
What would you do to gain insight into the life of your grandparents or great-grandparents and their life on the farm? Although some farm history gets lost to time over the years, one piece of South Dakota family history was found in an unlikely place — the online marketplace eBay.
“My grandfather got to know this guy who had homesteaded on the south side of the lake,” explains Matthew Field of Lake Preston, S.D. “Somewhere down the line he moved to Sioux Falls, then away to New York.”
The postcard, sent from Field’s grandfather Oscar Omdalen to Edmonton, N.Y., in 1912, shared a familiar sight of the South Dakota farmstead and updates from the farm. “This gentleman my grandfather mailed it to must’ve passed away, and a postcard collector in New York got ahold of it,” Field says.
The farmstead in 1912 is preserved on the front of the postcard, and the contents share insights from the past with Field and his family — after a bidding war commenced on eBay. “I never knew my grandmother lived her early years in a sod house, and he talked about yields from the year,” Field says.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: The contents of the postcard mailed by Matthew Field’s great-grandfather Oscar Omdalen detail new information about their life on the farm in the early 1900s.
The bidding war
A co-op employee who delivers diesel to the Fields' farm originally found the postcard listed for $4 on eBay. “I asked this guy to help me buy it for him since I’d never been on eBay,” Field says. “He said it would be about $5 unless another memorabilia collector found out about it — then it might go for $20.”
Field wasn’t worried about the price, as he wanted to bring this piece of history back to the farm. “He called me the night before the auction was up and said it was up to $40,” he says. “I told him to just make sure we got it.”
Unbeknownst to Field, a cousin of his in Washington state had found the postcard and also wanted to bring the family history home. Field explains that his cousin had visited the farm the summer before and recognized the postcard as belonging to the farm.
“The bidding got up to $102, and my mother got a call the next day and it turned out to be that cousin who was also trying to get it,” Field says. The cousin realized that it must be another family member trying to bring the postcard home and told his wife to stop bidding it up. “It was me she was bidding against,” Field chuckles. “Someday when I get back in touch with him, I’ll hit him up for $50.”
Field still farms on the original farmstead, with a herd of commercial cattle along with crops.
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