By 1910, the Adkins, Mattas, and Mize Families owned 2,475 acres in Foster Township near Milltown, South Dakota.
As neighbors, they shared the same American dream of land and prosperity. Each family had their own ancestral journey. Some of their people came on the Mayflower, some came at the bottom of an immigrant ship from West Bohemia, some migrated up from old Kentucky. They all had grandfathers that served in the Civil War, some in the Revolutionary War.
In the spring, pasque flowers would bloom on the rolling hills of the families’ properties. Over time, love bloomed between the children of these families, and they married. Pictured above are the combined families in 1929 celebrating Joseph and Vincencia Mattas’s 50th Anniversary at Milltown, South Dakota.
This site is a place for stories about people. Ordinary people who lived through the extraordinary history of the United States.
It is not only stories of these families, but their friends and their communities. Many center around the histories of both the Milltown and Parkston, South Dakota communities. Each month there will be a featured story and a family recipe published.
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