In April of 1910, a destitute widow from Wisconsin took her nine surviving children all the way out to the wide open prairies of southwestern North Dakota. As a female homesteader in Bowman County, Martha Ellen Varney (1864-1944) subsequently transformed 320 acres of untamed pasture into a thriving sheep, cattle, and strawberry farm. By 1916, she had "proven up" the property and owned it outright. Yet she additionally oversaw the construction of an impressive barn and two-story house that transformed her crude homestead into an impressive prairie farm. Martha also delivered no fewer than nine of her own grandchildren as midwife, entirely within its confines. She would never marry again, and eventually all but two of her children would leave North Dakota and the farmstead she had built. Yet Martha Varney continued to productively oversee her agricultural endeavors and rural homestead until her death at the age of 80. "A Fleeting Glimpse of Martha Varney" offers contemporary readers a look at an unusual single woman and her struggle to rebuild and survive on what was still an American frontier in the early twentieth century. The biography itself is augmented by more than 150 historic family photos. The fate of Martha's descendants and the homestead she left behind is also explored.