Palmer Alvin Stadum (1909-1999)

Pioneer in ND’s Rural Electric Co-operatives
and Model Builder
“Home” was always the North Dakota prairie.
Machines always fascinated him.

Palmer was the oldest child of John and Gina Stadum, Norwegian immigrant homesteaders he always described as “progressive.” His father had come to Benson County by horse and buggy but became the first township farmer to own a car.  He let Palmer (age seven) drive it in the pasture; when Palmer was eighty, he remembered that event as “one of the big thrills of my life!”   

He had many stories about seeing his dad make and improve tools in the farm’s blacksmith shop. Together, the two of them had watched railroad workers lay the spur -line from the Soo Line Railroad into the new town of Baker. And when his dad bought a second car from someone in Baker, Palmer (now eleven) drove it home in first gear with his dad following in the older car.  His first job in threshing season was to haul straw for burning in his dad’s Reeve steam engine. He graduated to being the fireman on the engine, and at sixteen, became engineer.  During harvest season Palmer got up early and rode his motorcycle to wherever the threshing rig was parked and happily greased the gears before the crew arrived. 

Sunday afternoons he read at his uncle Peter’s farm near-by.  Peter was another progressive Norsk immigrant with subscriptions to Popular Science and Scientific American. Palmer read about simple one -tube radios with antennas and plans for building them. His dad paid for ordering the parts and Palmer began building, selling, fixing these early radios.
After 1930 he bought the old bank building in Baker for a radio-workshop; it became home for the Baker Technical Club, which he organized with like-minded friends. They talked about space flight, rockets to the moon, and electricity in rural areas.  In 1935 Palmer read about Rural Electrification funds from President Roosevelt’s New Deal administration; he and a friend wrote to Washington. They heard back that a “responsible local body” could borrow 100% of the cost of constructing electric lines. 

The Depression’s drought and grasshoppers meant that farmers were reluctant to pay a few dollars to become co-op members. But Palmer drove his father’s truck from farm to farm talking enthusiastically about the advantages of electricity.  Enough farmers did become members, and after various delays and his meetings with officials over red-tape, the Baker Electric Co-operative became official in April 1937. The first power line was built and in November lights went on in the barn at the Pierson Farm in Benson County.  The rest is history. 

The Baker Electric grew and moved to Cando. Later it merged with the Tri-County Cooperative to become the Northern Plains Co-operative. In 1975 the 50th anniversary of the Rural Electrical Administration (REA) was celebrated nationally. An event was held at the Pierson farm and then in Rugby with Palmer as the honored guest; the state’s lieutenant-governor came to applaud the REA and Palmer’s pioneering work. 

By then he had spent decades in Minot as an electrician for Main Electric working on city and area building projects. After retiring, he was busy six days a week in his own workshop building model machines with blue prints, tools and metal parts that he made himself. “How did you make this?” asked a nephew pointing to the Case Engine on display here. Palmer’s answer: “One piece at a time.”   (Written in 2023 by his daughter, Beverly Stadum)