Conquest of a Continent: Nine Generations of the American Frontier

This historical novel based on actual historical figures follows one family line that never left the frontiers of North America from 1659 to 1921. It tells a seamless epic story of the conquest of the continent's frontiers and the building of the United States of America.

Born in 1923, the author was the first male in his family line since 1659 never to have lived on a North American Frontier. Born in Los Angeles and raised in Altadena, California, during the great depression, he completed high school just months after the Japanese bombed Pear Harbor. He enlisted as an aviation cadet and after receiving his wings, was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group of the mighty Eighth Air Force in England. As first pilot of a B-17 heavy bomber, he completed a tour of duty flying thirty-five combat missions. Following the war, he entered the University of Southern California and earned a Bachelor's degree. While at the University, he met and married Yvonne Spalding. They have two children, Michelle and Ted. He spent his last twenty-two working years as chief executive officer of the California FAIR Plan, the residual market for hard to place fire insurance in California. Upon retirement, he choose as a hobby the research of the Banta family name and found that much of the ground work had already been done by others. He noticed that each new generation of his line of the family since 1659 had always moved to the farthest frontier on the North American continent and that their story when put in chronological order became a seamless story of the conquest of the North American continent. His historical novel tells the struggle of our frontiersmen in building the infrastructure of the great United States of America.