Homesteading, Heritage, and Heirlooms: Preserving Southeast South Dakota's History Through Storage

The towns of southeast South Dakota — Tyndall, Springfield, Freeman, Tabor, Menno, Scotland, and beyond — were built by Czech, German-Russian, Mennonite, and Hutterite settlers who came with almost nothing and built everything. Generations later, their descendants still live here — and their heirlooms, documents, and artifacts tell a story worth preserving. Here’s how to protect that history.

The Heritage of Southeast South Dakota

This corner of the state has one of the richest cultural tapestries in the Midwest.

Czech and Bohemian settlers arrived in Bon Homme County in the 1870s and 1880s, establishing communities around Tabor and Tyndall. They brought polka music, kolaches, and a work ethic that turned prairie into farmland. Czech Days in Tabor continues to celebrate this heritage every June.

German-Russian immigrants settled throughout Hutchinson and Bon Homme counties, bringing farming traditions perfected in the Russian steppe. Towns like Menno, Scotland, and Tripp bear their influence in architecture, food, and community structure.

Mennonite and Hutterite communities established themselves around Freeman, bringing distinctive traditions in farming, food, and faith. Schmeckfest — Freeman’s famous festival of food tasting — celebrates this heritage every spring and draws visitors from across the region.

The Homestead Act of 1862 brought all of these groups here. For $18 in filing fees, a person could claim 160 acres of public land by living on it and improving it for five years. The original homestead claims, land patents, and personal journals from this era are priceless documents — and many still sit in attics and basements across the region.

What’s Worth Preserving

If your family has been in southeast South Dakota for generations, you likely have items that are historically significant, personally priceless, or both:

Documents and Papers

• Original homestead claims and land patents — these are primary historical documents
• Immigration papers — ship manifests, naturalization certificates, correspondence from the old country
• Family bibles — many Czech and German families recorded births, deaths, and marriages in the family bible
• Letters and correspondence — in Czech, German, Low German, or English
• Photographs — tintypes, cabinet cards, and early prints of original homesteads, family portraits, and town scenes
• Church records — baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death certificates from local parishes
• Handwritten recipes — kuchen, kolache, strudel, fleischkuechle, and other traditional recipes in original handwriting
• Farm records — early ledgers, crop records, and livestock inventories

Physical Heirlooms

• Furniture — hand-built tables, chairs, trunks, and cabinets brought from Europe or crafted in the first years of settlement
• Textiles — quilts, embroidered linens, traditional clothing, handwoven rugs
• Tools — hand-forged farm implements, woodworking tools, kitchen equipment
• Musical instruments — accordions, fiddles, and harmonicas that played at community dances
• Kitchenware — cast iron pieces, hand-carved wooden utensils, ceramic crocks, butter molds
• Religious items — family rosaries, prayer books, icons, and devotional art

Farming Heritage

• Heirloom equipment — hand tools, early mechanical implements, and horse-drawn equipment that tells the story of how the land was worked
• Seed varieties — some families still grow heritage varieties brought by their ancestors
• Brand irons and livestock marks — registered brands with decades of history
• Cooperative records — early elevator records, creamery records, and mutual aid society documents

How to Store Historical Items

The biggest threat to these irreplaceable items isn’t neglect — it’s well-meaning storage in bad conditions. That trunk in the attic, the box in the basement, the documents in the barn — South Dakota’s climate is slowly destroying them.

Paper and Documents

Paper is incredibly sensitive to environment: - Temperature: Ideal storage is 65-70°F with minimal fluctuation - Humidity: 30-40% relative humidity — too wet causes mold and foxing; too dry makes paper brittle - Light: All light degrades paper and ink. Complete darkness is best. - Acid-free materials only — regular cardboard boxes, newspaper wrapping, and rubber bands all release acids that yellow and weaken paper

Storage method: - Place documents in acid-free folders inside acid-free boxes - Interleave fragile items with acid-free tissue - Never laminate original documents — it’s irreversible and can damage them - Make high-quality digital scans of everything as backup - Store in a climate-controlled unit — this is non-negotiable for irreplaceable documents

Photographs

• Handle with cotton gloves — oils from skin cause permanent damage
• Store in archival photo boxes with acid-free dividers
• Never use adhesive albums — the adhesive degrades and damages prints
• Tintypes and daguerreotypes need individual housing in archival enclosures
• Digitize everything — a scanner and an afternoon can preserve images that might otherwise be lost
• Climate control essential — temperature and humidity fluctuations cause emulsion to crack and peel

Textiles

• Clean before storing — but consult a textile conservator for very old or fragile pieces
• Fold with acid-free tissue in the creases to prevent permanent fold lines
• Store flat if possible — rolling is second best; hanging stresses fragile fibers
• Acid-free boxes or muslin-wrapped bundles — never in plastic bags (trap moisture) or regular cardboard (acid transfer)
• Check annually for pest damage — moths and carpet beetles love wool and silk

Wooden Furniture and Items

• Clean and wax with a quality furniture paste wax
• Climate-controlled storage prevents the expansion/contraction cycles that split wood and pop joints
• Elevate off concrete floors — moisture wicks up from concrete, especially in spring
• Cover with breathable cotton or muslin — not plastic
• Don’t refinish antiques — it reduces value and erases history. A conservator can clean without stripping.

Metal Items (Tools, Kitchenware, Equipment)

• Clean and dry thoroughly
• Apply a light coat of museum wax or Renaissance Wax to prevent corrosion
• Wrap in acid-free tissue or clean cotton cloth
• Silica gel packs in the storage container to control moisture
• Don’t “restore” antique tools unless you’re trained — original patina is part of the history

Working With Local Historical Organizations

Southeast South Dakota has organizations that help preserve local history:

• Local historical societies in many towns maintain archives and can advise on preservation
• The South Dakota State Historical Society in Pierre offers preservation resources
• County museums may accept significant items as donations or loans
• Freeman Academy Historical Archives and similar institutional collections preserve Mennonite and Hutterite history
• Church archives — many local parishes maintain historical records

If you have items of historical significance but can’t properly store them yourself, these organizations may be able to help — or at least digitize documents and photographs for their collections while originals remain with your family.

Digital Preservation: Your Backup Plan

Physical preservation is essential, but digital copies are your insurance policy:

• Scan documents at 600+ DPI in TIFF format (not just JPG)
• Photograph 3D objects from multiple angles with a ruler for scale
• Record oral histories — interview elderly family members about the items, the people, and the stories
• Store digital files in multiple locations — external drive, cloud storage, and a copy with another family member
• Label everything — file names should include family name, approximate date, and description

The Cost of Not Preserving

Every year, irreplaceable items are lost because they were stored in a hot attic, a damp basement, or a leaky barn. Once an original homestead document turns to mold, it’s gone. Once a century-old quilt is eaten by moths, it’s gone. Once a glass-plate negative cracks from temperature stress, it’s gone.

Climate-controlled storage at Lock N’ Leave It Storage costs $15-30/month more than standard. Over a year, that’s $180-360 — a small price to protect items that can never be replaced and represent the history of the families who built this region.

Honor the Past by Protecting It

Your ancestors crossed oceans and broke prairie with hand tools. The least we can do is store their legacy properly. The Czech settlers who built Tabor, the German-Russians who farmed around Scotland and Menno, the Mennonites who established Freeman — their stories are alive in the objects, documents, and traditions their descendants hold.

Lock N’ Leave It Storage in Tyndall, Springfield, and Freeman offers climate-controlled units designed to protect what matters most. Contact us to discuss preservation storage — because this history belongs to all of southeast South Dakota, and it deserves to survive for the next generation.