I am a avid fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I have read her books many times and have enjoyed the television show based upon her Little House books, “Little House on the Prairie.”
EARLY LIFE
Ms. Wilder was born, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, on February 7, 1867 in a cabin in Pepin County, Wisconsin, US. She died at the age of 90 on February 10, 1957, in Mansfield, Missouri, US. She was a writer, a schoolteacher, a journalist, a farm wife, and a mother. Her period of writing ranged from 1911 to 1957 writing diaries, essays, and her family saga that was developed as a children’s historical novel. Wilder is most noted for the Little House children’s series that were based on her life as a pioneer family from Wisconsin to Kansas Territory and Dakota Territory where she met and married her husband, Almanzo James Wilder. They had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who encouraged her mother to write and publish her family travels.
Born seven miles north of Pepin, in the “Big Woods” of Wisconsin to Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. She had an older sister, Mary Amelia Ingalls, who went blind in her teens from scarlet fever suffered at an early age that gradually reduced her eyesight and eventually blindness. Ms. Wilder also had three younger siblings, a sister, Caroline Celestia Ingalls, who was known as Carrie, a brother, Charles Frederick Ingalls, who died infancy, and youngest sister, Grace Pearl Ingalls. Laura’s birth site is commemorated with a replica of a log cabin, the Little House Wayside. Her birthplace is the setting for her first book, Little House in the Big Woods.
A FAMILY ON THE MOVE
The Ingalls family decided to leave the Big Woods of Wisconsin in 1868, one year after Laura’s birth. Their first stop was Rothsville, Missouri and finally going on to Kansas that was deemed Indian Country near Independence. This was where Laura’s younger sister, Carrie, was born, August 1870, right before they had to move again. Their homestead was on Osage Indian Reservation, where they were told they had no right to occupy the land.
They moved back to Wisconsin and stayed the next four years. These years form the story for her Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie. The chronology is that Laura was around one to three in Kansas Territory and three to seven in Wisconsin. Her daughter Rose’s biographer, William Anderson, had Laura change her age because he felt it was too unrealistic for a three-year-old to have such vivid memories of her Kansas life. So it was changed to four to five years in Wisconsin, six to seven in Kansas. Laura made herself six to seven years in Little House on the Prairie and seven to nine years in her third volume, On the Banks of Plum Creek.
The Plum Creek saga tells the story of the Ingalls family moving from Kansas to Pepin, Wisconsin, and finally to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where the family lived in a dugout on the Banks of Plum Creek , Redwood County Minnesota. In reality, her family lived in Minnesota from 1874 when Laura was seven. Charles’ restless spirit moved them to Lake City, Minnesota, then to a preemption claim in Walnut Grove, living near relatives in South Troy, Minnesota. This is where Laura’s brother Charles Frederick Ingalls, Freddy, as he was called, was born, on November 1, 1875, where he died in infancy on August 27, 1876, in South Troy. The family then moved to Burr Oak, Iowa where they ran a hotel, where Laura’s youngest sister, Grace, was born, on May 23, 1877.
Charles moved alone back to Walnut Grove where he was the town butcher and justice of the peace. Accepting a railroad job in the spring of 1879, took him to eastern Dakota Territory, where the family joined him later that fall. Laura’s story, By the Shores of Silver Lake, is the setting for this story.
THE INGALLSES’ LAST MOVE
Filing for a formal homestead during the winter of 1879 – 1880, DeSmet, South Dakota became the last home for the Ingalls. They spent a mild winter in 1879 – 1880 in the Surveyor’s house, where they saw the town of DeSmet rise from the prairie in 1881. The winter of 1880 – 1881 was one of the most severe winters on record for the Dakotas, and the setting for her book, The Long Winter. Once settled, Laura attended school, worked several part-time jobs, and made lots of friends—especially a bachelor homesteader, Almanzo Wilder, 1857 – 1949, whom she later married. Her experiences in Dakota territory form the setting in Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years. Laura’s second book, Farmer Boy, is based on her husband, Almanzo’s childhood.
A YOUNG TEACHER
Two months before her sixteenth birthday, on December 10, 1882, Laura got her first teaching position. It was three terms in a one-room school while she was not attending school in DeSmet. Her teaching certificate shown in Little Town on the Prairie on December 24, 1882 was added for dramatic effect. Her original “Third Grade” teaching certificate can be seen in William Anderson’s book, Laura’s Album (Harper Collins, 1998). Laura later admitted she did not enjoy teaching but did so as a responsibility to help her family financially. It was one of the wage-earning opportunities for women. During 1883 and 1885, she taught three terms of school and worked for a local dressmaker, while attending high school, even though she did not graduate.
MARRIAGE
At the age of 18, Laura’s teaching career and studies ended when she married Almanzo Wilder, whom she lovingly endeared him as Manly, on August 25, 1885. Earning high prosperity on his homestead claim, their future seemed bright when she joined him in a new home north of De Smet. On December 5, 1886, their daughter, Rose was born (1886 – 1968) and in 1889, a son was born, who died so soon, he was never named.
EARLY TRIALS
The first few years of marriage were extremely difficult for the Wilders. Almanzo suffered a life-threatening bout with diphtheria that left him partially paralyzed, but eventually regained nearly full use of his legs, but needed a cane for the rest of his life. other trials included the death of their newborn son, the destruction of their barn, hay and grain in a mysterious fire, the loss of their home from a fire accidentally set by their daughter, Rose, and several years of severe drought that left them in debt, physically ill, and unable to earn a living on their 320 acres of prairie land. These experiences set the story of Laura’s book, The First Four Years.
About 1890, the Wilders spent a year with Almanzo’s parents on their prosperous farm in Spring Valley, Minnesota before moving to Westville, Florida. They hoped the climate would improve Almanzo’s health, but they felt out of place in the Southern humidity, being too used to the dry plains. In 1892, they moved back to DeSmet, purchasing a small house.
MANSFIELD, MISSOURI
The couple finally made a final move to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894, and with their savings, bought property outside of town. It became known as Rocky Ridge Farm, started out as a ramshackle log cabin where Almanzo earned a living selling wagon loads of firewood in town for fifty cents, where they slowly gained financial security. They planted apple trees, but they did not bear fruit for at least seven years. When Almanzo’s parents visited the farm, the deed to the house they were renting given to them by his parents, gave them the economic jump they needed. Adding to the property, they eventually owned nearly 200 acres. What started out as forty acres of thickly wooded, stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin became within twenty years, a prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm and ten-room farmhouse.
The Wilders went from a wheat farm in South Dakota to a poultry, dairy, and apple apple orchard on Rocky Ridge Farm. Laura became active in several clubs and regional farm associations. She was recognized as an authority in poultry farming and rural living, being invited to speak to many groups in her region.
WRITING CAREER
Laura’s writing career began in 1911 when she received an invitation to submit an article in Missouri Ruralist, gaining her a permanent position as a columnist and editor. She held that position until the mid-1920s. she also had a paid position with the Farm Loan Association where she dispensed small loans to local farmers.
Laura’s column “As a Farm Woman Thinks” was enjoyed by rural Ozarkians. Her topics included home and family, World War I and world events, the fascinating travels of her daughter and her thoughts on the increasing options offered to women during this era. The Wilder’s were never wealthy until the “Little House” series gained popularity, but the farm and Laura’s income from writing and Farm Loan Association earned them a stable living.
By 1924, Laura learned to be a disciplined writer, writing thoughtful, readable prose for the general audience. Her daughter, Rose, helped her publish two articles that described the interior of their farmhouse for Country Gentleman magazine. This was about the time Rose began encouraging Laura to develop her writing skills to achieve success such as that of her daughter. Becoming dependent on their successful daughter’s income, Laura’s retirement consisted of Laura becoming a successful writer herself.
LATER LIFE AND DEATH
In 1935, Laura and Almanzo moved back to Rocky Ridge Farm. They were alone at the farm, but most of the property had been sold except for some farm animals and their flower beds and vegetable gardens. It was during this time, that carloads of fans would stop by, eager to meet the “Laura” of the Little House books.
The Wilders lived independently without financial worries until Almanzo’s death at Rocky Ridge Farm at the age of 92 in 1949. Laura lived alone for the next eight years with neighbors looking in on her, maintaining an active correspondence with editors, fans, and friends.
In the fall of 1956, 89-year-old Laura was becoming severely ill from undiagnosed diabetes and weakening heart. Her daughter returned home for Thanksgiving and had Laura hospitalized, returning home a day after Christmas. Wilder was declining fast and finally died in her sleep on February 10, 1957, just three days after her 90th birthday. She was buried beside her husband, Almanzo, in Mansfield Cemetery. In 1968, their daughter, Rose was buried next to her parents, upon her death.
ESTATE
Rocky Ridge Farm eventually became a museum hoping it would draw attention to her books. She made significant contributions and donated the family’s belongings to establish the museum and to this day, draws thousands of visitors every year to Mansfield. Lane inherited ownership of the Little House literary estate during her lifetime only where the rights reverted to the Mansfield Library after her death. Upon her death, Roger MacBride gained control of the copyrights. MacBride was Lane’s unofficial grandson, business agent, attorney, and heir.
The Little House series has expanded phenomenally into a multi-million dollar franchise of mass merchandising, additional spinoff book series (by MacBride and his daughter, Abigail MacBride Allen), and a long-running television show which starred Michael Landon.
WORKs
Little House in the Big Woods (1932) Inaugural Lewis Carroll Shelf Award 1958
Farmer Boy (1933) Almanzo Wilder’s childhood in New York
Little House on the Prairie (1935)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
The Long Winter (1940)
Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
These Happy Golden Years (1943)
On the Way Home (1962) diary of Wilders’ move from De Smet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri
The First Four Years (1971)
West from Home (1974) letters to Almanzo while visiting Lane in San Francisco
The Road Back
A Little House Sampler
Writings to Young Women
· Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues
· Volume Two: Life As a Pioneer Woman
· Volume Three: As Told by Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors
A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings
Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane
Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
Laura’s Album
LEGACY
Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, Mansfield, Missouri
Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant and Museum, De Smet, South Dakota
Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum, Burr Oak, Iowa
Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Walnut Grove, Minnesota
Little House on the Prairie Museum, Independence, Kansas
Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Pepin, Wisconsin
Wilder Medal
Wilder was a five-time runner-up for the annual Newbery Medal, which was a premier for the American Library Association (ALA) book award for children’s literature. She was inaugaurated in 1954 for a lifetime achievement award for children’s writers and illustrators. It is named for wilder and first awarded to her. it recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books are published in the United States that make a substantial contribution to children’s literature.
A bronze bust of Wilder can be seen on display in the rotunda of the Hall of Famous Missourians at the Missouri State Capitol in 1933. She was honored on the Walk of Fame in 2006 in the Missouri Walk of Fame, and a list of craters on Venus where a Wilder crater was located on the planet Venus and named after Wilder.
Reference
Laura Ingalls Wilder – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. en.wikipedia.org/…/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder
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