This is a production of SDPB.

We knew everybody in the town.

Everybody knew you.

Ahh, you got in trouble, and your parents knew before you got home.

The classic be home before the lights are on in town.

And it was great to live in a town where I had a grocery store and some restaurants.

And, of course, the famous bakery.

Centerville is special.

Just how the community sticks together and everybody's on the same team.

It seems like.

[team cheer] [crowd cheering] Let's go Centerville!

Our community is like, amazing.

Join our crew as we meet the people of Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

[from behind camera] Ahh!

That was it.

That was perfect.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Chic Boutique by Christen and Company.

Greetings from Catalyst Tattoo here in Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Greetings from Centerville.

Welcome to Centerville's Tuffy's Bar and Grill.

Greetings from Centerville!

Greetings from Centerville!

[from behind camera] You guys nailed it.

That's awesome.

Yeah!!

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Hello South Dakota.

Welcome to the Dakota Life and greetings from Centerville.

Half way between Yankton and Sioux Falls on the stage route and halfway between Parker and Vermillion on the US mail route, is where Doctor Frederick Smith and his wife staked a claim, started a store, and hung a lantern out every night to guide travelers.

Soon he was named postmaster and the new settlement Centerville.

But before the railroad arrived in 1883, the townsite was moved to the banks of the Vermillion River, where the ice harvested was so pristine it was sold and shipped as far away as California.

The rest of the year, the river powered the economy through a dam and a large flour mill that brought in farmers from as far away as Iowa and Nebraska with grain to grind and money to spend.

Under Centerville's first elected mayor, W.E.

Ege buildings were erected and business boomed, making it a great place for a photographer like John Johnson to set up shop.

Today, his work gives us a glimpse into early day life here, and some of his primary subjects, were the first kids lucky enough to grow up in Centerville.

Under the mural of Tuffy the Tornado, we meet two of the tornado's biggest fans, Kelli Voog and Jean Munson Smith.

I think we have a lot of community support.

We're really into sports.

And of course, for myself, I'm really into basketball.

My husband went to school here.

All of our children, most of our grandchildren.

So we're all familiar with the school.

And I work for the school.

It's a town that supports one another.

It's a town that rallies together, when there's needs and supports one another.

And I, I think that's about all I can say about it.

I have watched at least three and possibly some of what's going on four generations of kids playing ball, and I just enjoy basketball.

My husband enjoys basketball, too.

So it's just something I grew up with.

[from behind camera] Did you play yourself?

Oh, no.

Oh.

I pre pre-date busses, school lunch programs, girls sports, any of those kind of things.

They didn't have such a thing here.

I'm old.

And I can say this not only about our athletic department, but our vocal teacher has brought this vocal section of the school up.

The band director, we've had has been fantastic in all sports.

If you look at our rack over here, there's a lot of first, seconds.

The academic portion of it is excellent, excellent, excellent, school system.

Athletic Director and Superintendent Doug Edberg tells us what makes Centerville system so special.

It's a great feeling to know that, yeah, Centerville education comes first.

And, we have a great sports programs that go along with it.

Definitely the state championship for the boys football team.

I mean, being there one time and winning it is an amazing feat.

And then just a couple years ago, winning the state championship in girls basketball, something we didn't feel we were going in to win.

We were just going in to show up and play and do the best we could.

[narrator] That's because just a few years prior, both their basketball and football programs lost their varsity schedules due to declining numbers.

Oh, are we ever going to build this back up?

We're fortunate enough to have some great coaches in our community that stepped up to the challenge.

Got a few other kids out.

[game announcer] Those are state champions!

Our girls just rallied in our community, rallied.

And, what an amazing thing.

And then turn around and go back again last year, I mean, being part of those state tournaments.

Man, what an eye opening experience.

[game announcer] Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the 2024 class B state champions, the Centerville Tornadoes.

[narrator] It's been 100 years since Miss Mary MacGregor's suggestion of the Purple Tornadoes won the most votes for school mascot in 1925.

Despite the moniker, no tornado has ever struck within city limits, and the only touchdowns happened here at Stan Schmiedt Field, named after former student booster and longtime town pharmacist.

But let's find out why one newspaper article began by saying about his wife.

Every town should have a Sherree Schmiedt.

You want to know about Sherree Schmiedt?

Correct?

Where do I start?

I get a little emotional talking about Sherree Dee.

Sherree was the life, the community, the heartbeat of the community.

She was involved in about everything in school, organizations, churches, fundraisers, The garden club, the Rebecca's all the different, groups.

And she was a businesswoman, too.

You know, she was a town historian for years.

Somebody you could go to and know she didn't have the answer she was going to find it for you.

She was a person that people went to.

People came from out of state to talk to her.

She's got a memory that, is unreal.

I mean, unreal.

Sherree Schmiedt wore a lot of hats throughout her lifetime, but her love of people and history made a lasting impact on Centerville.

It all started with her parents, George and Miriam, who married in 1929 and moved to Los Angeles, where they had a baby girl in March of 31, a tragedy brought Miriam and young Sherree home to Centerville on the train after George's sudden death, a shoe box with his glasses, billfold, and only a few other personal items were the only things passed to his only child.

But they inspired in Sherree a love of old things and family history.

But it was after Sherree and her husband, Stan Schmiedt, took over his father's pharmacy that her love of history began to blossom.

I worked for Stan and Sherree Schmiedt for about eight years.

In talking with Sherree and going to her daily, a lot of Centerville history was ingrained in me.

Her interest actually began in about 1958.

She was working with her mom and a newspaper gentleman, working on the 75th anniversary of Centerville, and she just loved going to the old newspapers.

And her interest was piqued then.

And her mother is reading that article in newspapers.

So Sherree also took that out after her mom passed.

Just a rich history of wanting to keep Centerville history alive.

You know, her mother did it, and, her husband and his father, you know, that was two generations of pharmacists, for many, many years in Centerville.

And I think that's where she kind of started her collection, you know, pharmacy's back in the day, and they weren't just your prescription drugs.

They really supplied the town with everything.

Schmiedt Rexall.

She had hallmark, all the traditional stuff.

I would remember going in there as a little kid, first going down the penny candy aisle and then going around and looking at all the beautiful gifts and the greeting cards and just spending a lot of time there as my grandma worked there for, I think it was 44 or 45 years.

And I think the first love of my retail experience and shopping and finding beautiful things came from Sherree Dee's collections.

Schmiedt Drug was next door from here.

The next building over was a little small building, used to be a paint store, and Stan and Sherree bought that building.

Now, the reason Sherree bought it or was to get rid of all the stuff in her house.

[narrator] That stuff is referring to are artifacts from throughout Centerville history.

A lot of the items from town were being sold on auction and sent to California and sold.

And she goes, "if this keeps going on, we won't have any record of our past."

So she started collecting.

I guess in the year 2000, they were planning for an all school reunion at that point in time.

The building next door to the Schmiedt Drug Museum.

So Stan said, "let's put her stuff over there."

So they did, and they said it would be a great room for the folks to gather when they came back for the reunion, and they'd have all the annuals available and other memorabilia.

So that's when the museum actually began over there to be an organized place.

And it was amazing.

I would stop in and, you know, try to learn about Centerville history myself.

So I got to build a bond in relationship with Sherree.

And when she was getting ready to sell her building.

So we needed to keep that Centerville history alive and the items that she had collected over the years and just the history that she had documented.

And so we had been looking at another building on the same block to renovate and turn into a community space, and we were able to purchase that building.

And, somehow, Sherry trusted me to kind of take those museum items, bring her along, and bring her into this new space to keep that history alive.

You can touch the old telephones, you can open up books and things.

Sherree felt very strongly that that's what the museum was for.

I don't think she ever, ever thought about taking credit for anything because she or I thought there was more than just her.

She thought there was a group.

In other towns, a lot of time, this stuff that's thrown away because there's no place to put it can be seen.

She had a passion for Centerville, a deep love for it.

She grew up here and the families just meant so much to her.

People meant a lot to Sherree.

You know how when you grow up, you hear names like so-and-so lived there or your, oh, that's your third cousin.

Or, you know, in small towns you have a lot of that being here.

I've had the opportunity to take the time to get to know these people and make those connections.

And I feel like that's the best gift I received from Sherree.

I think she's going to be fondly remembered for years to come.

Sherree was an amazing woman, and right up to the day she died.

Her mind was as sharp as a tack, very clear.

And she wanted to keep sharing information.

Welcome to Centerville, our hometown.

It's time to reminisce and remember Centerville as it used to be, and to see what it has become.

[narrator] Plenty has changed throughout Centerville history.

The railroad and the mill are long gone, as is the Broadway Ballroom where Lawrence Welk played.

However, one Centerville celebration has stood the test of time since 1883.

Producer Greg Beesley takes us there now.

The place to be 4th of July weekend for many people in the eastern part of South Dakota.

It's been the town of Centerville.

I remember as a kid even coming over for different activities during the 4th of July festivals and things like that, and really drawing big crowds.

You know, again, Centerville and the people of Centerville really rally around their town celebrations.

It's just the fun of everybody getting together and seeing, like, now here you got a little kids getting on a little tractor and doing a pull.

See all the fun they have and all the all the fun faces when they see how much fun they have.

It just means a lot.

Everybody getting together and having having a good time.

People getting along.

While tornado days may be a newer version of the annual 4th of July celebration.

Main Street of Centerville has always been packed with speed.

There's a lot of car people here in Centerville.

We've always kind of been a car community.

So there's a lot of people that I can, rely on to kind of help get the word out and pull that together.

The, the fire department does an excellent job of that.

They've since taken it on, and kind of rallied around the car show idea.

And so it's, you know, a full block and a half, probably two blocks of the downtown, draws in a good crowd.

I dreamed of having a mustang when I was in high school, but I. But I could never afford anything like that, but I did when I got out of high school, I farm and was in the National Guard for six years, and I worked three other jobs, all so.

So I saved my money and I always wanted to have one in the end.

So 65 fastback was the first year they made that style.

So I always wanted to get that car.

And then after that and then I always wanted to have a convertible.

So I went out and bought a new convertible too.

So we don't drive very much, but when we do, it's just my wife and I and grandkids and everybody and just a lot of fun.

Cars aren't the only things that move fast down Main Street during tornado days.

It's certainly unique and unique to Centerville.

And, they've kind of been known for it for a long time.

And you never forget your first time riding a toilet bowl racer.

It's something that sticks with you, right?

So if you can get people on one, you know, and trying it their plunger powered, obviously, sitting on a toilet with wheels, it's, Yeah, quite unique.

That's right.

You heard that right.

In Centerville, they race toilet bowls to see who is the king or kings of the throne.

But how in the world did all of this start?

Well, we're asking around, and, Dave Cooley is, the originator, as far as we can tell, I don't remember.

Yeah, I think so.

It was Dave Cooley and I think Roger Peterson, Louis Gus Miller and, and Rob Van Edie, they kind of helped out in their first year.

A little rough.

Yeah.

We learned the stuff we could do.

Oh.

We did get better every year after we got better.

We were.

The ballast thing when you make your turn was the big thing.

And you get into your plunger, you get going so fast, and you come to make your turn, okay?

The.

We ride a motorcycle, tip over and and, and then you didn't win.

Yeah.

That you had to go around the pylon and come back to win.

Like most things to toilet bowl racing evolved over time and went strong for many years.

After a little break, they are back in action.

Obviously, if you're going to be involved and helping set it up, you're going to try one out and, see how it works and see how it goes.

And yeah, it's it's interesting.

It's fun.

With a couple of toilet bowl racers made.

There was no doubt in my mind I had to try this tradition out for myself.

So I grabbed my son, Emmett, and with our plungers in hand, we took to the streets of Centerville, looking to rename the Porcelain Princess after a runner to found out this tradition isn't all about speed, it's about making memories with who you compete with.

You know, I would have never got on myself.

And you wouldn't have.

Oh no.

It's just one of them things if you're gonna do, you do it together.

Basically.

Because it's, you know, buddies doing some for fun, basically.

Because we didn't really care if we won.

Well, I guess we did outdoors.

And indoors.

[narrator] From 4th of July, we now take you to the Falloween Festival, where a new tradition includes something unusual.

Kids sporting brand new tattoos?

And even more are making their way into Catalyst Tattoo.

This is "Tats for Tots", where proceeds go to charity.

This annual fundraiser allows kids to sit in a real life tattoo studio and get some temporary flash.

We caught up with studio owners Stephan and Dan to talk about tattooing in a small town, and what the studio is like on a regular day.

A lot of people think that, well, you have tattoos.

You must be a bad person.

And that's not true.

We tattoo preachers, we tattoo school teachers, all kinds of people.

And it's that for us it's more about allowing people to add to themselves without changing themselves.

I never thought I'd fit into tattooing because I wasn't your typical, you know, my motorcycle kind of, you know, bad boy type of guy.

I was just, you know, pretty, pretty standard South Dakota kid.

But I loved art.

I had a passion for it.

And it was a way to, to do that for a living.

So I actually met Stephan's wife first.

You know, we were friends instantly, and she kept telling me about her husband and the tattoos, and I'm like, no, I'm a tattoo artist.

He can't be a tattooer.

So Dan actually met my wife before me and seen some of my tattoo work and commented on it, and it was better than I thought it would be.

You know, nowadays everybody thinks they're a tattoo artist.

At that time, I wasn't in the shop.

I was working, a different job.

You needed a job that would provide a stable income.

Dan was actually the one that kind of convinced me.

You need to get back into the shop.

And we come up in Sioux Falls.

He working in Sioux Falls at another shop at that time.

And so, we'll give a lot of credit to me getting really back into about the last 6 or 7 years now.

I kept telling him, I think you can do it.

We got him booked into the shop and instantly busy and hasn't had to go back to a real job ever since.

So yeah, that started friendship and then, work relationship and then a partnership.

And so I've been having to deal with him ever since.

[from behind camera] And now you're stepbrothers?

[laughs] Yeah.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

[laughter] I kind of just decided we were ready for.

And we both live in a small community down here in Centerville and just decided, bring it down here and bring bring our customers down here to us.

And just live a little, a little better life for us.

You don't get paid for your time off.

You don't get paid for the days that you don't work.

So going from place where they're constantly clients, walking in to a place where there are 900 people in this town, that's not a whole lot of walk ins and tattoos on for everybody.

One of the coolest things about coming down here is I've known people my whole life living here, and I would have never thought this person would be, you know, wanted to come in and get a tattoo.

A lot more people are comfortable coming in here, like people who are a little more scared, or older people who don't want all the craziness of that to happen.

They feel comfortable walking in here.

We tattoo loads of law enforcement actually, down in this part of the state versus even up in Sioux Falls.

The mindset is a little different.

People are more passionate about nature, are passionate about family.

They're more passionate about connecting to the people around them.

People in this area tend to want to tell a story with their tattoos.

So we get a lot of tattoos that are family names or designs for people that have passed on hunting and fishing and outdoor style tattoos.

That's the best thing about us being down here is one day I'm tattooing, you know, a very naughty tattoo, and the next day I'm tattooing, you know, a portrait of Jesus.

And so you never know what's going to walk through the door.

Lived in all kinds of different places in this area that just didn't really feel like I fit in.

And then I moved to Centerville, and that was just going to be the same thing.

And I very quickly realized that everyone here is family, everybody here is friends with everybody else.

You know, we have the same problems in this town that that every family is.

We have people that get mad at each other, argue.

But at the end of the day, no matter who's doing what, will take care of each other.

I like that family, community, atmosphere.

A block away on the corner of Main Street and Broadway, where they used to sell clothing, furniture and even hardware, a restaurant was built.

And despite new names and changing ownership, the legacy of family and community atmosphere is as strong as ever.

It first started out as JoDean's and that was there for quite a while.

And when they moved to Yankton, then it became a couple other things before Joe and Eva Erickson purchased it and turned it into the Centerville Steakhouse.

The Erickson's chose Larry Swanson to manage the restaurant, and in 1995, he and his wife Linda bought the steak house and cultivated it into a community institution.

Tuesday night, after a basketball game, there's people lined up to get in, they want to rehash the game, but also they knew who was going to be there to visit with and get their local gossip from.

And Larry would come in with a smile and joke.

He was such a kind man.

He hired all these kids in town and kept them busy.

On Sundays, it was more the high school kids that were working there wouldn't have to worry about the alcohol, that kinda thing.

It was just one of the days because when it was less busy.

So yeah, I was one of the Sunday girls and so is Carrie, my cousin.

I started working at the Centerville Steakhouse when I was a seventh grader and, worked, for Larry Swanson that entire time as a Sunday server, weekend server, and part of his, A-Team catering crew.

He taught you respect.

He taught you how to multitask, and he got on you if you needed to get on.

He showed you right from wrong.

He showed you how to do your job.

Yeah.

He was a great person.

And Linda as well, they were great, great people.

Learning, waitressing and all of those things, was one of my foundational things, for learning how to be in the workforce and, you know, create a career based on customer service.

Young adults learned lessons and made core memories.

I was working for Larry Monday at the steak House as one of their servers, and Doug was there, too, as a short order cook.

My junior year, I actually asked him out to our homecoming dance and was terrified.

He was one of the scariest things I'd ever done at the time, and he said yes.

And that was kind of the beginning of our, dating.

So it kind of is interesting that it came full circle when we ended up purchasing the steak house ourselves.

So we were in the steak house eating one night, and Larry comes over.

He's like, hey, you two, I think you should buy it.

I think you should buy the steak house.

You know, we can't see this restaurant shut down.

We can't see it put in the wrong hands.

Did it cause some headaches and some problems along the way?

Absolutely.

But Larry was a lifetime time mentor of mine.

And we just wanted to build on his legacy there.

I turned into a principal, an athletic director, and my wife took a position at the school.

We had a lot of young kids.

So, we actually try to sell the steak house for many years.

None of us would probably be doing this if my husband wouldn't come up with this grand idea.

They, brought me out to eat, to the Centerville Steakhouse, and, you know, I found out that it was for sale, and, said, "Hey Tim, why don't we buy this restaurant?

It'll be fun."

[laughter] I wasn't really looking to get into the restaurant business.

When him and Carrie got married.

They started cooking for us, and it seemed like every time he made something for us, I had to take a picture of it before I ate it.

It was just.

It looked too good to eat, so I thought, maybe there's a shot here that this might work.

So this whole thing is a family business.

My dad Tim, my brother Adam, and then my husband Eric and I, Heather and I are cousins.

Yeah, I've been here, this will be 25 years, so I've gone through a lot of owners.

I always joke around and say, I come at the building who are also cousins with Jamie.

Yes, yes.

And then actually if you go back far enough, you'll find that, Swanson's and the Austin's are actually related, also.

We closed on it with Jamie and Doug at the end of last year.

So right around this time of year, December, and our goal was to be open by the Super Bowl.

But we didn't quite catch that because when we got in here and we started diving into some things, my brother Adam and my husband Eric tore out and rebuilt the bar.

We took out walls we, you know, painted and put all these TVs up.

We put in the wood fire, pizza oven.

And so our new goal became we have to be open by the time the girls get to the state tournament.

And so when we decided we were going to be a sports bar, we decided we were going to, support the high school community and be like, all in on sports.

Like, what else do you call it other than "Tuffy's"?

So it is, everything you see around here is purple and gold, just like the gym is.

And it's just an extension of the school at that point.

We got a lot of support from the community when we changed the name, but just like anybody else, anything else would change.

It takes a little bit of getting used to.

[narrator] While the bar, the name and most of the menu are brand new, it still has one classic crowd favorites.

[head chef] Yes, we still have broasted chicken.

Our biggest sellers.

A lot of people come for our salmon dinners.

Our chicken bacon mac is a big seller that I make, and most would be our burgers.

We sell a lot of burgers.

[Carrie] That really was our goal, as we wanted to be a place for people to gather.

We wanted to be supportive of our high schoolers and sports band or on tour or whatever it is that they're doing.

We want to be in on it.

[Heather] This place needs to always stay here, always, no matter if it's changing ownership or not.

Yeah, this place in Centerville.

Thanks for watching Dakota Life.

If you've missed any of our stories here in Centerville, or just want to go back and take another look, you can visit us at SDPB.org/DakotaLife for all of us at SDPB here in Turner County.

My name is Tim Davison.

We'll see you all next time.