He was born on the way into Canada

DL: Did you ever hear of the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War during your growing up years?

CM: Yes, I did. Vaguely, very vaguely did I remember my parents talking about that, and my grandfather, talking about the wars.

DL: Do you have family members who lived through that time?

CM: My grandfather, Frank Merrick, was born when they were fleeing the United States into Canada.

DL: So he was an infant when his parents were leaving Minnesota?

CM: Yes.

DL: Was it Minnesota they were leaving?

CM: Yes. He was just an infant, or he was born on the way into Canada. His parents lost each other during that flight and both of them thought that either one of them had got killed somewhere along the roadway. But it is only until my grandfather was a young man that he discovered that his dad was living in Sioux Valley, that he didn’t die in the war. But by then, both had remarried already.