Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Laura Ingalls Wilder - A Pioneer Girl and Author for the Ages

By Pamela S. Meyers

Who among us has not seen one or more episodes of the TV series, Little House on the Prairie?  I’ll always think of Laura Ingalls Wilder as the child played by Melissa Gilbert in the series. But, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real person and a fascinating women who always considered herself to be a pioneer girl.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

While nosing around in my home state of Wisconsin’s history, I stumbled on the fact that Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Wisconsin. That prompted me to learn more about her life and how she came to become an author. 

She was born in Pipin, Wisconsin on February 7, 1867, to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. This locale became the setting of her book Little House in the Woods. The young family lived in a log cabin just outside of Pipin until Laura was two years old. They then moved to Kansas, which would later become the setting for her story, Little House on the Prairie. After being told they would have to vacate the land because it belonged to Native Americans, they returned to Pipin, Wisconsin, then later moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, the setting of On the Banks of Plum Creek and the television series. The final move for the family was to DeSmet, South Dakota.


Almonzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura and her siblings were homeschooled most of the time because they moved so much, only enrolling in local schools when they stayed long enough. At the tender age of 15,  Laura was hired as a teacher after passing a test to get her teaching certificate. Her school was 12 miles away from her home, and a family friend named Almanzo Wilder would drive her home for weekend visits. During those rides they fell in love and they were married when Laura was eighteen years old. They had one daughter, Rose, and a son who died at one month old.




The Wilder Farm House
Almonzo, Laura, and Rose eventually settled on a 200-acre farm, named Rocky Ridge Farm, near Mansfield, Missouri. They started with a log cabin and later began building their farmhouse, which they continued to add to until the home looked like the picture above. 

Laura's Obituary in the Local Paper
The picture portrays the farmhouse as it was when Laura died in 1957. The farm is now an official project of the Save America’s Treasures National Trust for Historical Preservation. The farm's website contains many facts and pictures about Laura's life. 

It was on Rocky Ridge Farm that Laura came into her own as a writer, publishing her first Little House books in 1932. She was also a contributor to her local newspaper and active in community affairs. She had not written the books with publication in mind, but to preserve her family history for her descendants. But, once the first book was published, all of the books, which chronicle her growing up years on the prairie, were published and are still popular today.

I admire the spunk Laura showed as a pioneer girl being moved from place to place as her father eked out a living to take care of his family, and how she was led to chronicle those moves, sharing what it was like to grow up in such a time.

Being the avid reader I was as a child, I have no idea how I missed reading her Little House books while I was growing up, but after learning so much about her, I am tempted to read them now! Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri has been added to my bucket list of places to visit.


How have the Little House books influenced you? Have you visited Rocky Ridge Farm?

Biography information source: http://www.biography.com/people/laura-ingalls-wilder-9531246 



A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago with her two rescue cats. She’s an hour's drive away from her Wisconsin hometown, which she visits often. Her novels include Thyme for Love, and Love Will Find a Way, contemporary romantic mysteries, and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. When she isn’t at her laptop writing her latest novel, she can often be found nosing around Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.

15 comments:

  1. I also read her as an adult, and profiled her in my book, GREAT WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY .

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  2. Have you read A WILDER ROSE by Susan Wittig Albert? It is another book which sheds light on the writer of the Little House Series.

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  3. Thanks, Kathy. I have not read that book. I'll have to check it out!

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  4. Loved the books and the TV show. I haven't visited Rocky Ridge, but I have been the house in Independence, KS, where the family lived for a year.

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  5. I read an interesting article about her that she originally wanted these novels to be adult, and would tackle much more adult topics, but the publisher told her no, they had to be geared to both adults and children. So some of the very 'tough' topics, had to be done away with. I found that so interesting.

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  6. I never read the books, but I loved the television series. It was amazing to me how the family could stay so happy in the midst of the hardships they faced. One of the characters in my book Redeeming Light is modeled after Nellie Oleson, the snobby, privileged girl. After reading your post, I not only want to read the books, but I want to watch the series again. Today's youth have no heart-warming family series like these to watch.

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  7. I haven't visited any of the "laura" sites yet, but I intend to. A couple of years ago I saw a scholar do a presentation as Laura Ingalls Wilder (at a Chautauqua where "Mark Twain" was master of ceremonies). It was wonderful. Her personal memoir titled Pioneer Girl was published just last year and sold out immediately so now they are reprinting it and I hope to snag a copy.Those books gave my family many hours of pleasure when I read them aloud to my kids. Now my kids will read them to my grandkids. What a wonderful legacy Wilder left us all! Thanks for this reminder of a gem of American literature.

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  8. I read and re-read the Little House books when I was a girl. They're one of the main reasons I write stories set in the 1800s. I fell in love with the time period while spending countless hours with Laura, Mary, Carrie, Grace and their Ma and Pa.

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  9. I love the Little House books! I did grow up on them.

    And how's this for coincidence, Pam? I was born in Lake City, Minnesota, which is just across the water (the frozen water they cross as they head to Kansas) from where she was born. My dad grew up outside of Rochester, MN, in an area known as South Troy. It's a very tiny area, and this is where the Ingalls were when their son died. He's buried somewhere in that area, and very close to the farm my dad lived on are two cemeteries where he's probably buried. One of them my dad could see from his home.

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  10. I have all the Little House books and have read them several times. I'd love to visit their house in Missouri.

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  11. When I was nine I had this crazy idea that I was going to read each and every book that circled the walls of the children's book section of our library in town. I soon discovered that some books were better off NOT being read. :) However, because I had apparently failed to start at "A", and due to my method of taking one book after another, I stumbled upon the Little House books--and fell in love. I had no idea they were classics and would one day have a television series based upon them, but I read them over and over. I STILL love those books. I read them again with one of my kids and I have to say, it isn't the same as reading them when young--not nearly as magical, for some reason. Nevertheless, I hope to read them again someday with a grandchild--if not sooner! Thanks for this post. We have a book all about Laura, and are very fond of her, not to mention grateful.

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  12. I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and really enjoyed them as a teen. I also saw the TV/movie. Very interesting post and I have not been to the Rocky Ridge Farm. sm wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  13. I started reading the Little House books when I got the entire 9 or 10 book box set at the age of 8 and in the third grade. It took me all of 5 months to finish every book! When we had "Dress as your favorite book character day" at school I went as Laura Ingalls Wilder - it helped that I looked exactly like Melissa Gilbert from the TV show. Whei I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up my answer was always Laura Ingalls Wilder! My mom and I have always had traveling to all of Laura's old homes on our bucket lists since we read that box set in 1986, as well - which I'm still planning on doing! Thanks for this little stroll down memory lane and I suggest you get to reading!

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  14. I started reading the Little House books when I got the entire 9 or 10 book box set at the age of 8 and in the third grade. It took me all of 5 months to finish every book! When we had "Dress as your favorite book character day" at school I went as Laura Ingalls Wilder - it helped that I looked exactly like Melissa Gilbert from the TV show. Whei I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up my answer was always Laura Ingalls Wilder! My mom and I have always had traveling to all of Laura's old homes on our bucket lists since we read that box set in 1986, as well - which I'm still planning on doing! Thanks for this little stroll down memory lane and I suggest you get to reading!

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  15. These were some of my favorite books as a young reader. I remember seeing her hand written manuscripts, in the Whitter, CA, public library, I believe. Written in a blue book, and her hand writing exactly like my grandmother's, when everyone learned the Palmer method.

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