Life On The Prairie

The people in this great photo are my maternal great grandparents, Helen and John P. Polifka, Tenney pioneers. I love the way Grandma Helen's arm is comfortably draped around her young husband's shoulder and the way her head is gently tilted and leaning against him. They don't have big smiles, as was usually the case in these old-time photos, but don't you agree they look rather pleased with themselves and each other in a gentle sort of way?

In 1908, Grandpa John and Grandma Helen were operating a general store in Tenney in a building that was in a lot very close to where the "O'Laughlin house" stood. The post office was located in that store and "Johnny" served as Tenney’s postmaster. In addition, he managed one of the two grain elevators in town. He was a busy guy. His good friend, James Hannon, managed the other elevator in town.

During that year of 1908, John Polifka could no longer quell his desire to own his own farm and till his own land. Like many immigrants before him, Johnny was ready to stake his claim, move his family, and make a living off the land. John and Helen had four children at the time: LaVanche, at age nine, was the oldest, and Myrtle was the youngest at age two. Audrey and Clifford fell somewhere in the middle. With his wife and family at his side, along with good friend James Hannon, Johnny moved to his claim near Bison, South Dakota, 60 miles from the nearest railroad at Lemmon, South Dakota. All provisions including wood, household, and farm supplies had to be hauled from the railroad to the homestead by horse and wagon.

The family arrived on the barren prairie late in the fall of 1908, but there was time enough to build a 14 x 24 one-room sod house. John and James built a structure with a wood floor and roof, and the inside was lined with corrugated steel. Sod was then stripped from nearby ravines with a walking plow and used to construct and fortify the remainder of the building. During the raging winter snowstorms, snow sifted in between the walls and the roof but, for the most part, the house was warm and cozy according to daughter LaVanche, who vividly recalled those years on the prairie.

Johnny was able to clear 10 acres of land that fall before the snow fell, and in the spring of 1909, cleared 20 more acres. He and Helen established a fruitful garden of watermelon and muskmelon. They purchased some stock and dug three wells. Things looked promising.

But 1910 brought a change. There was very little rain and their crop was meager. The land was parched, and times were difficult in many ways. They held out through another winter, but 1911 brought no relief. Their three wells went dry, as well as the watering hole for the cattle. There was no crop. Johnny saw no way that his family could survive another year. In July of that hot, dry summer, Johnny packed up his family, left his claim, and moved back to Tenney. He had tried valiantly to make it, but Tenney must have needed Johnny and Helen more. How different our family story would have been written, had Mother Nature been kind to the Polifkas out on the South Dakota prairie!

My parents are the keepers of a precious family photograph taken out on that prairie. The three oldest Polifka children and a few children of neighbors who had moved to the area are standing in front of a building out on that barren prairie which served as its school house. Also present in the photo is the children’s teacher, James Hannon, Johnny’s friend from Tenney. It is a photo that speaks of the heartiness of the first- and second-generation immigrants who came to America seeking a better life. Hardships abounded, yet they made the most of whatever situation God handed them. A visitor who worked at the Swedish Emigrant Institute in Vaxjo, Sweden, saw this photo hanging on the wall at my parents’ home in New London, Minnesota in the 1990s. A family history trip to Sweden with my father and brother in 2005 was special—for many reasons—not the least of which was the experience of seeing a copy of that photo of the Polifka children displayed at the Swedish Emigrant Institute museum. That the Polifkas did not come to America from Sweden was not important. What mattered was the photo’s eloquence in reflecting the immigrant experience of so many who left Europe and made their way to the western frontier to start a new life.

I reflect now on the strength and courage of Grandpa John and Grandma Helen as they stepped into the unknown to follow their dreams. As it turned out, those dreams were only partially realized. They came to understand that sometimes God has an alternate plan. When I think now of how Johnny and Helen, and their children LaVanche, Audrey, Clifford, and Myrtle, became such a part of the fabric of Tenney for many years after their return, I know that the little village of Tenney was the place they were intended to be.

Once back home after South Dakota, the family lived on a rented farm for a period of time, then moved in to town to the home where Helen would live until the 1960s. Johnny went on to establish Tenney’s 26-mile rural mail route and became Tenney’s first rural mail carrier. He passed away in 1947, so I never had the chance to know him. I do remember, however, visiting Grandma Helen in Tenney several times, and in my mind’s eye I can visualize her home, inside and out, on the southwest corner of Tenney.

Grandma’s eyesight became so poor in her later years that independent life became difficult for her. Before she finally went to live with her daughter LaVanche in Glenwood, the Bertsches, who lived next door to her in Tenney kept a good eye on Grandma Helen. They even rigged up a bell system in which Grandma would press a button if she needed help from her neighbors. Marsha (Hardie) Nater mentioned to me that in her later years Grandma Helen would hide money around the house in order to keep it "safe." Then, because her eyesight was so poor and her memory wasn’t much better, she’d call up Opal Hardie to send Marsha over and help her find it :-) Marsha told me that Helen was her favorite person in Tenney.

Bless you, Grandpa and Grandma, for being such an important part of Tenney's history and in the lives our family...