HISTORY OF BRENTFORD
SOUTH DAKOTA - USA
Articles of interest from South Dakota
The 3rd article is:-
Brentford:
Winnie, Everyone’s Best Friend
BY MELISSA KAUTH
Brentford, SD a wee bit of a town in the northeast corner
of Spink County is home to a very special girl that gets
spoiled wherever she goes. She starts out every morning by
stopping at the local post office, where she receives a treat,
as do all children of Brentford, when they come with parents
or grandparents. But Winnie, is special she is friends with
everyone in town and she has four legs. Winnie is a fox-colored
German Shepard-Husky cross who has literally made the entire
town her home. She is owned by Tom Mitchell who is a local
farmer who lives in town. But Winnie hasn’t always been the
town dog, she assumed that role four years ago when Bailey,
a yellow lab owned by Bonnie and Alan Clemensen died, who once
claimed the town as his. Winnie has the perfect life after
receiving her treats at the post office; she travels to Alvin
Bruce where she usually is given a donut or a cinnamon roll.
From there it is off to Linda Larson’s home where she
sometimes gets a hot dog. She may make a few more stops but
then it is usually time for a nap. Most of the time Winnie
favors a particular parking spot in front of the Legion
building, or sometimes when the weather is nice you can see
her curled up nose to tail right in the middle of the street,
oblivious to traffic around her. She does keep here ears keen
to the sound of Suzanne Smith’s pickup truck as she is manager
of the Legion Post, one of Winnie’s main points of interest in
the small town. After nap time its time to look for lunch which
Winnie usually finds at the back door of the Legion, which
varies from leftover egg, steak, ham, potatoes or even bread
and gravy. What ever it is Winnie always enjoys it so much
she is back in that very same spot the next day. She ends her
day usually at the home of Angel Morgan, where she always
receives something tasty for an evening meal. When I first
arrived in Brentford I drove around hoping to find Winnie,
when I couldn’t I stopped at the post office and all post
mistress had to do was step outside and yell for her and
here came Winnie. Winnie one can tell is very proud of her
status in the small town and everyone in Brentford is just
as proud of Winnie. Almost every home in Brentford has a
bag of treats or dog food for Winnie and she knows it.
Dennis Baird the county road grader summed it up best,
"With Winnie around, everyone in town who doesn’t have
a dog at least has one for a little while every day."
So the next time you’re in the area, stop by Brentford
and say hi to Winnie, you can bring her friend for life,
if you bring a little treat for her as well.
Population : 69
Send us your comments about this article.
Wonderful story! Tells a lot about the very nice people
in Brentford.
June Vollmer Stovik
