PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM,
RURAL BRYANT, SD, PRESENTS:
THE PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM HOME PAGES:
THE INTRODUCTORY (OR FRONT DOOR TO "THE GOOD WAY")
WHAT IS PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM AND THE GOOD WAY? This is a place where we can share out Scandinavian pioneer farm family, its stories and values, tragedies and triumphs and humor too, with others. WELCOME, you all!
"The LORD said, 'Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it'" (Jer. 6:16)
"Sa langt som osten er fra vesten later han vare misgjerniger vare langt fra oss." (Norwegian)
"Far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our sins from us."--Psalm 103:12
Introduction, or Front Door to the Plain View Heritage Farm'S Good Way & Website:
Introduction, or Front Door, to Plain View Farm & Its Future
WHY THIS WEBSITE STARTED:
"Why This Website Started"
THE PEARL GINTHER SCHOLARSHIP AWARD ESSAYS FOR JUNE 17, 2016:
Essays, 2016
For the website editor's remarks and observations on the essays concerning the larger context of Stadem heritage and its re-discovery, go to:
Essay Awards
Estelle Stadem Rangen Composing Her Heritage Account
on Plain View Farm,
with Picture of Peder & Marie Stadem
THE ESTELLE STADEM RANGEN CREATIVE ARTS SERIES AND AWARDS HAVE BEGUN:
"Where I First Saw the Light," a One Act Play About the Cross of Christ, for Children and Youth, by Ronald Ginther
Of necessity, character parts will be chosen, memorized beforehand, and then rehearsed at the Farm at the 2017 reunion. Any unexcused or previously unreported "no shows" after parts are taken will result in this: the person will not be able to participate, as the part will be awarded to someone else. However, as compensation, a donkey stand-in part is available on humble request. At the Centennial there can be "no-shows" and no unrehearsed and unmemorized parts! That will be necessary for the cast to be ready to produce a full scale production for the grand 2018 Centennial of the Farm celebration to be held on the farm, June 2018.
CENTENNIAL 2018 ANNOUNCED:
In June 2018, a grand celebration called the Centennial will be held on Plain View Farm for families and friends and Bryant neighbors. Both the Farm and the House will be 100 years old. The House was finished 1919, but it was started a year or so before that time. The farm was there before 1919, with a number of outbuildings and old barn that did not make it to the 21st century intact. The Heritage House is definitely more than 100 years old (which appears to be a shed for storing unassorted old junk and claptrap now). It was the original sleeping place for the family while the house was under construction by Alfred Stadem, and that can be viewed in its junky state, but will hopefully be set in order for viewing by 2018! Some previous progress must be noted here. The foundation was completely relaid, with cement, a few years ago to get rid of woodchucks coming up through the wood floor! I slept in that Heritage House so-called some years ago, and it was hardly pleasant, for it was during the woodchuck dispensation--Ed.
For "Our Vision for the Future", with Vital Foundational Scriptural Support & Guidance & Empowerment, go to:
"Our Vision for the Future"--The Scriptural Basis for our Heritage Preservation & Sharing of It
Devotional Message Based on Norway's premier, legendary Evangelist, Hans Nielsen Hauge:
"Stubborn or Committed," Devotional message from "Christ In Our Home," Thursday, March 29, 2012, Based on Hans Nielsen Hauge
"All Are Welcome," Suggested Theme Song for Plain View Heritage Farm and Heritage Center!
The Front Door for the whole Plain View Farm webside is here:
The "Front Door" Introduction to Our Plain View Farm Heritage
The 12 Jam-Packed Archives Filler Notebooks Hold Pearl's precious PVF Records, Documents, Recordings, Videotapes, Pictures, & Cards & Letters for all the PVF Stadem Famlies, early 1900s to Present:
This Introductory to the four Home Pages is not large enough to include all the items we have already on-line, so this heritage center archives page is taking the overflow. Soon that page will be full as well and we will have to add many pages to it as time goes on, God willing, and we still have opportunity to record our golden heritage on them.
A new and exciting development to the Archives Center will be an Audio library! We have a video with audio already available, two in fact. They can be accessed as soon as we post them to the Archives page.
Plain View Heritage Archives Center
RECORDINGS AND VIDEOTAPES NEWLY ADDED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT AND LEARNING ABOUT HERITAGE:
"Heritage", Videotape of the Heritage Saving Project on Plain View Farm, by Jerry Ginther in 2008, of Ron Ginther (with sweet cameo appearance of Pearl Ginther in support of the Heritage Project), Telling the RICH Meaning of Our Stadem Heritage
BROADCASTING FROM THE BRYANT, SD, RADIO STATION WHERE KRUMKAKA IS UNDISPUTED KING:
Part I, Radio KRUM, Bryant, SD, broadcasting by Rural DJ Ron Ginther
Part II, Radio KRUM, Bryant, SD, broadcasting by Rural DJ Ron Ginther
This "Plain View Heritage Farm Timeline" of the united Stadem/Holbeck lines and Plain View Farm's history was presented to the Reunion 2012 gathering, stretching from the late 19th century to the 21st Century:
Plain View Farm Timeline, 19th century to 21st century
WHAT IS HERITAGE?
THE BIBLE TELLS US PRESERVING AND PASSING ON "THE GOOD WAY," THE GODLY HERITAGE WE INHERITED TO SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS IS VITAL:
Jeremiah 6:16: Thus saith the LORD, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."
Another way to say it is: "If you don't know where you have been, you don't know where you are going!"
WHAT IS A "HERITAGE FARM"? WHY "HERITAGE"? WHY NOT JUST "PLAIN VIEW FARM"?
INTRO TO HERITAGE: THE WHAT AND WHY OF HERITAGE, Shared Views by Ronald Ginther
ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT "THE GOOD WAY", OUR HERITAGE?
Have you ever wondered what motivated our ancestors to leave Norway and travel across the Atlantic in a sailed ship, then travel by train to Iowa?
"Sjur of Stadheim," a Tribute to Sjur and Oline, by their Gr Gr Grandson, Ronald Ginther
"Stadems Sail to America," Part II of "Sjur of Stadheim"
DO YOU KNOW WHO MOTHER BRITTA WAS? AND WHY SHOULD YOU EVEN CARE?
Britta was the Matriarch of the Olsons or Stadems or Stadeims or Stadheims of the Old Country who produced our particular line. (I am so glad they dropped Olson, aren't you?--THAT TRIBE HAS ENOUGH PEOPLE IN IT!).
Mother to all of us, a true Matriarch, she was the mother of Sjur and Knud, who had the old Viking spunk living in them and emigrated to America. We have devoted an entire tribute to her. I am not sure there are any extant photos or drawings of her--which is too bad, but who knows what priceless pictures were destroyed when a cyclone obliterated Sjur and Oline's house when it was under construction. All they saved from that disaster was a single family photograph. But what they have to teach us could fill volumes. All we have is a website, to do this great work of translation. I hope you have patience as we unfold the things they have bequeathed us in their golden legacy. It isn't fashionable, yet it is so timely it could save us and teach us how to survive as Christians in the coming world famine and the collapse of the present order.--Ed.
Tribute to Britta, the Pillar, by Ron Ginther, her Gr Gr Gr Grandson, Ron Ginther
Tribute to Peder and Gurina, by their Gr Gr Grandson, Ron Ginther
Tribute to Two Oles, by Ron Ginther
Leroy Stadem wrote down his wonderful account of the various farm buildings, which is fascinating, when you see how they came about, each in response to a very real need. We plan to add more of his accounts soon.
Leroy Stadem's Accounts of the Plain View Farm's Buildings
Wedding Guests (nearly all Stadems and Descendants) Gathered at Madison, Wisconsin motel for Leroy and Elizabeth Stadem
Papa Alfred Stadem Speaks For Himself, Giving His Views and Reactions to the Events of Two Challenging Years, That Included the Death of a Special Family Friend (1946) and then the Sudden Deaths of Their Eldest Son and a Son-In-Law in early 1947:
"Papa's Letter Concerning the Events of 1946-47", by Alfred Stadem
GRANDPA STADEM'S LETTERS FROM THE ARCHIVES:
"Grandpa Speaks For Himself," Part 1, Alfred Stadem's Letter of 1951 Expressing His Plain Views
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GRANDMA BERGIT STADEM
As Grandpa repeatedly testified in one way or another, his wife was the real spiritual powerhouse and pillar of the Stadem household, not himself. But do you know the basic facts about her, that they weren't promising at all, in fact, were almost guaranteed to keep her down and cause her life to be of no real significance? That she had great handicaps to overcome even at a very young age is revealed in this short biographical sketch:
"To God Be The Glory," a Biographical Sketch of Bergit Wilhelmina Holbek Stadem by Mrs. Walter Kloster, May 22, 1975, on the Occasion of Her 90th Birthday
THE RESTORED FAMILY ALBUM:
"The Stadem Family Photo Album, Restored to View 2013
WHEN THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST IS TRULY IN CHARGE ON PVF, IT IS A LITTLE GLORIOUS BIT OF HEAVEN ON EARTH:
"Isn't It Heaven?", A Call to Stadem Descendants to Come Home, Dedicated to Cora Stadem Taylor
CORA STADEM TAYLOR IS A PHENOMENAL 98 YEARS OLD, TURNED MARCH 5, REACHING HER MAMA'S GRAND AGE! AT NINETY-SEVEN, SHE SENT OUT THIS GREAT, GREAT LETTER TO ALL OF US:
"Cora's Letter to All Her Grandchildren, Great-Grandchildren, and Nephews and Nieces
In reply to her Daughter Carleen's questions, you'll also love her pungent comments about Sjur and Oline (she says: "can't recall them"), Ben and Norman Stadem, Malvin and Adolph Stadem, Gurina Stadem (Peder's second wife), and, last but greatest, beloved Papa!
"Cora's Comments," by Cora Stadem Taylor, Age 97 Years Young
Free Plain View Farm Stationery Created Especially for You to Download and Use:
PLAIN VIEW FARM STATIONERY
FROM THE ARCHIVES FOR SOUTH DAKOTA:
"Liberty Township History"
WANT SOME SHIVERS THAT ARE GOOD SHIVERS? FROM THE QUENCHLESS, SUPER-ABUNDANT FOUNTAIN ON THE PRAIRIE, THE STADEM HERITAGE ARCHIVES:
"Myrtle Svanoe's Letter to Mama," Typed but Still in the Typewriter the Very Day When Her Mama Went Home to Glory
BERNICE'S AND ESTELLE'S JOINT LETTER RELATING THE PASSING OF THEIR BELOVED MAMA AND CONSEQUENT EVENTS:
"Bernice's and Estelle's Letter
PICS FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Leroy Stadem by Willow Creek Church, where his dad was confirmed
Grandpa John Ginther in Stovepipe Hat driving oxen and cart he used in doing town parades. John Ginther and Alfred Stadem were well known to each other, as John's son Robert married Alfred's eldest daughter.
2010: A 21st Century EPIC Saga in the Making:
Raising the framework for the ground level of the exciting, new Heritage Center Barn on Plain View Farm!
WHAT IS A GODLY WOMAN WORTH? SCRIPTURE SAYS HER PRICE IS ABOVE THAT OF RUBIES, WHICH WERE IN BIBLICAL TIMES AS VALUABLE AS DIAMONDS ARE TODAY
WHAT WILL THE HERITAGE CENTER LOOK LIKE WHEN IT IS FINISHED INSIDE?
The following displays will give you a good idea, as they picture the heritage items in a 9 by 9 space, walled on two sides only in the corner of a dining room. Recognize any of the items? We wish we could give you an itemized account, but there are just too many items to do that. The pictures overall will give you the idea how a single, rather small space or enclosed room in the Heritage Center may look, which is the purpose of showing them. The only things missing are hundreds of other wonderful items brought out for inclusion, if the space is ever made available.
ENJOY THE "THE TABLE OF JOY"
HOW ABOUT A BREAK FOR HUMOR AMIDST THE RATHER CHEERLESS AND TASTELESS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNING AND POSTURING?:
EVER WONDER IF OUR STADEM LINE WASN'T THE FIRST STADEM LINE TO SET UP IN AMERICA? WELL, DEAN STADEM, SON OF PETER GORDON STADEM, SON OF SEVERT STADEM, RESEARCHED THIS AND FOUND:
"Dean Stadem's Letter
FROM THE ARCHIVES, A NORWEGIAN DECLAMATION CONTEST MEDAL WON BY AUGUSTANA ACADEMY STUDENT PEARL GINTHER IN 1930: The tough, highly competitive contest set between the premier Scandinavian colleges, St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota, and Augsburg College of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Augustana Academy, a parochial high school, showed that while not winning first place, how well a Christian academy's two female students could do against men from elite colleges such as these, with Pearl Stadem and Barbara Jean Rothnem winning Second and Sixth places respectively. The clipping from a paper states: "WIN MORE PRIZES-- Canton--Barbara Jean Rothnem and Pearl Stadem, Augustana academy's entrants in the National Sigvald Qvale Norse declamation contest, won second and sixth places respectively. The contest was held in "Mindekirken" in Minneapolis, Saturday evening. A student from St. Olaf college, Northfield, Minn., won first and one from Augsburg (rest of clipping missing).
Pearl wrote on back that the St. Olaf College entrant was training to be a pastor, while she was a high school student, which points out how college students back then were pitted against high school student in this contest, which wouldn't happen today.
FROM THE ARCHIVES/LIBRARY, THESE COFFEE-SPILLING BOOKS:
This valuable book of our Norwegian immigrational history is donated to PVF by Rennard Svanoe from his own library. A great picture of life aboard the Hellig Olav, the steamship that brought Bergit Holbeck and Katrine her sister over to America in 1903, shows us how it looked on the main deck with the passengers all out taking the sun and fresh air. A voyage to America from Norway used to take 7 weeks on a sailing vessel, but the steamship can make it in less than a week! Steamships are also clean and full of conveniences that were undreamt of aboard sailed vessels. It was a great improvement, indeed, when the Age of Steam arrived to transform shipping round the world. The quality of life zoomed upwards for both crew and passengers. Even though immigrants were not the richest people, they were treated far better on the 20th century steamships than people had been treated on the extremely cramped sailed ships. It is interesting to wonder how Bergit and Katrine reacted to the marvels of these modern, mechanical giants, things they had only heard of, but now were experiencing for the first time. Certainly, life aboard such a technological wonder prepared these two Norwegian farm girls for the technological marvels of the great city where they would soon disembark--New York City, unquestionably the queen city of America.
This same book, which is mostly all pictures and with text in both Norwegian and English, shows the Svanoe family operating conspicuously in high diplomatic office early on in American society, particularly in Chicago, which was a center of early Svanoe enterprise.
THE BOOK JACKET FOR UTVANDRERNE TIL AMERIKA, PLUS CONNECTIONS WITH THE STADEMS IN HAUGEANISM:
"Our Norwegian Immigrants," and Stadem Connections to Haugeanism and his Evangelical Revival and Faith
Svanoe's consular office was located with some of the kingpins of early Scandinavian influence in Chicago, as this same building (actually a complex) contained the offices of the Scandinavian newspaper Norden, a Scandinavian bookstore, a Scandinavian travel agency, a bank, notary public, and the J.T. Relling & Company. Don't let the picture fool you into thinking this was a small structure. Buildings of the era were necessarily narrow bordering the thronged, congested streets of Chicago, but they extended far back, so there had to be plenty of room, with very high ceilings too, for these offices and agencies.
A TEST FOR THE PRESENT-DAY STADEM GENERATION: How thankful are we really for God's manifold blessings? Let this nostalgic but graphic picture test our thankfulness.
FROM THE PVF ARCHIVES:
This valuable volume put Plain View Farm back on the map of Hamlin County, thanks to Ruth and Tom Harrington! The Farm House and its acreage had been auctioned off, but they bought 13 acres with the house and outbuildings and set about restoration of the ruins, bringing them back to life. Only the barn continued to deteriorate, though Tom straightened its sagging frame.
From the Archives:
Pearl, age 100, at 2010 Stadem Reunion:
Pearl's Centennial Birthday Cake at Plain View Farm Reunion 2010:
Pearl reads to her Stadem families her own stories of life on Plain View Farm when she was a girl:
Mother Pearl prays for the children after reading her stories to them.
UPDATE FOR 2012 REUNION:
Rennard Stadem's Article about the 2012 Reunion and Stadem Matriarch, Pearl A. Ginther:
"Stadem Matriarch Remembered," by Pearl's Nephew Rennard Svanoe, with appended tribute by Pearl's Son, Ron Ginther
MEMORIAL CROSS FOR PEARL'S YOUNGEST SON JERRY GINTHER IS LOOKING FOR A PERMANENT HOME BY A PUBLIC HIGHWAY:
Shown here wearing her lovely Diamond brooch of the "Seven Churches of Asia from the book of Revelations, my saintly mother, Pearl A. Ginther, a true woman of God used mightily by God
all her 101 years, bequeathed to me a spiritual legacy worth far more than a billion dollars.>/h3>
DARRELL ROBERT GINTHER WAS PEARL'S ELDEST AND IN MANY WAYS MOST REMARKABLE SON. SYLVIA YUGE'S MEMORIAL TO DARRELL GINTHER & A MOTHER'S LOVE:
DARRELL ROBERT GINTHER WAS PEARL'S ELDEST AND IN MANY WAYS MOST REMARKABLE SON. SYLVIA YUGE'S MEMORIAL TO DARRELL GINTHER & A MOTHER'S LOVE:
Memorial to Darrell Ginther & His Mother's Love, by Cousin Sylvia Yuge
This exciting news arrived in December 2012 as a special Christmas gift to all who loved her! Pearl Stadem Ginther's Living Olive Tree is in the Israel Grove, Planted March 1, 2012 by Daystar Television Network who have the grove near the Mount of Beatitudes and the Sea of Galilee. This is a wonderful living memorial that will provide olives and oil for years to come to bless Israel, even for centuries. Some olive trees live to a thousand years or more, we are told. The olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane are said to be so old they may even go back to the time of Christ, which would make them 2,000 years old--not unlikely for long-lived olive trees! We know that Sequoias and Redwoods and certain pine trees can double that age, so it is not unlikely that an olive tree could live so long as to have been there when our Lord Jesus Christ came to pray in the Garden on the Mount of Olives.
Anyone who is seriously considering a trip to the Holy Land, made holy by Jesus and the covenants Jehovah-Jesus made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, can contact us and be given the exact row of the grove and number on the tree, so that pictures can be taken there. Right next to hers is Kathleen Lawrence-Smith's olive tree sapling planted March 1, 2012, and this Christian lady of Britain contributed $1,000 to the PVF Heritage Center, and was a friend of Pearl's, visiting her in her home, when she and her husband Ray were touring the U.S. and Canada Together, their trees will flourish until the Second Coming of the Savior, no doubt! How fitting that they should be together, as they are both sisters in Christ, and both loved Israel, the homeland and birthplace of Jesus.
THIS WEBSITE, WWW.PLAINVIEWHERITAGE.COM, IS DEDICATED TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE MEMORY OF PEARL ANDRINA STADEM GINTHER, WHO PASSED FROM THIS EARTH TO HEAVENLY GLORY AND REWARD WITH JESUS HER SAVIOR, APRIL 30, 2013. PLEASE GO TO HER NIECE MIM'S EMAIL, WHICH IS THE BEST OF MANY WONDERFUL RESPONSES TO THIS VERY TEARY BUT GLORIOUS EVENT:
"Mim's Email" Concerning Pearl's Graduation Event at the Age of 101 & 8 Months!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: A TRIBUTE TO MIM RINDERKNECHT:
"The Master's Heart," A Tribute to Mim Rinderknecht, a New Year's Bouquet, by Cousin Ron Ginther
FOR PART 1 of This First Home Page, Go To:
HOME PAGE PART 1
Butterfly Productions Home Page
WWW.OARINGINTHERIVER.COM Master Directory
DID YOU ENJOY THIS FIRST PART OR INTRODUCTORY OF THE PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM?
THIS IS THE INTRODUCTORY, OR FRONT DOOR, BUT IT TAIN'T THE ONLY PART BY ANY MEANS! PLEASE GO FROM HERE TO HOME PAGE PARTS 1, 2, 3, and 4, AS THERE IS MUCH, MUCH MORE FOR YOU TO EXPLORE OF OUR GOLDEN HERITAGE IN GOD AND FAMILY VALUES OF A PIONEER SOUTH DAKOTA PRAIRIE FARM.
PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM HOME PAGE 1
PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM HOME PAGE 2
PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM HOME PAGE 3
PLAIN VIEW HERITAGE FARM HOME PAGE 4
Or:
PLAIN VIEW FARM ON ANGELFIRE
And:
PRAIRIE FARM ON ANGELFIRE
North America's Only Norwegian-American Newspaper, Also With On-Line Shopping and Travel Info for Norway:
Norwegian-American Weekly
