 After having given birth to ten children in 14 years, Pember's wife Alice died of typhoid in 1881 at the age of 36.In May 1884, Pember moved with his five sons from New York to LaMoure, Dakota Territory, in order to become a stock farmer.According to one account, he "was told by his doctor one day that if he did not cease pumping his brains into a daily paper, his heart would soon stop pumping blood into his brains".