RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:
In Sogndal, Norway, another couple were united in marriage Syver [aka Sjur, or Sever] Stadem [spelled Stadeim in the Old Country) was married to Olena Madsdatter. They were both raised to man and womanhood in the same city. After their marriage they moved to the city of Bergen, where Mr. Stadem served on the police force. To this union eight children were born, four boys and four girls. Just before the close of the Civil War in America, in 1865 [it was 1866] this large family migrated to America, locating at Northwood, Iowa. Here they engaged in farming for eighteen years.
In 1885, they moved into the Dakota Territory, two miles west of where Bryant is now located, and homesteaded. [This was the second wave of Stadeims, or Stadems, from Vik, Norway; please check out Barbara Benson's genealogical research article on the Stadem Roots, with the link below. The first wave of Stadeims emigrated to America shortly after the American Revolution in the 1790s.--Ed.] Here the ambitious pioneer set about to invest his savings in building a home. It was a wooden structure--this was almost unheard of in this vicinity at that time.
As his home was nearing completion, a cyclone swept through the country followed by a severe hailstorm. Everything was wrecked and ruined, including a load of lumber and plaster, several sacks of flour, and other goods that had just been hauled into the yard from the distant railroad city as the storm was approaching. The family saved their lives by entering into the cellar. After the house had been blown off its foundation, they had to stand holding pieces of boards and other objects over their heads to save their lives in the terrific hailstorm. Two of the young men, who had not entered the cellar, were standing in the windows watching the storm as the unfinished house was hurled into the air taking them with it. They had the sensation of their lives as the house was turning and twisting in the air [exactly like was shown many years later in the film, "Wizard of Oz," only this was real and not staged!--Editors].
They were unable to get out of the house for a considerable distance. Finally the floor came loose from the wall along one side big enough for them to slide through. As they struck the ground, they grabbed for something to cover their heads from the hail still coming down. The buildings were so completely destroyed that not enough lumber was recovered to cover a roof over a small sod house. According to a daughter of Mr. Stadem's son, the only surviving item was a family picture found a long way from the original site of the homestead.
With everything wrecked, Mr. Stadem had to let his farm go, and taking his family he went to live with his son, who resided 4 miles northwest of Bryant. The Syver Stadem home was known for its piety. Every Sunday without exception when there was no service or chance to worship with the congregation, as was the usual case in pioneer days, the father would read a sermon from the "Huspostil" (Devotion Book) by Dr. Walter. They would sing hymns from Landstads Hymn Bok. It was said, "Mr. Stadem could start the tune," for as no one had an organ it was the common way to lead the hymn singing, "and sing every song in that songbook."
This family were charter members of the Pleasant Lutheran Congregation, then called the Willow Lake Congregation, which has long since celebrated its Golden Jubilee. They later joined the Bryant Lutheran Congregation and were also the pioneers of the church work there. Mr. Stadem died in 1909, and Mrs. S. Stadem died in 1911.
Syver's Son, Peter Johan Stadem, was born in Bergen, Norway, June 29, 1861. When less than five years old, in company with the large family, he migrated to America. He grew to manhood in the vicinity of Northwood, Iowa; there he received his religious education, attended the common school, was confirmed, and was deeply impressed with the love and freedom obtainable in Christ.
As he came to the conscious relationship with his Lord, it became his great desire to attend school and prepare to enter the ministry in God's Kingdom, but God had other plans. When the large family moved into the Dakota Territory, he was 22 years of age. He with the many others filed on a quarter section of land. On June 27, 1884, he was united in marriage to Marie Karleson, who with her mother and step-father and family had located on a homestead near Lake Pointsett, Hamlin County. Now with the power of love that holds when everything else fails, those two young people established a home in Clark County. With very limited means they toiled, struggled, shared the joy and sorrows as they looked forward to a brighter future.
Their son Alfred has in his possession a highly treasured photograph taken of this humble home over fifty years ago. The mother and oldest child, then an infant, is seated on a blanket outside the sod house door.
The house was located two miles west and two miles north of where Bryant S. Dakota, is now located. To this sod house was added a wooden structure on the one side [the "structure" would be called a "lean-to", which in following times was usually meant for storage or for keeping a few livestock, not for use for human beings, but still, what an improvement over living down in a dugout cut into the ground!--Editors]. This wooden addition was a very great improvement to a home in those pioneer days. A part of the sod stable is visible on this picture, and on the back side we read, "W. C. Frazer, Photographer, Clark D.T." (Dakota Territory).
To this union five children were born; two died in infancy. We are sure the sorrow was keenly felt, but not far distant came the unspeakable sorrow when the young mother bid her beloved husband and three little children the last farewell and closed her eyes in death. Yet comfort comes from the One who gives and the One who takes away. He had lovingly planned a sickbed where the business of life and the struggles for a future were of unconcern, and only the preparations for the eternal home, through faith alone, was the theme and topic of all importance. At early dawn on May 15, 1892, the summons came. Now we find a young father with the three motherless children trying to hold the home together and provide the necessities of life.
He had started building a living house, a wooden structure, to provide a more comfortable and healthy atmosphere for his sick and loving wife. He was in hopes that she could be restored to health again. Now he set about to complete the house, and shortly afterwards they moved into their new abode. Before the death of his wife, Peter Stadem tried to better the unhealthy conditions in their sod house. He worked hard to obtain more comfort and beauty. One day he set out on a journey to the nearest town some twenty-five miles away; he carried in a bundle a few furs to market in exchange for the necessities of life. Before returning home he went to the small lumber yard with the request to buy a half bushel of lime. The dealer inquired if he was plastering something. The purchaser informed him he wanted it to white-wash the interior of the sod house, thus brightening it up a little. The dealer exclaimed in surprise, "White-wash a sod house! I have never heard of such a thing. If you are going to use it to brighten up your home, I will give you a half bushel for nothing!" We surmise it lightened the load and hastened his steps as he was on the homeward way with the surprise bag on his back.
In 1894 Peter Stadem married a widowed mother with five children. Taking his three children they moved down to Minnehaha County, four miles west of Baltic, S. Dakota, where the widow was living. Two children were born to this union. Here they lived and toiled together to pay off the obligations incident to, and the circumstances peculiar to, pioneer life, and the hardships referred to as well.
In 1900, this family moved back to Bryant, So. Dakota. Here they enjoyed the city life, being free from the strenuous farm life. The father had a serious accident that made him incapable of hard manual labor. The neighbor's horse ran over him and broke his kneecap while he was yet on the farm. In the fall of 1904 the family, that was yet under the shelter of this home, moved to Canton, S. Dakota, with the purpose in mind that one of the boys, Sever, should get an opportunity to attend Augustana College. Several happy years were spent in this city with the many church activities. The main recreation they had was fishing on the Big Sioux River.
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Stadem took active interest in all the activities of the congregations where they were members. Mr. Stadem was intrusted with all the offices of the congregation from janitor to deacon. Yes, he served as Sunday School Superintendent on all kinds of committees, from the very insignificant responsibilities to the committee in calling a new pastor. In spite of poor health and a very limited physical strength, he found the strength in the willingness to do all he could and never refused any assignment because of the insignificance of it.
With the honor conferred upon him, it was never intermingled, abused, and dishonored by him, as is always the case with those on the Lord's side. Because his body was riddled by infirmities, he was continually suffering the last twenty-two years of his life. At the home of his two youngest sons, Adolph and Melvin, on the old homestead northwest of Bryant where they lived the last couple years, he died on November 24, 1920. His death occurred on his son Sever's birthday and he as buried on the birthday of his son Alfred. He was laid to rest in the Lutheran cemetery, which is one half mile north of Bryant. All think it very remarkable that he could live his life in such an uncomplaining way that when the undertaker, whom he had known since his birth and with whom he had lived in the same city of Bryant, was summoned, he did not even know that Mr. Stadem was sick unto death. The widowed wife is still living on the farm with her two sons.[She has since passed away--Editors]
Alfred Jorgen Stadem was born on the homestead of his father, Peter Stadem, in Clark County, Dakota Territory, on November 27, 1886. He has the distinction of being born in a sod house cabin, and with honor can point to the fact that he is a pioneer of the great Northwest. He was only five and one half years old when his mother passed away. He still recalls the home and some of its surroundings, even the time before his mother was laid on her sickbed. The most cherished memory in his mind is the scene of the family devotion period. As his father read out of the Book, his two years younger brother, Sever, was sitting on his mother's lap; the one and half year older sister, Caroline, was sitting on a little homemade bench, and he himself was sitting in the highchair, all cuddled close together. Then they would all sing Christian songs.
The song that was sung the most number of times was the one in Norwegian, "Ak nu er mit a arme hjorte, treat of Veerdens sorg og lyst stille stille lad mig hvile ved min Frelsers vame bryst." ("Alas! Now my impoverished heart, weary of the world's sorrow and delight, Quietly, quietly, let me repose at my Savior's heart.") Yes, even the words in part were impressed indelibly on the young minds.
He recalls the time he was standing by his Mama's sickbed quite helpless. Yet the rod, that is mentioned in Proverbs 13:24, which seems so completely ignored even by supposed real Christian parents, had its place on Mama's bed by the wall. When the disagreements came up between the three little children, or perhaps the noise became unbearable when Papa was out working or perhaps to town, the hours were long, the patience exhausted, and the problems could not be settled any other way then over came the rod; it was so long that it reached clear across the room. They all three felt the sting too. Then, the tears flowed in pain, but now tears again flow in thankfulness to God for the obedience to His command and the love that was behind it all. He often praises God for this cherished memory.
He also recalls the morning when the lifeless form was lying there, but not all could he comprehend of the consequences. He remembers the preparations for the burial. Of course, there were no undertaking parlors then. There was no undertaker either. The hands of the widowed husband, father of the motherless children, performed the acts of love. "Dressed in white, with that quiet sleep on her face, she was so pretty," he says. He recalls that first memborable day when his Mama was transported over to Grandma's Place.
[This event is almost too unbearable to imagine. What sort of misgivings, self-doubts, reflections of how things might have gone but did not, not to mention the incrediby sorrowful contact with his wife's disease-racked body did this man suffer, and suffer alone, for his children were entirely too small to share his mental and emotional dilemmas? Norwegian stock was not known for promiscuously sharing internal perplexities and pain, yet that must have compounded the intensity. Though a loving Grandma awaited the sad funeral cortege of one lumber wagon, she was not present to relieve Peter Stadem of some of the crushing weight of his loss, was she? He had to go through it all alone with his God. Though her death must have appeared imminent during the period of her declining health, he was now struck with the finality of what he must have dreaded day after day, hour after our, out at his work in the fields. What were his thoughts then? How did he find strength to carry on? Did he pray for her healing and never lose hope until he saw signs that told him that God was going to take her regardless of his urgent prayers and their urgent need of her? How did he resign himself to the Divine Will in this matter? Why wasn't he embittered or resentful toward God? Apparently, God proved enough for him in his greatest need. He received soothing balm for his heart-breaking loss of a beloved wife and mother, and then, toward the end, his own little son, in the coming portion, ministered solace to him. Yet we cannot help but wonder whether the bereaved husband questioned his thrusting his young wife into such hardship that it apparently proved too much for her health to take. The pioneering life exacted a high cost in the lives of child-bearing women. They knew when they set out that life would be hard for pioneers, but they were willing to sacrifice, some would say, even their lives, that their families might inherit the blessings--Editors]
There they all stayed all day, but day soon came to an end when Papa had to go home to take care the livestock and belongings for the night; he also had to stay to tend them in the morning. The children should stay with Grandma. It was dark now. Papa was hitching up to the lumber wagon and about to bid them all good-night. It was a little five year old boy that spoke, "Papa shall not go home alone. I wa-nt w-ant to go with him." To his surprise, the plan was changed subject to his desires. As Grandma in a mellow tone of voice inquired, "Do you want to go home with Papa?" "Yes," he said. Into the darkness drove the young father seated on the lumber wagon, with the little boy at his side. Forty-five years have passed; hundreds and thousands of sermons and lectures has this little boy heard, given by pastors, bishops, statesmen of great renown, presidents and governors of this commonwealth, explorers (as South Pole discoverer, Roald Amundsen of Norway), globe trotters in large numbers. They have all been listened to in the most humble hut, churches of all descriptions, magnificent auditoriums, hippodromes, and palaces, but so much has been forgotten; but never could this most simple conversation, of that night so long ago be forgotten.
Sitting on that hard wooden seat, riding slowly along the trail homeward, the blackness of the night upon them, the father and son were talking about their loved one. "Mama is now with Jesus." "God loves us and He will take care of us if we permit Him to." "We must be on our guard as there is a wicked spirit, called Satan, that would like to get us too"--such were the remarks and theme of their conversation. No, those miles of travel, with that slow locomotion, were not long that night, and the chill of the night did not bother either. Was there anyone to desire a change of subject? The destination was reached; the evening work was accomplished, at a late hour they retired. O, that blessed sleep, with its balm, enveloped that little boy, as to the father's sleep no one on this earth knows how much he slept. Was this little body, cuddled up in the father's arms, of any comfort to that lonely heart that night? God be praised for the memory.
Now the years flowed by with big and small events. Yes, in the little boy's life, there were lonesome hours in the home. When the father had to be out in the field and it was too cold to trot along with him, the seemingly unbearable desire for company came to him. Even the dropping of table knives on the floor, intentionally, failed to bring company. Then came the time when the new mother should care for the motherless children. The two families were welded together as one. This was a great event in the little boy's life. New problems came with joys and sorrows intermingled; the years passed on. He received only a very limited amount of common school because of the short terms of school, the long four miles to school, and the necessity of everyone, according to ability, to do his part of the seemingly unending amount of labor. The crop failures caused by the drought of the Nineties was greatly felt.
They were farming the land on the Sioux River bottom, which was five miles away from their home. They also farmed the dear old homestead a little less than one hundred miles away. It was a long journey to drive a lumber wagon over this distance twice a year. With camping along the road now and then, the opportunity of uniting with grandparents, uncles and aunties, the additional hardships were willingly endured. Many uncommon jobs were given to this boy, Alfred, to do. The following are a few of them: gathering cow chips on the prairie, and twisting hay for fuel; helping thresh grain with a horsepower-and-tumbling rod machine which had no self-feeder and no blower; stacking straw by hand under a carrier and taking the grain away in half bushels, then "mearusing" the grain by by pulling a tripper that would register the number of bushels, then he would dump the grain into sacks.
One thing conscientiously observed by the old pioneers was the opportunity for religious instruction. Self-sacrifices, physically and financially, were made that all the children might learn to know God and His plan of salvation. Bible schools were regularly held with competent teachers. As there were no school houses, the homes were opened up; parlors and cook shanties were converted into school rooms. Even the upstairs of Stadem's granary was good enough to study the precious truths in. Alfred had the opportunity of attending Bible School. He also received the instruction before Confirmation. Although the meaning of it all was not really understood and appreciated, dear Pastor Moe brought Jesus close to the heart of this young boy, and with a firm desire he vowed to live for Him.
Then came another eventful day of the almost unheard of category among the old settlers, an "Auction Sale." [Later, Alfred would become an auctioneer, just one of his many abilities and trades--Editors]. The days preceding the sale were very busy; still busier days followed when the immigrant car had to be loaded with the remaining belongings and moved to Bryant from Baltic. Yes, they were going off the farm to enjoy city life. Some building was done both in town, and on the farm, for the renter; therefore, in all the rush school was neglected again for Alfred. The boy's legs were growing long, and the body took on the dimension beyond proportions to the age, and he felt he would not fit in any longer with those who regularly attended school.
City life was not what it was "cracked up" to be, for the young man. Because he hated the rough element and the unfairness in play, city life became monotonous. Out into the country was the solving of the problem, but that meant work. Although the salary was in proportion to the age and the work in proportion to the size of the body, the low wage was often at a point unbearable for the mind to submit to. But with the gift of resistance and ability to save, at the end some financial results could be produced and kept for some future investment.
[The above passage was quoted by his daughter Estelle when she wrote her account of Papa. It was in God's leading of young Alfred, she observes. We might add that it was in his background and family heritage to do something of this sort too.
Although his farm exceeded in size any Stadem farm in Norway, it never grew very big, and was never the owner's preoccupation. As with his forebears in Norway, material things mattered less than the priorities, which were mainly spiritual, as he and his wife labored to raise a godly family and set a godly example in the community and help to extend the Gospel and the Kingdom of God. This put the Stadems on the fringe in an increasingly secular society, exactly where they aimed to be!
Self-indulgent, relatively easy city life was not for them, and in fact it had never been for the Stadem clan, even though Stadems lived at times in large, highly cultured "urban centers" such as Bergen (visitors to the website are encouraged to see Stadem-descendant Barbara Benson' account, "Stadem Roots," which shows the Stadem turf over in Norway and what sort of people they were). Possessing little in comparison to others, they knew and practiced the secret of living richly in righteousness. Mammon and city life, then, were instinctively distrusted, if not opposed outright. Truly, they resided in the world but were not of it, and took seriously the Bible when it spoke of the Christian walk as being that of a stranger and a pilgrim.
To attempt to understand Alfred Stadem, there is no getting around this individualistic Stadem bent and pious pilgrim worldview--a characteristic trait and a view of the world that have become nearly incomprehensible to his many descendants. In this regard, Website visitors, please refer to "What Forebears Knew," a poetic tribute which deals with the pioneering immigrant and the great gap that exists between pioneer vision and our own today as the third or fourth generation. Unlike some who modernized and assimilated to the point where they merged with mainstream society to become typical Americans, Alfred proved persistent and remained a "true-blue" Stadem in this sense. He was a man of the sod, but his heart was not in the soil he tilled but in the everlasting Church of Jesus Christ, represented for him locally by Bryant Lutheran Church, Bryant, SD. An excellent account is given by a friend of the Stadem Family, Erling Jordahl, which is treat you shouldn't miss--use the link provided please.
Alfred was never philosophically and temperamentally at ease in the worldly society, though he cultivated a highly-developed, community-minded role. He loved America dearly and gladly gave his sons to her defense, but this was not his kingdom, he knew and looked forward to, like Abraham the Pilgrim progenitor of Israel long before him, a "better country". This is his admirable position and philosophical and religious and moral and social "stance," taken and adapted to his circumstances at a young age, and it stood him in good stead, for by it he forged a mold for his life and the upbringing and nurture of his family that produced amazingly productive and godly sons and daughters. You know a tree by its fruit, the Bible says. Well? It was certainly a good tree, all in all, when you look at the fruit, the lives and productivity and godliness and cheerful love of others and country exemplified by all nine of his brood. A goodly tree, indeed! It is hard to imagine any better--though there may be one better in God's Country, this will suffice for us in the Stadem Relationship! We love it and cherish it, so much so that we want to share its riches with the whole world! Papa Stadem was of that mind--the sharing of all he had from God--and we, his descendants, are of the same mind and stripe. If we ever change, we cease to walk in his giant footprints!
There is a darker side, however. Standing where he did, he could fall, if tempted too often, into a critical attitude, even a bitter judgmentalism that would sour and even poison his relations with the members of the society around him. Since they could not live up to his code of pilgrim righteousness, being less committed to his values and viewpoints, there was bound to be a separation and some ill feeling. A man less devoted to his high ideals and high morality might accommodate himself to human frailty, but for Alfred human fraility, as he identified it, proved the major stumbling block for his life as the years went on, producing effects that could be rightly called tragic.
This view of him which adds warts to a halo, so to speak, is controversial, yet let the facts speak for themselves, facts for which there are more than ample testimonies by the major participants in his life's drama. Since the whole Saga of the Stadems, as far as this branch is concerned, devolves on the makeup and decisions of Alfred Stadem, we have been so impressed by the importance of this understanding of him that we dared to interrupt the narrative for so long, in the hope that light has been shed on the unfolding life-and-death drama. Note how this family patriarch uses the third person always in referring to himself, for Alfred Stadem hated what he called the "big I."
Some in the family regard him as an irreproachable saint, while others refuse to overlook or white-wash his flaws and make him out to be something of a chauvinist villain (the patriarchal father figure being so out of favor in contemporary-minded circles today). While not flawless and certainly not a villain, we would hold he was a most exceptional man, eminently worthy to contribute to and then pass on the great heritage of his forebears. How many men with so little formal schooling would take the effort to school themselves to write so well, with so few misspellings? He might have led a humdrum existence as a farmer with [initially only] a third or fourth-grade education, but, no, he challenged himself continually to learn new skills and take on new tasks and trades, while involving himself in church and society to help in any way he could. Faith in God, for him, meant ACTION (acting it out in numerous, practical ways, not spiritualizing it as he sat back in his recliner in his sunset years, wielding a TV remote, two things he never had and wouldn't have had, by choice, even if they had been available to him!).
He was a pioneer and a son of pioneers and retained his pioneering spirit into "old age" which for him was no hindrance because he kept right on plowing virgin sod and bringing forth abundant harvests until the day he died. His superabundant strength going back to the Vikings was maybe his undoing at one point in his seven decades lifespan, but stopped in his tracks by Almighty God, the record testifies that he chose the right way and overcame the wrong, passing the supreme test of his life. Two men may have died in the process, and there followed many consequences, like a stone thrown into a placid pond, but let the record reveal whether or not more good has come out of Alfred Stadem's stumbling than the opposite--Editors].
