PRESS & DAKOTAN n MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2014 HERITAGE 2014: PAGE 9C

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BY RANDY DOCKENDORFrandy.dockendorf@yankton.net

ohn McNeill came to Spring-field in the early 1970s, ex-pecting to teach humanitiesand communicationscourses at the small, state-supported college.

He found much, muchmore.

McNeill and his wife, Susan, discov-ered a very vibrant, tight-knit and car-ing college and community.

“There was a real close connectionbetween the kids who came to theschool and the townspeople,” he said.“It was a real happy relationship, and(my wife and I) still hear about it.”

The college, founded in 1881, wentthrough a number of name changes,the last one as University of SouthDakota-Springfield. The school startedprimarily as a teacher’s college butlater added vocational courses and de-grees.

The college always fought for itsexistence, both financially and politi-cally, McNeill said. However, its stu-dents, faculty, alumni and othersremained staunch supporters.

Despite valiant efforts to keep itopen, the college closed in 1984. Thecampus was later converted to its cur-rent usage as a medium-securityprison for the South Dakota Depart-ment of Corrections (DOC). Theprison currently houses around 1,200inmates.

At its peak, the Springfield collegeenrolled around 1,200 students, Mc-Neill said. The school enrolled around800 students when it closed.

McNeill wrote a book chroniclingthe school’s history. He incorporatedinformation from the Press & Dakotanand the Springfield Times, the respec-tive oldest daily and weekly newspa-pers in the Dakotas.

When he found the microfiche un-usable, McNeill spent two years read-ing every single copy of the Timesdating back to 1868. He found a richhistory of the college and community.

“In the earlier days of Springfield,the town was on the railroad line outof Yankton. And with it being on theriver, there was potential for Spring-field,” he said. “It could have become(another) Yankton, but that didn’t hap-pen. There were a lot of politicalthings. Springfield at one time waspromised the state penitentiary, but itwent to Sioux Falls. The land officewent to Tyndall. Springfield didn’t endup with anything, and they feared justbecoming a bump in the road.”

Springfield residents took mattersinto their own hands, McNeill said.

“The city fathers were a fairly so-phisticated group for a little town.George Snow became lieutenant gov-ernor of South Dakota,” he said. “Theyplatted out Springfield, and severalothers decided they would get aschool here. The state didn’t providefunds for it, so there was a driveamong the people for subscriptions.They were taking money to build theirown Springfield Normal.”

The school was created and nur-tured at first mostly with local sup-port, McNeill said.

“They were promised state help,”he said. “Finally, the state helpedSpringfield with the college.”

Even so, Springfield faced manychallenges as a smaller school in asmaller community, tucked in thesoutheast part of the state, McNeillsaid.

“For the life of the school, Spring-field never had an easy year,” he said.“There was huge competition fromVermillion, Brookings, Aberdeen andMadison. Those schools got the mostconsideration and funding, and Spring-field had to struggle to stay alive.”

The Springfield college supporters,including those from Yankton, con-stantly battled to save the school.However, the political winds shiftedfor good when then-Gov. Bill Janklowand the Legislature closed the college.

“The people of Springfield weretenacious, but they couldn’t struggleanymore,” McNeill said. “There were anumber of factors, such as a bulgingprison population and a governor whothought seven state schools were toomany. It just couldn’t stay open anylonger.”

With its emphasis on teacher train-ing, Springfield provided a crucialpipeline for South Dakota’s schools,McNeill said.

“If it wasn’t for the teachers whocame out of places like Springfield andNorthern State (in Aberdeen), youwouldn’t have had all those teachersin the (state’s K-12) schools,” he said.

CLOSE TIESThe college’s closing remains dis-

appointing and even painful for many.However, the school’s memories re-main alive through its alumni associa-tion and the Springfield CollegeMuseum on the community’s MainStreet.

About a decade ago, Janklow do-nated a 1,200-square-foot building,similar to ones used as daycare facili-ties, to be used as the Springfield Col-lege Museum. The museum housesthe school’s archives and memora-bilia.

The land belongs to Tom Monfore,a Springfield native who wasn’t a col-lege alumnus but who offered the siteas a show of support. The college mu-seum stands next to the SpringfieldHistorical Society Museum.

Jon Westling has been active inmaintaining the museum. Now livingin Yankton, he attended the Spring-field college and returned as a profes-sor and coach.

In a previous interview, Westlingtold the Press & Dakotan he found astrong bond between town and gown.

“The college personnel and stu-dents were active participants in thecommunity,” he said. “It was a uniqueatmosphere. It was a good marriagebetween the college and the commu-nity. It made Springfield a pleasantplace to live.”

Under the requirements at thetime, a number of students could fin-ish a summer session or one year ofcollege and teach in a rural school,Westling said. Several of those stu-dents eventually returned and earneda four-year degree, he said.

“For a number of years, the collegestudents did all their practice teach-ing at Springfield because they didn’thave cars,” he said. “In the later years,they would go out to other schools tostudent teach.”

The college’s ties to the region

began with the make-up of the stu-dent body itself, McNeill said. He esti-mated 90 percent of the student bodycame from south-central and south-east South Dakota.

In particular, the college and itsrural setting also appealed to WestRiver students, he said.

“Springfield really served peoplewho lived in communities likeColome, White River, Bonesteel andFairfax. These are people who other-wise would never have gone on to fur-ther their education after highschool,” he said.

“These people thought of Spring-field as their local college, even if theydrove 200 miles to get here. There area lot of people who, if it wasn’t for thiscollege, wouldn’t have become teach-ers.”

Many northeast Nebraska stu-dents faced more of a challenge reach-ing school, even though Springfieldlay just across the Missouri River. Thebridge didn’t yet exist between Run-ning Water and Niobrara, Neb., sothose students would cross thebridge at Yankton or Pickstown.

“Or they could use the ferry (atRunning Water). But they couldn’t useit at night, winter, if the water was realfast or real low, or if the banks werebadly eroded,” McNeill said.

“It depended which side the ferrywas on. If you were on the oppositeside, you would run up the flag soCaptain Mickey knew he needed tocross the river and get you. But laterthey had CB radios or they wouldblow the horns.”

MAKING SACRIFICESFarm families strongly desired a

college education for their childrenand paid for it any way possible, Mc-Neill said. Those families turned tocreative means during difficult finan-cial times.

“Springfield was a very rural insti-tution of higher learning for veryrural people. People came to theschool in the earlier years and paidfor tuition with a box of eggs,” hesaid.

“A mother and father broughttheir child in an old chugging car orpickup, and they went up to the ad-ministration building to get their sonor daughter enrolled and paid for thesemester with produce.

“Years ago, a side of beef and twoboxes of honey were set up (as pay-ment). If you didn’t have greenbacks,you paid for it with fatback.”

The acceptance of meat and pro-duce wasn’t an act of charity, as itfilled a very real need for the college,McNeill said.

“They took the produce over toSummit Hall,” he said. “I suspect itwent straight to the dining hall andfed those students. Otherwise, some-body had to purchase food.”

McNeill strongly disputed any no-tion that the Springfield college of-fered a lesser quality of educationbecause of its size or location.

“Springfield wasn’t a place forpeople who couldn’t make it otherplaces. It was a place where theycould come and feel comfortableenough to know they could make ithere,” he said.

“It wasn’t because they couldn’tmake it academically. They were justfrom fairly small schools and littlefarm towns, and these people camefrom farm families. They fit in beauti-fully at Springfield, and the schoolhad tremendous teachers.”

The late Virgil Petrik was one ofthose outstanding teachers, McNeillsaid.

Petrik, a Tabor native, graduatedfrom the Springfield college and ex-celled in forensics and drama. He be-came student body president. Afterearning his master’s degree, Petrikreturned to Springfield and led thecollege’s humanities department.

“Virgil’s wife, Alice, has beenkeeping the alumni association andmuseum going,” McNeill said. “Sheand a number of others are workingwith it because they don’t want tosee the torch extinguished.”

CAMPUS FUNAthletics offered a rallying point

and enjoyment for the students,alumni and area residents. The Spring-field teams competed in the SouthDakota Intercollegiate Conference(SDIC).

One of Westling’s favorite museumexhibits is a large button of the Pointermascot. Some of his fondest memoriesare the Founder’s Day homecomingcelebrations from 1954-84.

“Homecoming was a huge day.There was a huge parade and celebra-tions, then you had the big afternoonfootball game,” he said. “The town wasso full of people. You walked becauseyou couldn’t find a place to drive. Alarge number of alumni came back forhomecoming. It was the most excitingday for me.”

Springfield enjoyed spirited rival-ries with neighboring schools, includ-ing Yankton College. The YC mascotwas the greyhound, leading to aunique “traveling trophy.”

“With them as the Greyhounds andus as the Pointers, we had the Dog-house Series,” McNeill said with achuckle. “There was always a great ef-fort for them to steal our doghouse. Itwas all college frivolity and good na-ture. It was a lot of fun and laughs.”

While college life had its lighter mo-ments, the Springfield campus wasalso influenced by world events, Mc-Neill said.

“At one point during World War II,there were probably only a half-dozenmen on campus,” he said. “We had a

lot of women becoming teachers, butthe men were in the service and over-seas.”

War again affected the campuswhen the Vietnam conflict drew manymen into combat, McNeill said. How-ever, Springfield saw an influx of olderstudents when veterans attended col-lege after the war.

“Springfield was perfect for thiskind of person,” he said. “It was a placewhere people seemed to be really wel-coming, not only for the traditional stu-dents but for the non-traditionalstudents.”

The college itself began to changein nature, particularly its programs,McNeill said. The school shifted fromprimarily teacher training to the addi-tional of technical programs. A numberof the technical graduates worked inarea manufacturing plants and otherbusinesses.

“At the time the school was closed,the country was crying for technicaltraining like auto mechanics anddiesel,” he said. “Now, it’s somethingSouth Dakota is crying for. We closedprograms that could have produced anincredible amount of people.

FACING THE ENDRumors swirled around campus in

1983 that an effort would be made toclose the campus. Students and stafftried to conduct business as usual, butthe school year was filled with ralliesand lobbying the Legislature.

The school appeared safe duringthe 1984 legislative session, but theissue was revived and Springfield wasclosed as a college. Unsuccessful ef-forts to sell the college resulted in itsconversion to a prison.

In a previous Press & Dakotan inter-view, McNeill said the campus — led bythe college dean, Dr. Tom Stone — re-solved to make the college its bestright up to the end.

“(Stone) wouldn’t let us sink intopity,” McNeill said. “He was upbeat andcheerful and never let us get down. Hesaw to it that we were functioning rightup to the last day.”

McNeill recalled the feeling at thefinal commencement May 12, 1984.

“It was sobering,” he said. “You hadnot only congratulations but also good-bye. There was faculty you wouldnever see again.”

After a time working at SoutheastVo-Tech in Sioux Falls, McNeill returnedto Springfield and worked with theadult education program at the prison.During that time, he saw many inmatesturn around their lives through voca-tional programs, earning their GED andcompleting chemical dependency pro-grams.

In that respect, Springfield was nolonger a college but was still making animpact on people’s lives, McNeill said.

“We had inmates who had meaning-ful and important experiences,” hesaid. “Every day, I seemed to have con-tact with a former inmate who told methe impact that the prison programshad on turning around his life.”

Now retired from education, Mc-Neill pastors a Springfield church. Inaddition, he and his wife remain activemusicians and perform at a number ofarea functions. Those occasions bringhim in contact with Springfield collegealumni.

“We seem to be playing a lot of en-gagements in assisted living centersand nursing homes, and very fre-quently it comes up that someonethere graduated from Southern Normal(one of the school’s names),” he said.“They would say they graduated in1951, and while they were students,they stayed in this little upstairs roomin a house for three years. There arethose kinds of fond memories.”

In the College Memorial Park, alarge marker remembers those whotouched the lives of countless studentsand faculty.

“Erected in appreciation for provid-ing education for over 50,000 students,By students, faculty and friends 1986,”the printing on the stone says in thecorner of the park.

The Springfield college may begone, but its history and impact aren’tforgotten, McNeill said.

“It was a great 100 years,” he said.

You can follow Randy Dockendorfon Twitter at twitter.com/RDockendorf.Discuss this story at www.yankton.net.

USD-Springfield

The Pointer Spirit Survives

RANDY DOCKENDORF/P&D

Jon Westling holds a banner for the now-closed Springfield college in this file photo taken at the Springfield CollegeMuseum. Westling attended the Springfield school, then returned as a professor and coach. The school, whose namechanged throughout its history, opened in 1881, and it closed in 1984 as the University of South Dakota-Springfield. Thecollege reached a peak enrollment of around 1,200 students and faced many battles during its existence. The campusnow serves as a medium-security prison.

Springfield’sMemories Of Its

Tough LittleCollege Remain

Bittersweet

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