Tuntland family gives gratitude for education through sponsorship of historical marker

Jill Meier

Journal editor

When the pioneers began settling here more than 100 years ago, they had three priorities in mind: Faith, family and education.

It was the latter that led to a new historical marker located near where the Brandon 1916 School once stood. The marker, which was made possible by the Tuntland family, was dedicated during Brandon’s 50th celebration weekend last month.

“The early pioneers, in 1880 incorporated the township and within five years they built a school,” Sharon Tuntland told the crowd.

Tuntland is the wife of Allen Tuntland, a 1958 graduate of Brandon School, and the sister-in-law of Helen Tuntland Jackson, a 1962 graduate, and James, who attended school in Brandon during his elementary and middle school years. Following the passing of Allen and Helen – just 11 days apart – in October 2021 from pancreatic cancer, the family received money intended to be a memorial for the Brandon Historical Society.

“So, we thought, this is great, and had in our minds, a picture of this two-story building and these wonderful displays, and thought, ‘We’ll add to this glorious display that you have.’ We found out that wasn’t the case. There was no building. It had been here and it had the display of historical items from 2005 to 2015. They had the first floor and the bats had the second floor, and by 2017, the powers that be decided that they needed to condemn the building and took it down.”

The family contacted Howard Brown, treasurer, and Jeremy Risty, president of the Historical Society, to find a way the memorial money could enhance the mission.

“They gave us an honest answer and said, ‘Our biggest expense is storage,’” Tuntland shared.

The family, however, wanted to give something more visible. They purchased some display cases for the Museum along Pipestone Street, but still had money yet to send, hence the 1916 Brandon School marker.

Brown told the crowd that the bricks that make up the base of the historical marker are from the 1916 school.

“I took a bunch of them – borrowed them – I’m bring them back,” he joked. 

Also included on the base is the original marker, which was salvaged from the 1916 building.

“Although Brandon was incorporated as a city 50 years ago last month, Brandon’s incorporation as a township was much longer. The residents of Brandon – about 80 – decided that a more substantial consolidated structure was needed. They gathered some funds, passed some bonds and built the 1916 building,” Risty explained.

He went on to tell the crowd that “Education was, is and always will be an important part of the Brandon community and the Brandon Valley School District overall.”

“In fact, there were lots and lots and lots of little schools throughout the area for the pioneers. As correctly pointed out, one of the first things when more than a handful of settlers would gather is they would take up a collection and would build family schools that three or four or five families would donate to and send their kids to. Eventually, as Brandon started to grow, that eventually led to the 1916 building,” he said. “Let’s be honest, schools are the center of any community, especially in smaller towns like in South Dakota, they become the home, the heartbeat of the community. Everything revolves around that, and this was no different.”

The Brandon Valley School District continued to use the 1916 school to the 1980s.

“The oldest part of the Brandon Valley School District – although it’s not original – is just on the other side of this wall and that’s the old wood gym, as we like to refer to it as. If you’ve ever seen the movie, “Hoosiers,” it’s just like that,” complete with wooden platform bleachers.

The building fell into disrepair and was razed on its 100th anniversary in 2016. 

On behalf of the Tuntland family, Sharon said they are pleased to have provided “the funds for this legacy that will be here for generations, to honor this place where Allen, Helen and James went to school. Not only did they learn basic skills, subject matter – reading, writing, arithmetic – but they learned basic values, which maybe was even more important. Honesty, hard work, dependability, kindness, generosity came from this very school and the wonderful teachers.”

She also recognized Jack Lauer, who taught and guided the school as its principal during Allen and Helen’s time in school.

“They had such high regard for your because you epitomize excellence and you made sure that excellence was important to the students,” she said. “I also want to say that the town of Brandon should be congratulated, because they’ve always supported the students, whether it was going to the basketball and football games on Tuesday and Friday nights, whether it was raising the taxes because the school board said, ‘We’re growing, we need more classrooms.’”