Family History

On my father’s side, my great-great-grandfather, August Luther, immigrated to America at the age of 16, reportedly to avoid the Prussian military of Otto Von Bismark. Bismark was the Minister president of Prussia from 1873 to 1890, and Chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890, and he engineered a series of wars to unify Germany. August was born in Selchow, Germany on March 28, 1872. He settled in a “city” called Leonard, North Dakota, which was founded in 1881 when a railroad was extended to that point, which may explain why he stopped there. (The population of Leonard, ND in 2010 was a whopping 221 people.) At some point, he moved to Embden, ND, which was a town of 50-80 people and is located about 30 miles west of Fargo. On December 13, 1892, he married Emma Eckelberg, and together they had at least 6 kids, one of whom was my great-grandmother Clara Luther. Clara was my father’s paternal grandmother. Clara eventually met Loyd Sandquist, and they had two kids together, the older of whom was my grandpa Earl Sandquist, who was born on December 23, 1929. Earl met Lois Wilson, my grandma, and they had two sons, David and Lloyd. Lloyd is my father.

Interestingly, thanks to some family research, we believe August Luther is a descendant of Martin Luther, the well-known Protestant reformer who lived in the 1500s.

As for my mother’s side of the family, not as much is known, because a number of confusing marriages and adoptions occurred. I do know, however, that my mother’s grandparents were from Norway and Sweden, and that they met here in America, and had a number of kids together. Their last child was my maternal grandfather, James Palmer, who was born on September 25, 1916. James met my grandma Marilyn, and together they had two children, Carol and Janet. Janet is my mother. She and my father met in Idaho, where they lived in the same apartment for a short while. My dad kept receiving my mom’s mail on accident, so he would keep going to her room to return it to her. Eventually they started dating, and they got married in June of 1995, and they had two kids – myself and my younger brother, Jonathan.