The Stadum Family
across a century

Palmer Alvin Stadum is born on the North Dakota plains. He will live 90 years and connect the pre-electric era to the digital age through three generations of his family.

Palmer traveled to Washington, DC to lobby Congress and the Roosevelt administration for rural electrification support in North Dakota. A young farmer making the case that the Great Plains deserved the same access to electricity as the cities – this was a significant act of civic courage. Two years later, the Rural Electrification Act passed.

Palmer and his crew install the first power lines across Benson County farms, fulfilling the mission he had lobbied for in Washington two years earlier. "Like the sun rising at midnight," he later told Rod.

Palmer serves in the US Navy's Construction Battalions (SeaBees) during World War II, stationed in Hawaii. The SeaBees built airstrips, harbor facilities, and military infrastructure across the Pacific theater. A man who had spent the 1930s stringing power lines across North Dakota farms was now doing the same work in service of the war effort. He comes home in 1945 – and nine months later, Beverly is born.

Peggy is born to Palmer and Signe in 1942, before Palmer departs for his Navy SeaBee service in Hawaii. Palmer's eldest daughter.

Beverly is born in 1945, nine months after Palmer came home from his Navy SeaBee service in Hawaii. Her birth marks his homecoming as clearly as any document in the archive. The family is whole again.

Rodney Stadum is born to Palmer and Signe, the son who will carry his father's oral history and serve in Vietnam before returning to North Dakota.

Rodney Stadum served during the Vietnam War, continuing the Stadum family tradition of military service that Palmer established in World War II.

Palmer's 1937 electrification work is formally recognized at the Rural Electrification Administration's 40th anniversary. Rod attends with him. Palmer is named in the official program.

Princess Astrid of Norway toured the Høstfest model railroad exhibition in Minot and paused at Palmer's hand-built model locomotives — a memorable meeting preserved in family photographs.

Scott Stadum serves in the Peace Corps in Guyana from 2003 to 2005 – the third generation of Stadum men to commit years of their life to public service. Palmer lobbied for electrification, Rod served in Vietnam, Scott carried the tradition into international development.

Palmer dies at 90, having lived from the pre-electric Great Plains to the internet age. His stories, held by Rod, begin their journey into the Stadum family archive.

Signe Stadum, Palmer's wife and mother to Rod, Beverly, and Peggy, passes away in 2003. She had been the steady center of the Stadum home in Rugby for decades.

Palmer and Signe Stadum are buried at Saint Petri Cemetery in Nome, Barnes County, North Dakota. A new archive photograph shows Peggy Stadum setting flowers near Solberg graves at the cemetery side gate.

Scott sits down with Rod and records the family's oral history – Palmer's stories in Rod's own words, including the DC lobbying trip, the electrification work, and WW2. The foundation of this archive.

Amy Lloyd's youngest child, Dean, is born in 2025. Palmer and Signe's great-great-grandchild. The story continues.