the Sioux after a conflict that had engaged for about
forty years. Thomas Flood was empowered by the United States Government about 1880, to appropriate the land of Gregory County to the Native American residents.

Each member of every Native American family was allotted a tract of land, until President Theodore Roosevelt authorized the opening of a portion of the Rosebud Reservation,
under the Homestead Law of 1903 and 1904. This act included a trustee agreement, where the government was to reimburse the Native Americans for the lands occupied,
which was to be paid from funds, paid by the homesteaders journeying into the untamed lands of the newly opened reservation.

Wilhelm Warnqvist was born in Sweden on March 10, 1879, along with his twin brother, Oscar, to Maria Varnqvist and Petter Varnqvist, (as spelled in Sweden), and both
were raised there. The Warnkvists have used several different spellings throughout the years on documents. A second cousin to the family still resides in their native land and
continues to spell the last name Varnqvist. Through research, the Warnkvist family has been unable to discover any other Warnkvists living in the United States.

The family has a leather bound photo album that has pictures of family members overseas, however, they are unable to identify the members of the family, who stayed behind in
Sweden.

Wilhelm arrived in America on February 23, 1902, and was a passenger on the ship Campania, that departed from Liverpool, England and docked at Ellis Island.

Wilhelm was sponsored by John Burgdale of Alcester. He worked as a farmhand for John and also for his cousin, Rudolf Olson, until he came west. He had changed the
spelling of his last name to Warnkvist, but was referred to by his family and friends simply as Billy. Wilhelm made application for homestead entry within the Sioux ceded lands of
the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota on July 23, 1904 with the Chamberlain Land District in Yankton. He was granted a certificate from the land office in Chamberlain that
shown he was duly qualified and was authorized to enter upon and examine the unlotted and unreserved portion of the ceded lands at any time prior to August 8, 1904, for the
sole purpose of aiding him in making a selection and entry of said lands. When Wilhelm made entry, he was twenty-five years of age and weighed 134 pounds.

He traveled to Bonesteel and received confirmation of a homestead at the land office on August 9, 1904. His application for a homestead was #125. He paid $174.00 for
the northwest section of number 8, in township 96 north of range 72 west, containing 160 acres. After receiving his homestead of 160 acres, Wilhelm built a sod house on the
southeast corner of the land. Later he built a 12x10 wood home in the northwest corner. This building would later become the family's wash house, when around 1907, a two
story house was purchased in the City of Gregory. The house was 24x20 in size and was moved to the homestead by horses, where it currently remains at the same site that
Wilhelm built the first wood house. The move was completed in the early spring while the ground and creeks were still froze. However, when they crossed the Mathisen Creek
(a half mile from its destination) it fell through the ice and a steam engine had to be hired to pull it out of the creek.

It was in 1906 that homestead proof was supplied to the United States Government. Wilhelm described the land as gently rolling prairie best for farming.

In Wilhelm's testimony of claimant, he advised that he had built a house on January 4, 1905, and then a frame house measuring 12x12, sod barn 16x18, a sod chicken house
6x12, had a good well, one and half acres fenced, 550 trees, 25 tons of hay at a value of $200.00. He also noted in his filing that he was unmarried and had resided continuously
since January 4, 1905. He had also mentioned he had been gone in February and March working in Dallas, which laid one and half miles away. At this time, Wilhelm had 55 acres
cultivated and had harvested two crops since homesteading. Other homesteaders who filed testimony of witness for Wilhelm included Anton Srp, Robert Coatsworth, Waclay
Olmer, and George Duvall.

Wilhelm's application was published in the Carlock South Dakotan for five consecutive weeks, from August 3 through August 31, 1906. The newspaper was printed in
Carlock and was published weekly. In the early years of homesteading, Wilhelm, would put his harvest of potatoes next to him while sleeping, to keep them from freezing.

This house is still the main structure of the Warnkvist current home, which had a porch and bedroom built onto it 1952, and in 1968 a bathroom and utility room was added. In
1989 they enlarged the living room and added a bedroom with a bath.

Wilhelm befriended the Connoyer family that lived one mile east of him. They were a Sioux Native American family that lived near Ponca Creek. He received a lot of help from
them and credited his success to them as they helped him in many ways. One of the guys would even cook meals for Wilhelm after he had been out all day breaking ground with
his horse and plow.

"On Sundays, Harlen and Howard, Wilhelm's sons, would go to the Connoyers and eat dinner with them and watch them break horses and trap along the creek," advised
Goldie, Wilhelm's granddaughter. She added, "They had a good relationship."

During this time, Wilhelm was visited by the only African American living in the area, Oscar Micheaux, who resided two miles north of Wilhelm. On one of Micheaux's visits in
the early spring, when the snow was just beginning to melt, Oscar walked barefoot to Wilhelm's home, and brought his new gun along to show him. While Oscar was sitting in
the house showing his newly acquired possession to Wilhelm, the gun discharged and almost hit Wilhelm's big toe, leaving a hole in the floor of the house.

Wilhelm supplemented his income by digging wells at the original townsite of Dallas. He worked with several men, but as times got tougher, he and Ed Vosika chose each other
to dig the wells, as the city fathers said they could only afford two men.
On April 16, 1907, Wilhelm deposited in the General Land Office in Mitchell, his final payment for the homestead, located on the northwest quarter of section eight in
Township ninety-six, north of Range seventy-two west of the fifth principle meridian, and was granted ownership by President Theodore Roosevelt.

On October 12, 1915, at the age of 37, Wilhelm received his certificate of naturalization. He was five foot, five and a half inches tall, with blue eyes and dark brown hair. In
1915, a corn crib/granary was built. Prior to this a large barn, hog shed and chicken coop had been erected.

In 1920, Wilhelm returned to Sweden, his native country, to visit his family. Wilhelm had told local neighbors and friends that he was going to marry the pretty dark haired
girl, that traveled by his place to school when she graduated. That girl was Emily Lopour, who lived two miles southeast of Wilhelm's. She had moved to the area from Clarkston,
NE, with her parents and eight other siblings in 1910.

Wilhelm held true to what he said, and on January 25, 1921, he married that pretty dark haired girl, Emily, on a Tuesday morning at 11:00 a.m. at the home of Reverend
Kilbourn. The happy couple was accompanied by Mary Lopour, a sister of the bride, and William J. Kucera served in the capacity of bridesmaid and best man. The popular double
ring ceremony was used. The bride and her maid carried beautiful bouquets of delicately tinted white carnations and ferns. The bride is one of the charming daughters of John
Lopour, a prosperous and substantial farmer living southwest of Burke, and the groom is one of the best known and most prosperous young men in the same part of the country.

The couple had five children, which all were born at home. Howard Harry, born October 28, 1921; Harlen William, born on March 11, 1924; Marie Evelyn (Bekish), born September
30, 1925, resides in Sioux City, IA; Ruby Betty (Barber), February 21, 1927, makes her home in South Sioux City, NE; and Ardyth Darlene (Karel), May 27, 1929, resides northwest
of Dallas. The family attended the Fairmont Methodist Church, which was located three miles southwest of the Warnkvist homestead. All of their children were baptized at the
church.

The children attended the Ponca Valley School, District #83, which was located on the next hill east of the place. Several teachers stayed with the family during the school year.

Some only when the weather was bad, as well as, others for most of the year. Some of the children who attended school with Harlen at Ponca Valley were Helen Boortz,
Lawerence Kreber, Eleanor Kucera, Ida Boortz, Howard Warnkvist, Karl Peterson, Manfred Peterson, Robert Papousek, Joseph Kucera, Ivan Boortz, Louie Papousek, Idella
Kreber, Lonera Peterson, Marie Warnkvist and Llyod Totenhagen, in. Clarance Lund was the teacher.

Wilhlem used horses all his life to raise his crops of hay, corn and oats for his stock cows, milk cows, hogs and horses. His first car was a Model T. Travelling to town
became much easier then. The car was utilized to haul buttermilk from town for his hogs. He attached barrels to the side of the car to haul the buttermilk. Harlen found out that if
you took a corner too short, they tipped over and made quite a mess.

Emily did her part for the family by raising geese and ducks, which she cleaned and sold to the Omaha Cold Storage. She also raised chickens for the eggs. They separated
the milk and sold the cream. The separated milk was then fed to the hogs. Everything had a purpose in the early years. Goldie recalled, "Dad always talked about, when it was
cold they lived in this little kitchen. There was a wall and a door in here. They would sit in there all night in the evenings, with the wood stove, and stripped feathers by lantern for
feather ticks (bedding). Grandma always had geese, so they had to strip feathers." "Dad didn't like it," stated Betty. Betty and Goldie laughed at the fact that Harlen would
always be smiling about finishing his duties first. Little known to the others, when no one was looking Harlen would throw feathers into the cook stove, making less work for him.

"Dad was always trying to find the easy way out," chuckled Goldie. Emily made sure no one left without feeding them or at least coffee when they came visiting or stopped by.

Corn picking turned into a contest on the Warnkvist homestead. Harlen and his mother were one team and Ruby and her father were the other family team. They would
challenge each other to see who could pick the most.Harlen's team was always much faster. It was noted in the family that Ruby's team was slower, due to the fact that she
was left handed and her and her dad would find themselves in predictments. Goldie recalled when Ruby was hit in the head once by a ear of corn, and that it only took once to
remember to be on the correct side of her father.

"Harlen and Howard used to go out and ride the cows. They would put them in the barn and then out the door they would go. It's a wonder that they didn't knock their head
off," Sylvia stated. "It was a good thing by that time that the milk cows were broke to ride. Ruby went out after them (milk cows) and she hurt her leg and rode one of the cows
home," Goldie advised. "Who was with dad when they went to the mailbox and found chocolate in there?" asked Betty. Goldie began to laugh and replied, "It was Ruby and dad.

They went to get the mail. At that time, they would send all the freebie things out. Well, it was chocolate, Ex-lax. Not only did they eat what they had here, they went to the
neighbors and got it out of the neighbor's mailbox too!" She added, "Ruby said that their stomachs hurt so bad that she thought they were going to die. They were so sick."

Betty laughed, "We still ask her how that chocolate was and she'll say, 'Oh, just shut up!'" "When they went to high school, they went to town (Harlen and his siblings). Marie,
dad and Howard had a room together. Each one had to cook a meal. Oatmeal was a staple in their diet and when dad made oatmeal he always told them if you don't eat what I
cook, I'm not cooking again," stated Goldie. She continued, "So dad would make a big skillet of oatmeal. Marie and dad would take their little helping partand leave the bigger
portion for Howard. He also advised his family members that if they didn't clean up everything off their plate he wasn't cooking agian. You see a trend? I think dad just wanted a
way to get out of cooking all together in his younger days. So Howard would just keep eating. It's funny it didn't kill him," advised Goldie.

Goldie related the following story, "One time they weren't watching the oatmeal and they must have stepped out of the room, because the room was filled with smoke when they
returned from the burnt oatmeal. They opened the window to air out the room and at first people thought the place was on fire due to so much smoke."

Goldie laughed," Dad said there was no saving the skillet!"

Goldie and Betty recalled hearing about their dad and his siblings searching through the Native American caves that were on the Warnkvist land, and also bobsledding down
a hill into a barbed wire fence. These were among some of the things they did to keep themselves entertained in the good ole' days. Harlen loved to dance. He would go and
grab someone to dance. He didn't know who they were nor did they know him. "It was a hoot to him, because that was just his way. He just laughed because the other boys
weren't going to ask anyone to dance. He just had that kind of personality," stated Goldie. Betty added, "Sometimes he would just jump in and take someone's dance partner and
the one who had been dancing with the partner he just took would be left out there on the dance floor alone."

Sylvia also noted, "When he would dance with a girl, they would ask, 'We'll what's your name', he would reply, 'I'm Ivan Boortz, and then Ivan Boortz would ask the same one to
dance, and the same question was asked, and Ivan would say, 'I'm Ivan Boortz," laughed Sylvia.
"Harlen was kind of a prankster," acknowledged Goldie.

During the thirties, many people moved on. As they passed the Warnkvist farm, they would stop and water their animals at the farm well. There were very few wells in the
area to have enough water to share as the creeks were dry also. This well is still serving the family operation today.

In the spring in 1940, Wilhlem and Emily rented out the farm and moved to Alcester to care for his ailing cousin, Rudolf Olson. Their renters were Joe Vawser and Ernest
Dummer. Each of the renters stayed three years until Wilhelm returned in the spring of 1946. Buzz Labahn moved them back to the area.

During this time Howard married Marion Petersen of Alcester. Marie (Max Bekish), in 1947, and Ruby (Robert Barber) found jobs at the battery in Sioux City, IA, where they met
their future husbands, who worked at the packing house.

Their son, Harlen and daughters Ardyth and Ruby, returned to the family farm with their parents. Harlen started doing most of the farming when they returned because of
Wilhelm's health problems. Ardyth married Louie Karel, Jr. in 1949 and moved northwest of Dallas.

However, in the fall, Ruby returned to Sioux City and continued working in the battery after she married.

Wilhelm became a member of the Rosebud Electric Association in December of 1949 and had electricity installed on the homestead in early 1950. This truly helped to make life
easier on the farm.

Before Harlen married he bought a tractor to help with the daily operations of farm work. He continued to add new farm equipment through the years. Wilhlem died at the age of
70 in 1951. Harlen and his mother, Emily, continued to run the farm together until Harlen married Sylvia Grim on March 11, 1955. She was the only child of H.C. and Theresa Grim
of Gregory and was born on March 2, 1933. "Our wedding dance was the first dance in the new auditorium (Gregory Memorial Auditorium), after it was first built," recalled
Sylvia. She added, "The stage wasn't even built in there yet. There was a platform on the south side where the band played."

After Emily moved to Gregory in the fall of 1955, they rented the farm from her until early 1966, when they purchased it from her prior to her death in May.

Harlen and Sylvia had four children together, William Harlen, born on August 19, 1956; Goldie Sylvia, May 17, 1960; Glen Calvin, March 28, 1962; and Betty Marie, born on March
1, 1968.

In 1958, the Warnkvist family farm was featured as mystery farm number 50. The cutline read, "Harlan Warnkvist has been the operator of the 169 acre farm, for the past
twelve years. It is located five miles south and two and a half miles east of Gregory. The farm was homesteaded by his father, Wm. Warnkvist, in 1904. Sylvia Grim and Harlan
Warnkvist were married on March 11, 1955. They have one son, William Harlen Warnkvist, two years old. Mr. Warnkvist rotates corn, oats and alfalfa on the land. He farms an
additional 320 acres. He enjoys hunting and fishing and is a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge of Gregory."

It was in the mid 1960's, that Harlen also replaced the chicken coop with a large schoolhouse he bought north of Gregory. It was the Rezac School and was moved on a
haysled by Woodrow Rezac, who had been a student at the school.

The children were baptized in the St. John's Lutheran Church in Gregory and attended the Jones West Central rural school, which was located thee miles south of the farm. The
first three kids attended the school until it was closed in 1971 when they were then bussed to Gregory. Harlen added onto the barn on the south and east sides over the years
and also built a machine shed in 1984. He remodeled the hog house and made it into a cattle shed for calving several years after he quit raising hogs. Other additions have been
several steel grain bins over the past fifteen years.

Harlen and Sylvia purchased the quarter of land east of the homestead that adjoins it in 1970. This doubled the farm size although Harlen had been renting and farming this
quarter before the purchase. Harlen also rented a quarter of land west of the farm owned by Louie Matejka for most of his life. In the late 1970's, he also rented two more
quarters from his neighbor, Gus Dvorak. Dvorak was not only a neighbor, but an uncle.
Harlen was well known for attending farm sales throughout the local area and bringing home the bargain of the day, which accounts for the large amount of things "in the trees"
and "out in the pasture." Due to the large collection of odds and ends, many guys would stop by to find out if he had a certain part that they were needing.

Harlen repaired most of the machinery himself, by salvaging parts from his farm sale purchases. Recycling was common practice.

An example was the first shower on the homestead was a stall made next to the chicken house of old boards from a torn down old building and a 55 gallon barrel that was
attached to the roof of the chicken house which was filled with a garden hose.

After a long day in the hot summer sun, you could open the nozzle that had been attached to the hose at the bottom of the barrel and have a hot shower.

Harlen served on the Jones Township board as a supervisor clerk, served on the Jones Township School Board and he also volunteered his time as a lineman for the small local
telephone company. He believed in taking care of your neighborhood. He was also a dedicated member of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows, (I.O.O.F.).
All of their children graduated from Gregory High School, William in 1974; Goldie in 1978, Glen in 1980, and Betty in 1986.

Harlen and Sylvia supported their family by selling the calves off their stock and milk cows. They sold hogs until 1974 when the milk cow herd increased and started selling
whole milk. The herd had reached over 60 head and brothers, William and Glen, were considering getting larger and becoming partners with their father.

Tragically, Glen was killed on July 9, 1982, at the young age of twenty, while he was in the field haying. He was trying to fix the windrower head and it fell, pinning him
underneath and hitting his temple.

Sylvia has always raised chickens to sell eggs and raised enough ducks, geese and chickens to feed the family, besides growing large gardens and canning the produce.

Harlen passed away on February 13, 1998, one month shy of his 74th birthday, from complications due to farmers lung that turned into emphysema and congestive heart failure.
Sylvia still resides on the homestead with her son, William (Bill), who now is the third generation to farm the place.

They continue to raise stock cattle and also have a small dairy herd. Sylvia still raises chickens and sells eggs and butchers enough for her family to enjoy.

Daughter Goldie is employed at Rosebud Electric Cooperative in Gregory as a billing clerk. She purchased a home, which was moved onto the property that her mother Sylvia
inherited from her parents in Gregory.

Daughter Betty works at BankWest in Gregory as a teller and lives in the house her mother was raised in, which makes the sister's neighbors.

Although they are employed in town, they still return to the farm to help in any way they can. Goldie can be found on the weekends and evenings at the farm helping with the
milking, farming, gardening or with whatever else needs completed before the day ends. Betty can be counted on for great meals and baked goods, as she seemed to inherit
both grandmother's love and gift for cooking.

If there's a birthday, anniversary, family gathering or graduation, Betty can be found home baking cake after cake for many of the citizens of Gregory and the surrounding
areas.

Betty was previously employed at the Ranch House Drive-In for ten years as a cook. Wilhelm taught his children the value of a good neighbor, for that is one key element that
helped him succeed. That was carried on by his son Harlen, and now his namesake William.
If you can't find Bill at home, most likely you will find him at the neighbors helping with cattle or fixing a piece of equipment. He may also be fulfilling his duties on the township
board, keeping the roads in Jones Township up to date. Bill is also a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge and serves as a trustee.

Goldie and Betty are very active in the Sunshine Club and the Hy-Hope Homemakers Club in Gregory. They are both also involved the 'We Just Care Haunted House.'

Betty has served as past president of the Gregory Commercial Club, member of the Gregory Community Club, and has been involved with the community theatre and a trustee of
the Bohemian National Cemetery. Bill continues to run the family's farming operation that Wilhelm homesteaded one hundred and one years ago.