Son of Carmen Harriet Deiter and Berthel Jarl (d. 1934), adopted by Carmen's second husband Walter Bellman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 about Carmen Deiter
Name: Carmen Deiter
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Spouse: Ward Berthel Jarl
Marriage Date: 19 Oct 1928
Marriage County: Spink
County of Residence: Faulk
Post Office: Faulkton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Carolyn Belkonen
Gender: Female
Marriage Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1939
Residence Date: 1958
Residence Place: Lake Norden, Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Marriage Date: 7 Sep 1958
Marriage Place: Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Spouse: Charles Bellman
SOURCE- South Dakota, U.S., Marriages
=======================
Charles' first wife was Carolyn Belkonen, two sons with Carolyn, John and James Bellman.
Second wife was Lois Papousek, later Vielmette, married March 1985.
Lois Bellman and Charles Bellman divorced on June 5, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The South Dakota Democratic Central Committee spent just over $3.900 per month to run its slate party operation through September announced State Chairman Charles Bellman. The party's third quarter financial report sent to more than 400 party officers, legislators and officials shows that the Democrats operated their statewide office in Pierre with full time executive secretary and clerical staff during the first nine months of 1975 for $35,402.39 or just over $3,933 monthly. During the nine-month period the Democrats made loan payments of $13,689'.74 on campaign debts from 1974. The debts were incurred from direct campaign donations to the party's constitutional and congressional candidates, Bellman said. "We've raised just short of $50,000 since January 1 and managed to sustain an effective state party headquarters and reduce the party indebtedness to about $15,000," Bellman said. "We're hopeful of clearing that debt this fall while getting underway with our party building programs for 76," explained Bellman. "We've recently initiated a fall voter registration and Dollars for Democrats Drive." The Democrats employ a full time executive director and office manager.
Source: The Daily Republic › 1975 › October › 9 October 1975 › Page 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Bellman commenced an eighteen-month sentence on March 13, 1985 on a federal conviction for converting mortgaged grain.
Farmer Serving Time For Converting Mortgaged Property
JOHN CUNNIFF , Associated Press
Oct. 5, 1985 2:19 PM ET
ROCHESTER, MINN. ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) _ It is a strange place for Charles Bellman to be, more than 400 miles from home when he has cattle and crops to be tended on a farm he's in danger of losing.
But Bellman can do little about his predicament - the double chainlink fence surrounding him is 12 feet high and fringed top and bottom with rolled barbed wire, and there is a no-man's land in between, patrolled by armed guards.
Bellman, 53, is in a federal prison, serving 18 months for converting mortgaged property - in his case, selling grain being used as collateral and buying cheaper, lower quality grain to feed his cattle.
Bellman maintains that is common practice among farmers and contends he is being treated harshly because he urges other farmers to use the bankruptcy laws to sidestep crushing debts. His prosecutor agrees Bellman is being used ''as an example.''
Specifically, the Wecota, S.D., farmer sold grains mortgaged to the Aberdeen Production Credit Association, a cooperative, in the summer of 1981 and then purchased lower-grade feed for his cattle, which also were mortgaged to the association.
''I was maintaining their collateral,'' contends Bellman.
The folks at Aberdeen Production Credit, one of 12 such associations that along with the Federal Land Bank and the Bank of Cooperatives make up the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, thought differently.
The credit association demanded a voluntary liquidation of Bellman Farms, which was deep in debt, in part because of extensive land purchases at inflated prices. Bellman Farms filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy laws.
After failing to have Bellman's Chapter 11 reorganization plan dissolved, the credit association sought charges against him, and in the spring of 1983 he was indicted on 21 counts of property conversion. He was convicted on six counts Nov. 4, 1983, after a week-long jury trial.
''I about fainted,'' said Bellman, who wore old Army khakis as he sat guarded for an interview in a reception room at the Federal Medical Facility, which, despite its name, is a prison in every sense.
His fiance, Lois, was stunned, too. ''We never expected it,'' he said. Neither, he said, did courtroom spectators, including 25 or 30 farmers. ''They were all stunned because they were all operating like this, too.''
His appeals exhausted, Bellman entered federal prison here on March 21.
''I worry about the farm,'' he said. He has lost 26 pounds in prison. ''One mistake of management and I could lose it.''
Still, with the help of Lois, now his wife, and two hired hands, he believes he increased its value in recent years, and he hopes to make money on his cattle.
But his imprisonment could mean problems for the future. The court will rule on his latest bankruptcy reorganization plan this fall, ''and obviously my imprisonment has not enhanced approval of the case,'' he said.
Along with Lois, Bellman has become a hero to many farmers and a nuisance to lenders and lawyers, holding seminars and advising financially strapped farmers through a newsletter and hundreds of phone calls.
The Bellmans operate FAMINE, an acronym for ''Farmers of America Merge in the 1980s,'' which sends out basic information on bankruptcy court reorganizations.
FAMINE is non-profit, supported by $15-a-year newsletter subscription and a $10 book Bellman wrote, ''The Second Chance,'' which explains the intricacies of reorganizing under the bankruptcy laws.
National Farm Management Ltd., another Bellman venture, works with farmers on bankruptcies and estate planning. Farm organizations hire the couple for $75 an hour to instruct members.
While farmers have been grateful, lawyers and lenders have rarely been so, and Bellman worries that National Farm Management will be sued by attorneys who think it encroaches on their territory. The Bellmans say they consider themselves far more knowledgeable than most lawyers.
They have come in for special attention and, Bellman contends, for especially rough treatment. Many farmers have never been charged for doing what Bellman did. Some who were indicted avoided conviction. Others received mild sentences.
Phillip Hogen, a federal prosecutor, said he sought to make an example of Bellman because ''this defendant has held himself out as an expert to farmers who are encountering financing difficulties.''
At Bellman's sentencing, Hogen said, ''Because he has been looked at as an example of how to deal with those difficulties, we think that it would be appropriate for the court to impose a penalty that would discourage farmers who are similarly situated from even considering the kinds of acts that the defendant in this case was convicted of.''
Bellman, who has two grown sons, insists he should be back tending the land that his grandfather and his parents worked.
''What can they get from me?'' he asked. By prosecuting, his lenders ''have one-quarter million additional debt and no interest payments. And they have to write off the debt anyway.''
Bellman is a farmer by choice, but his skills are varied. His resume, included in his reorganization plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for South Dakota, lists a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry, a tour as a U.S. Army aviator in Korea, a master's degree in journalism from South Dakota State University, a period of teaching at the University of South Dakota, and ownership at one time of a weekly newspaper in Vermillion, S.D.
He has taught Sunday school at the Methodist Church and run unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress.
Sitting in prison, Bellman told of his early depression and how he pulled his spirits up by visualizing conditions on his 4,800 acres - 2,080 owned, the rest rented - and devising strategies to keep the farm going.
And he philosophizes - about the farm problem, bureaucracy, about ''justice gone wild,'' about creditors he says are so hung up on policy that they get less by prosecuting farmers than by letting them run their farms.
He said he knew lenders were being hurt. ''But nothing can be done about it. Let's face it - the disaster - and let's try to pull it out,'' he said.
To Bellman that means lenders must recognize the loss of farm values and salvage what they can by working to keep borrowers on the farms.
He acknowledges that his reorganization plan asks his creditors, some of whom are small-business people, to take small amounts on the dollar, but he reasons that lenders ''reaped rewards for high interest rates, and now they'll have to take their losses.''
''We're in this together,'' Bellman said. ''The first wave, the farmers, have been wiped out. Now it's the second wave, the banks. Someone is going to be left holding the bag, and it seems to me it will be the lenders.''
He rejects government price supports as a remedy, ''because the money would just come from the taxpayers.'' Rather, he said again, the solution lies with lenders working with farmers. ''We didn't go broke willingly,'' he said.
Debtors prisons, he said, are not the answer.
==============================
Name: Charles J Bellman
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
SSN: 511320949
Enlistment Branch: ARMY
Enlistment Date: 15 Sep 1954
Discharge Date: 24 Jun 1956
SOURCE-U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File
=========================
Name: Charles Jarl Bellman
Death Age: 61
Record Type: Death
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
Death Place: Hennepin, Minnesota, USA
Death Registration Date: 1993
Mother's Maiden Name: Deiter
Certificate Number: 021161
Record Number: 2471911
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 about Carmen Deiter
Name: Carmen Deiter
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Spouse: Ward Berthel Jarl
Marriage Date: 19 Oct 1928
Marriage County: Spink
County of Residence: Faulk
Post Office: Faulkton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Carolyn Belkonen
Gender: Female
Marriage Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1939
Residence Date: 1958
Residence Place: Lake Norden, Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Marriage Date: 7 Sep 1958
Marriage Place: Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Spouse: Charles Bellman
SOURCE- South Dakota, U.S., Marriages
=======================
Charles' first wife was Carolyn Belkonen, two sons with Carolyn, John and James Bellman.
Second wife was Lois Papousek, later Vielmette, married March 1985.
Lois Bellman and Charles Bellman divorced on June 5, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The South Dakota Democratic Central Committee spent just over $3.900 per month to run its slate party operation through September announced State Chairman Charles Bellman. The party's third quarter financial report sent to more than 400 party officers, legislators and officials shows that the Democrats operated their statewide office in Pierre with full time executive secretary and clerical staff during the first nine months of 1975 for $35,402.39 or just over $3,933 monthly. During the nine-month period the Democrats made loan payments of $13,689'.74 on campaign debts from 1974. The debts were incurred from direct campaign donations to the party's constitutional and congressional candidates, Bellman said. "We've raised just short of $50,000 since January 1 and managed to sustain an effective state party headquarters and reduce the party indebtedness to about $15,000," Bellman said. "We're hopeful of clearing that debt this fall while getting underway with our party building programs for 76," explained Bellman. "We've recently initiated a fall voter registration and Dollars for Democrats Drive." The Democrats employ a full time executive director and office manager.
Source: The Daily Republic › 1975 › October › 9 October 1975 › Page 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Bellman commenced an eighteen-month sentence on March 13, 1985 on a federal conviction for converting mortgaged grain.
Farmer Serving Time For Converting Mortgaged Property
JOHN CUNNIFF , Associated Press
Oct. 5, 1985 2:19 PM ET
ROCHESTER, MINN. ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) _ It is a strange place for Charles Bellman to be, more than 400 miles from home when he has cattle and crops to be tended on a farm he's in danger of losing.
But Bellman can do little about his predicament - the double chainlink fence surrounding him is 12 feet high and fringed top and bottom with rolled barbed wire, and there is a no-man's land in between, patrolled by armed guards.
Bellman, 53, is in a federal prison, serving 18 months for converting mortgaged property - in his case, selling grain being used as collateral and buying cheaper, lower quality grain to feed his cattle.
Bellman maintains that is common practice among farmers and contends he is being treated harshly because he urges other farmers to use the bankruptcy laws to sidestep crushing debts. His prosecutor agrees Bellman is being used ''as an example.''
Specifically, the Wecota, S.D., farmer sold grains mortgaged to the Aberdeen Production Credit Association, a cooperative, in the summer of 1981 and then purchased lower-grade feed for his cattle, which also were mortgaged to the association.
''I was maintaining their collateral,'' contends Bellman.
The folks at Aberdeen Production Credit, one of 12 such associations that along with the Federal Land Bank and the Bank of Cooperatives make up the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, thought differently.
The credit association demanded a voluntary liquidation of Bellman Farms, which was deep in debt, in part because of extensive land purchases at inflated prices. Bellman Farms filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy laws.
After failing to have Bellman's Chapter 11 reorganization plan dissolved, the credit association sought charges against him, and in the spring of 1983 he was indicted on 21 counts of property conversion. He was convicted on six counts Nov. 4, 1983, after a week-long jury trial.
''I about fainted,'' said Bellman, who wore old Army khakis as he sat guarded for an interview in a reception room at the Federal Medical Facility, which, despite its name, is a prison in every sense.
His fiance, Lois, was stunned, too. ''We never expected it,'' he said. Neither, he said, did courtroom spectators, including 25 or 30 farmers. ''They were all stunned because they were all operating like this, too.''
His appeals exhausted, Bellman entered federal prison here on March 21.
''I worry about the farm,'' he said. He has lost 26 pounds in prison. ''One mistake of management and I could lose it.''
Still, with the help of Lois, now his wife, and two hired hands, he believes he increased its value in recent years, and he hopes to make money on his cattle.
But his imprisonment could mean problems for the future. The court will rule on his latest bankruptcy reorganization plan this fall, ''and obviously my imprisonment has not enhanced approval of the case,'' he said.
Along with Lois, Bellman has become a hero to many farmers and a nuisance to lenders and lawyers, holding seminars and advising financially strapped farmers through a newsletter and hundreds of phone calls.
The Bellmans operate FAMINE, an acronym for ''Farmers of America Merge in the 1980s,'' which sends out basic information on bankruptcy court reorganizations.
FAMINE is non-profit, supported by $15-a-year newsletter subscription and a $10 book Bellman wrote, ''The Second Chance,'' which explains the intricacies of reorganizing under the bankruptcy laws.
National Farm Management Ltd., another Bellman venture, works with farmers on bankruptcies and estate planning. Farm organizations hire the couple for $75 an hour to instruct members.
While farmers have been grateful, lawyers and lenders have rarely been so, and Bellman worries that National Farm Management will be sued by attorneys who think it encroaches on their territory. The Bellmans say they consider themselves far more knowledgeable than most lawyers.
They have come in for special attention and, Bellman contends, for especially rough treatment. Many farmers have never been charged for doing what Bellman did. Some who were indicted avoided conviction. Others received mild sentences.
Phillip Hogen, a federal prosecutor, said he sought to make an example of Bellman because ''this defendant has held himself out as an expert to farmers who are encountering financing difficulties.''
At Bellman's sentencing, Hogen said, ''Because he has been looked at as an example of how to deal with those difficulties, we think that it would be appropriate for the court to impose a penalty that would discourage farmers who are similarly situated from even considering the kinds of acts that the defendant in this case was convicted of.''
Bellman, who has two grown sons, insists he should be back tending the land that his grandfather and his parents worked.
''What can they get from me?'' he asked. By prosecuting, his lenders ''have one-quarter million additional debt and no interest payments. And they have to write off the debt anyway.''
Bellman is a farmer by choice, but his skills are varied. His resume, included in his reorganization plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for South Dakota, lists a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry, a tour as a U.S. Army aviator in Korea, a master's degree in journalism from South Dakota State University, a period of teaching at the University of South Dakota, and ownership at one time of a weekly newspaper in Vermillion, S.D.
He has taught Sunday school at the Methodist Church and run unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress.
Sitting in prison, Bellman told of his early depression and how he pulled his spirits up by visualizing conditions on his 4,800 acres - 2,080 owned, the rest rented - and devising strategies to keep the farm going.
And he philosophizes - about the farm problem, bureaucracy, about ''justice gone wild,'' about creditors he says are so hung up on policy that they get less by prosecuting farmers than by letting them run their farms.
He said he knew lenders were being hurt. ''But nothing can be done about it. Let's face it - the disaster - and let's try to pull it out,'' he said.
To Bellman that means lenders must recognize the loss of farm values and salvage what they can by working to keep borrowers on the farms.
He acknowledges that his reorganization plan asks his creditors, some of whom are small-business people, to take small amounts on the dollar, but he reasons that lenders ''reaped rewards for high interest rates, and now they'll have to take their losses.''
''We're in this together,'' Bellman said. ''The first wave, the farmers, have been wiped out. Now it's the second wave, the banks. Someone is going to be left holding the bag, and it seems to me it will be the lenders.''
He rejects government price supports as a remedy, ''because the money would just come from the taxpayers.'' Rather, he said again, the solution lies with lenders working with farmers. ''We didn't go broke willingly,'' he said.
Debtors prisons, he said, are not the answer.
==============================
Name: Charles J Bellman
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
SSN: 511320949
Enlistment Branch: ARMY
Enlistment Date: 15 Sep 1954
Discharge Date: 24 Jun 1956
SOURCE-U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File
=========================
Name: Charles Jarl Bellman
Death Age: 61
Record Type: Death
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
Death Place: Hennepin, Minnesota, USA
Death Registration Date: 1993
Mother's Maiden Name: Deiter
Certificate Number: 021161
Record Number: 2471911
Son of Carmen Harriet Deiter and Berthel Jarl (d. 1934), adopted by Carmen's second husband Walter Bellman.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 about Carmen Deiter
Name: Carmen Deiter
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Spouse: Ward Berthel Jarl
Marriage Date: 19 Oct 1928
Marriage County: Spink
County of Residence: Faulk
Post Office: Faulkton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Carolyn Belkonen
Gender: Female
Marriage Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1939
Residence Date: 1958
Residence Place: Lake Norden, Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Marriage Date: 7 Sep 1958
Marriage Place: Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Spouse: Charles Bellman
SOURCE- South Dakota, U.S., Marriages
=======================
Charles' first wife was Carolyn Belkonen, two sons with Carolyn, John and James Bellman.
Second wife was Lois Papousek, later Vielmette, married March 1985.
Lois Bellman and Charles Bellman divorced on June 5, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The South Dakota Democratic Central Committee spent just over $3.900 per month to run its slate party operation through September announced State Chairman Charles Bellman. The party's third quarter financial report sent to more than 400 party officers, legislators and officials shows that the Democrats operated their statewide office in Pierre with full time executive secretary and clerical staff during the first nine months of 1975 for $35,402.39 or just over $3,933 monthly. During the nine-month period the Democrats made loan payments of $13,689'.74 on campaign debts from 1974. The debts were incurred from direct campaign donations to the party's constitutional and congressional candidates, Bellman said. "We've raised just short of $50,000 since January 1 and managed to sustain an effective state party headquarters and reduce the party indebtedness to about $15,000," Bellman said. "We're hopeful of clearing that debt this fall while getting underway with our party building programs for 76," explained Bellman. "We've recently initiated a fall voter registration and Dollars for Democrats Drive." The Democrats employ a full time executive director and office manager.
Source: The Daily Republic › 1975 › October › 9 October 1975 › Page 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Bellman commenced an eighteen-month sentence on March 13, 1985 on a federal conviction for converting mortgaged grain.
Farmer Serving Time For Converting Mortgaged Property
JOHN CUNNIFF , Associated Press
Oct. 5, 1985 2:19 PM ET
ROCHESTER, MINN. ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) _ It is a strange place for Charles Bellman to be, more than 400 miles from home when he has cattle and crops to be tended on a farm he's in danger of losing.
But Bellman can do little about his predicament - the double chainlink fence surrounding him is 12 feet high and fringed top and bottom with rolled barbed wire, and there is a no-man's land in between, patrolled by armed guards.
Bellman, 53, is in a federal prison, serving 18 months for converting mortgaged property - in his case, selling grain being used as collateral and buying cheaper, lower quality grain to feed his cattle.
Bellman maintains that is common practice among farmers and contends he is being treated harshly because he urges other farmers to use the bankruptcy laws to sidestep crushing debts. His prosecutor agrees Bellman is being used ''as an example.''
Specifically, the Wecota, S.D., farmer sold grains mortgaged to the Aberdeen Production Credit Association, a cooperative, in the summer of 1981 and then purchased lower-grade feed for his cattle, which also were mortgaged to the association.
''I was maintaining their collateral,'' contends Bellman.
The folks at Aberdeen Production Credit, one of 12 such associations that along with the Federal Land Bank and the Bank of Cooperatives make up the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, thought differently.
The credit association demanded a voluntary liquidation of Bellman Farms, which was deep in debt, in part because of extensive land purchases at inflated prices. Bellman Farms filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy laws.
After failing to have Bellman's Chapter 11 reorganization plan dissolved, the credit association sought charges against him, and in the spring of 1983 he was indicted on 21 counts of property conversion. He was convicted on six counts Nov. 4, 1983, after a week-long jury trial.
''I about fainted,'' said Bellman, who wore old Army khakis as he sat guarded for an interview in a reception room at the Federal Medical Facility, which, despite its name, is a prison in every sense.
His fiance, Lois, was stunned, too. ''We never expected it,'' he said. Neither, he said, did courtroom spectators, including 25 or 30 farmers. ''They were all stunned because they were all operating like this, too.''
His appeals exhausted, Bellman entered federal prison here on March 21.
''I worry about the farm,'' he said. He has lost 26 pounds in prison. ''One mistake of management and I could lose it.''
Still, with the help of Lois, now his wife, and two hired hands, he believes he increased its value in recent years, and he hopes to make money on his cattle.
But his imprisonment could mean problems for the future. The court will rule on his latest bankruptcy reorganization plan this fall, ''and obviously my imprisonment has not enhanced approval of the case,'' he said.
Along with Lois, Bellman has become a hero to many farmers and a nuisance to lenders and lawyers, holding seminars and advising financially strapped farmers through a newsletter and hundreds of phone calls.
The Bellmans operate FAMINE, an acronym for ''Farmers of America Merge in the 1980s,'' which sends out basic information on bankruptcy court reorganizations.
FAMINE is non-profit, supported by $15-a-year newsletter subscription and a $10 book Bellman wrote, ''The Second Chance,'' which explains the intricacies of reorganizing under the bankruptcy laws.
National Farm Management Ltd., another Bellman venture, works with farmers on bankruptcies and estate planning. Farm organizations hire the couple for $75 an hour to instruct members.
While farmers have been grateful, lawyers and lenders have rarely been so, and Bellman worries that National Farm Management will be sued by attorneys who think it encroaches on their territory. The Bellmans say they consider themselves far more knowledgeable than most lawyers.
They have come in for special attention and, Bellman contends, for especially rough treatment. Many farmers have never been charged for doing what Bellman did. Some who were indicted avoided conviction. Others received mild sentences.
Phillip Hogen, a federal prosecutor, said he sought to make an example of Bellman because ''this defendant has held himself out as an expert to farmers who are encountering financing difficulties.''
At Bellman's sentencing, Hogen said, ''Because he has been looked at as an example of how to deal with those difficulties, we think that it would be appropriate for the court to impose a penalty that would discourage farmers who are similarly situated from even considering the kinds of acts that the defendant in this case was convicted of.''
Bellman, who has two grown sons, insists he should be back tending the land that his grandfather and his parents worked.
''What can they get from me?'' he asked. By prosecuting, his lenders ''have one-quarter million additional debt and no interest payments. And they have to write off the debt anyway.''
Bellman is a farmer by choice, but his skills are varied. His resume, included in his reorganization plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for South Dakota, lists a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry, a tour as a U.S. Army aviator in Korea, a master's degree in journalism from South Dakota State University, a period of teaching at the University of South Dakota, and ownership at one time of a weekly newspaper in Vermillion, S.D.
He has taught Sunday school at the Methodist Church and run unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress.
Sitting in prison, Bellman told of his early depression and how he pulled his spirits up by visualizing conditions on his 4,800 acres - 2,080 owned, the rest rented - and devising strategies to keep the farm going.
And he philosophizes - about the farm problem, bureaucracy, about ''justice gone wild,'' about creditors he says are so hung up on policy that they get less by prosecuting farmers than by letting them run their farms.
He said he knew lenders were being hurt. ''But nothing can be done about it. Let's face it - the disaster - and let's try to pull it out,'' he said.
To Bellman that means lenders must recognize the loss of farm values and salvage what they can by working to keep borrowers on the farms.
He acknowledges that his reorganization plan asks his creditors, some of whom are small-business people, to take small amounts on the dollar, but he reasons that lenders ''reaped rewards for high interest rates, and now they'll have to take their losses.''
''We're in this together,'' Bellman said. ''The first wave, the farmers, have been wiped out. Now it's the second wave, the banks. Someone is going to be left holding the bag, and it seems to me it will be the lenders.''
He rejects government price supports as a remedy, ''because the money would just come from the taxpayers.'' Rather, he said again, the solution lies with lenders working with farmers. ''We didn't go broke willingly,'' he said.
Debtors prisons, he said, are not the answer.
==============================
Name: Charles J Bellman
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
SSN: 511320949
Enlistment Branch: ARMY
Enlistment Date: 15 Sep 1954
Discharge Date: 24 Jun 1956
SOURCE-U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File
=========================
Name: Charles Jarl Bellman
Death Age: 61
Record Type: Death
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
Death Place: Hennepin, Minnesota, USA
Death Registration Date: 1993
Mother's Maiden Name: Deiter
Certificate Number: 021161
Record Number: 2471911
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
South Dakota Marriages, 1905-1949 about Carmen Deiter
Name: Carmen Deiter
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Spouse: Ward Berthel Jarl
Marriage Date: 19 Oct 1928
Marriage County: Spink
County of Residence: Faulk
Post Office: Faulkton
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Carolyn Belkonen
Gender: Female
Marriage Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1939
Residence Date: 1958
Residence Place: Lake Norden, Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Marriage Date: 7 Sep 1958
Marriage Place: Hamlin, South Dakota, USA
Spouse: Charles Bellman
SOURCE- South Dakota, U.S., Marriages
=======================
Charles' first wife was Carolyn Belkonen, two sons with Carolyn, John and James Bellman.
Second wife was Lois Papousek, later Vielmette, married March 1985.
Lois Bellman and Charles Bellman divorced on June 5, 1991
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The South Dakota Democratic Central Committee spent just over $3.900 per month to run its slate party operation through September announced State Chairman Charles Bellman. The party's third quarter financial report sent to more than 400 party officers, legislators and officials shows that the Democrats operated their statewide office in Pierre with full time executive secretary and clerical staff during the first nine months of 1975 for $35,402.39 or just over $3,933 monthly. During the nine-month period the Democrats made loan payments of $13,689'.74 on campaign debts from 1974. The debts were incurred from direct campaign donations to the party's constitutional and congressional candidates, Bellman said. "We've raised just short of $50,000 since January 1 and managed to sustain an effective state party headquarters and reduce the party indebtedness to about $15,000," Bellman said. "We're hopeful of clearing that debt this fall while getting underway with our party building programs for 76," explained Bellman. "We've recently initiated a fall voter registration and Dollars for Democrats Drive." The Democrats employ a full time executive director and office manager.
Source: The Daily Republic › 1975 › October › 9 October 1975 › Page 8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Bellman commenced an eighteen-month sentence on March 13, 1985 on a federal conviction for converting mortgaged grain.
Farmer Serving Time For Converting Mortgaged Property
JOHN CUNNIFF , Associated Press
Oct. 5, 1985 2:19 PM ET
ROCHESTER, MINN. ROCHESTER, Minn. (AP) _ It is a strange place for Charles Bellman to be, more than 400 miles from home when he has cattle and crops to be tended on a farm he's in danger of losing.
But Bellman can do little about his predicament - the double chainlink fence surrounding him is 12 feet high and fringed top and bottom with rolled barbed wire, and there is a no-man's land in between, patrolled by armed guards.
Bellman, 53, is in a federal prison, serving 18 months for converting mortgaged property - in his case, selling grain being used as collateral and buying cheaper, lower quality grain to feed his cattle.
Bellman maintains that is common practice among farmers and contends he is being treated harshly because he urges other farmers to use the bankruptcy laws to sidestep crushing debts. His prosecutor agrees Bellman is being used ''as an example.''
Specifically, the Wecota, S.D., farmer sold grains mortgaged to the Aberdeen Production Credit Association, a cooperative, in the summer of 1981 and then purchased lower-grade feed for his cattle, which also were mortgaged to the association.
''I was maintaining their collateral,'' contends Bellman.
The folks at Aberdeen Production Credit, one of 12 such associations that along with the Federal Land Bank and the Bank of Cooperatives make up the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, thought differently.
The credit association demanded a voluntary liquidation of Bellman Farms, which was deep in debt, in part because of extensive land purchases at inflated prices. Bellman Farms filed for reorganization under the bankruptcy laws.
After failing to have Bellman's Chapter 11 reorganization plan dissolved, the credit association sought charges against him, and in the spring of 1983 he was indicted on 21 counts of property conversion. He was convicted on six counts Nov. 4, 1983, after a week-long jury trial.
''I about fainted,'' said Bellman, who wore old Army khakis as he sat guarded for an interview in a reception room at the Federal Medical Facility, which, despite its name, is a prison in every sense.
His fiance, Lois, was stunned, too. ''We never expected it,'' he said. Neither, he said, did courtroom spectators, including 25 or 30 farmers. ''They were all stunned because they were all operating like this, too.''
His appeals exhausted, Bellman entered federal prison here on March 21.
''I worry about the farm,'' he said. He has lost 26 pounds in prison. ''One mistake of management and I could lose it.''
Still, with the help of Lois, now his wife, and two hired hands, he believes he increased its value in recent years, and he hopes to make money on his cattle.
But his imprisonment could mean problems for the future. The court will rule on his latest bankruptcy reorganization plan this fall, ''and obviously my imprisonment has not enhanced approval of the case,'' he said.
Along with Lois, Bellman has become a hero to many farmers and a nuisance to lenders and lawyers, holding seminars and advising financially strapped farmers through a newsletter and hundreds of phone calls.
The Bellmans operate FAMINE, an acronym for ''Farmers of America Merge in the 1980s,'' which sends out basic information on bankruptcy court reorganizations.
FAMINE is non-profit, supported by $15-a-year newsletter subscription and a $10 book Bellman wrote, ''The Second Chance,'' which explains the intricacies of reorganizing under the bankruptcy laws.
National Farm Management Ltd., another Bellman venture, works with farmers on bankruptcies and estate planning. Farm organizations hire the couple for $75 an hour to instruct members.
While farmers have been grateful, lawyers and lenders have rarely been so, and Bellman worries that National Farm Management will be sued by attorneys who think it encroaches on their territory. The Bellmans say they consider themselves far more knowledgeable than most lawyers.
They have come in for special attention and, Bellman contends, for especially rough treatment. Many farmers have never been charged for doing what Bellman did. Some who were indicted avoided conviction. Others received mild sentences.
Phillip Hogen, a federal prosecutor, said he sought to make an example of Bellman because ''this defendant has held himself out as an expert to farmers who are encountering financing difficulties.''
At Bellman's sentencing, Hogen said, ''Because he has been looked at as an example of how to deal with those difficulties, we think that it would be appropriate for the court to impose a penalty that would discourage farmers who are similarly situated from even considering the kinds of acts that the defendant in this case was convicted of.''
Bellman, who has two grown sons, insists he should be back tending the land that his grandfather and his parents worked.
''What can they get from me?'' he asked. By prosecuting, his lenders ''have one-quarter million additional debt and no interest payments. And they have to write off the debt anyway.''
Bellman is a farmer by choice, but his skills are varied. His resume, included in his reorganization plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for South Dakota, lists a bachelor's degree in animal husbandry, a tour as a U.S. Army aviator in Korea, a master's degree in journalism from South Dakota State University, a period of teaching at the University of South Dakota, and ownership at one time of a weekly newspaper in Vermillion, S.D.
He has taught Sunday school at the Methodist Church and run unsuccessfully as a Democratic candidate for Congress.
Sitting in prison, Bellman told of his early depression and how he pulled his spirits up by visualizing conditions on his 4,800 acres - 2,080 owned, the rest rented - and devising strategies to keep the farm going.
And he philosophizes - about the farm problem, bureaucracy, about ''justice gone wild,'' about creditors he says are so hung up on policy that they get less by prosecuting farmers than by letting them run their farms.
He said he knew lenders were being hurt. ''But nothing can be done about it. Let's face it - the disaster - and let's try to pull it out,'' he said.
To Bellman that means lenders must recognize the loss of farm values and salvage what they can by working to keep borrowers on the farms.
He acknowledges that his reorganization plan asks his creditors, some of whom are small-business people, to take small amounts on the dollar, but he reasons that lenders ''reaped rewards for high interest rates, and now they'll have to take their losses.''
''We're in this together,'' Bellman said. ''The first wave, the farmers, have been wiped out. Now it's the second wave, the banks. Someone is going to be left holding the bag, and it seems to me it will be the lenders.''
He rejects government price supports as a remedy, ''because the money would just come from the taxpayers.'' Rather, he said again, the solution lies with lenders working with farmers. ''We didn't go broke willingly,'' he said.
Debtors prisons, he said, are not the answer.
==============================
Name: Charles J Bellman
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
SSN: 511320949
Enlistment Branch: ARMY
Enlistment Date: 15 Sep 1954
Discharge Date: 24 Jun 1956
SOURCE-U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File
=========================
Name: Charles Jarl Bellman
Death Age: 61
Record Type: Death
Birth Date: 23 Dec 1931
Death Date: 3 Aug 1993
Death Place: Hennepin, Minnesota, USA
Death Registration Date: 1993
Mother's Maiden Name: Deiter
Certificate Number: 021161
Record Number: 2471911
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