CAVOUR — Earlier this month, one of those quietly caring acts which largely go unnoticed and unmentioned took place in Sanborn County, to help a Beadle County family struck by tragedy.
“I was driving home from school on Dec. 3,” said Shania Cornelius, a sophomore at Sanborn Central School, “and I noticed that the roads to the fields around our house had all been plowed out.” Shania’s mother Jeanette rents the land out to Don Miner and Benjamin Miner of Cavour, who put up hay on the property.
“On Thanksgiving night, of course, Benjamin Miner lost his life in an auto accident south of Cavour” Shania shared. “He was a much-loved son, husband and father who lived on his family farm near Cavour.
Just like much of eastern South Dakota, the producers of the James River Valley are behind on farm work, due to the wet weather throughout the summer. “But when I looked,” Shania said, “all of the bales that were stacked in the field since the last cutting were gone. This was no small feat, as there appeared to be hundreds in the fields.”
It turned out that bright and early that morning, friends and neighbors of the Miner families banded together to help move the hay crop. Shania Cornelius said that around 30 people showed up with loaders, pickups and semi trailers.