Gerald M. Sande lived his childhood in 1930-40s Pembina, North Dakota, a small town near the center of North America first inhabited in 1797. He spent much of his retirement tracking down memories of the town’s early history he had heard as a child, and found enough bits and pieces to put together a unique story of nineteenth century pioneer life. He retired to a suburb of St. Paul, to enjoy the amenities of a city that had been nourished to adulthood by the little town that was his childhood home (see pages 10, 110, etc.).