Tison Burggraff is the last in a long line of Burggraffs to graduate from Flandreau Public Schools. Someone from the family has been attending FPS for the past 33 years consecutively. Tison this next fall plans to attend South Dakota State University and major in aviation.
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Carleen Wild
Undoubtedly, there are a number of families in Moody County that have long histories in our schools. Generation after generation, we see familiar last names on class rosters, on the Honor Roll, playing sports, starring in the All-School play, attending prom, and walking down the aisle during graduation. We know their parents and grandparents. We visit with them as we gather for local events and see them watching proudly from the stands.
It is why the end of this school year is bittersweet for Lynda Burggraff. Not only does it mark the end of the year for her grandson Tison, who graduated from Flandreau Public School this past weekend, it somewhat marks the end of a legacy for the local farm family.
Earlier this year, out of curiosity, Lynda thought to start counting the years there has consecutively been a Burggraff in Flandreau Public Schools. She began writing down every family member that had ever attended.
“Since Tison is a senior this year, I wanted to find out how many years there has been a Burggraff going to Flandreau Public Schools,” she wrote in a handwritten cursive note to the Moody County Enterprise.
“Our family began going to Flandreau in 1990. They had been going to Egan and when Egan joined with Colman, we petitioned out of the Egan district so our kids could go to Flandreau. Our land was on the border of the Flandreau School District so we were allowed to do this.”
After listing each family member and the years they attended FPS, she realized it has been 33 consecutive years that a Burggraff was in school in the Flandreau Public School District.
Tison’s dad, Marc, started in the 7th grade as a Flier, then came Tracy, Jill and Charla. As the years passed, Lynda wrote, Glenn and Jackie Burggraff’s three daughters also attended school in Flandreau along then with their own son, Marc and Kari’s family. Graduates include Marc (1996), Tracy (1997), Jill (2001), Charla (2002), Hayley (2011), Kiley (2015), Alyssa (2017), MaKenzey (2018), Devon (2020), and Tison (2023).
She then thought it might be fun to look back at how many years a Burggraff had attended school in Egan prior to that move into the Flandreau District when the Egan school closed in 1990. It was close — 29 consecutive years, and it all started with Henry and Dolores Burggraff. Henry and Dolores had eight children. All eight went to school in Egan, and then some of the eight had their own children who started in school there as well. Marilyn was the first to graduate from Egan in 1973, Frank followed in 1974, Lonnelle in 1975, Wayne in 1977, Lloyd in 1979, Karon in 1980, Gordon in 1982, and Glenn in 1984.
Marc, Tison’s dad, started school in Egan in 1983.
“I don’t know if there are any other families in the area that match or exceed the number of consecutive years in our family, but it would be fun to know,” Lynda said.
