Digging Down To Her Roots vBy Julie Eickhoff Though Sheri Burrell didn’t grow up in this area, she’s not a stranger to it. She and her family spent every summer visiting here while she was growing up; Burrell’s father was raised on a farm right outside of Tyndall, SD which has remained in the family ever since. She recalls the history of the farm place. In the 1870’s, her grandfather and his brother left their home in Germany, along with about 700 other families, to farm in Russia. In 1876 there was a big uprising and the Germans had to flee Russia, some heading back to Germany and some heading to America, as her ancestors chose to do. They ended up in Baltimore, Maryland and went by train to the Dakotas. They got off in Yankton and homesteaded on a farm just outside of Tyndall. Burrell’s father was born and raised on that very farm years later. Wanting to venture out when he was in his early 20’s, he and his next younger brother left the farm and headed west, landing in southern Oregon. He married a lovely woman and they were blessed with 5 children – four boys and one girl. The family resided in Oregon for some time but moved often because of his occupation as a minister. Burrell moved schools a shockingly 23 times by the time she graduated high school. Her family came back to visit the farm for a few weeks every summer until the mid-1950’s, when she was approximately 15 years old. She didn’t make it back to South Dakota until 1982, when she was back for a family reunion in the Black Hills. “We went to the farm then, but it was really in disrepair,” she explains with sadness in her voice. At that time, she could recognize outbuildings, the location of the old root cellar and chicken coop and the weather-beaten frame of the windmill. Years passed and a cousin bought the farm, keeping it in the Hauck family, and soon began the painstaking work of remodeling the house and cleaning up the farm. For Burrell’s 80th birthday, her son Ty flew her and all four of her children back to this area for an opportunity to revisit her family’s roots. Getting all the children together for five days straight wasn’t an easy task as, like most families, they all have busy lives. Her oldest son John lives in Portland Oregon where he works for the Reagan Burrell, Ty Burrell, Sheri Burrell, Duncan Burrell, John Burrell 20vHERVOICEvJULY/AUGUST 2019