Little House on the Prairie

The Real Story of Laura's Life

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, the second daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls, in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, seven miles north of Pepin. In 1868, Pa and Ma (as Laura would later call her parents) took baby Laura and her sister Mary, age three, from the Big Woods to Chariton County, Missouri.

The family did not stay in Missouri long. Inspired by the Homestead Act of 1862 which offered 160 acres of "free land" to settlers who would farm and live on it for five years, Pa took his family to the prairies. The land Pa chose was about 12 miles from Independence, Kansas, within the boundaries of the Osage Diminished Reserve.

There Pa built a house and stable with the help of a neighbor, Mr Edwards. Later, the family contracted malaria and were fortunate that Dr Tann, who was actually a doctor to the Indians, was in the area. After building a house and planting crops, the Ingalls family was forced to leave in the fall of 1870, just after the birth of their third daughter, Carrie. Pa heard that the government had changed their minds about opening the land for homesteading and that soldiers were on their way to force the settlers out.

Pa did not wait for the soldiers. He took his family to their old home in the Big Woods. This enabled the girls to see more of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Laura and Mary attended the Barry Corner School, and spent many happy hours playing with their cousins. Ma was glad to be home, but Pa longed to go west again.

In 1874, the Ingalls journeyed west, trading for a small farm near Walnut Grove, Minnesota. The family lived in a dugout in the creek bank until Pa could build a wonderful new house made of sawed boards.

In Walnut Grove, the family joined the church pastored by Rev. Alden and Laura and Mary were able to attend school again. It was here that Laura met the snobby and cruel Nellie Owens.

Pa raised a wonderful wheat crop, and the family felt that surely this was the end of their troubles. However, grasshoppers invaded the area and destroyed all the crops. The family tried again the next year to raise a crop, but the grasshopper eggs left the previous year hatched and destroyed the crops again.

On November 1, 1875, a son was born to the Ingalls family, Charles Frederic. The following summer, the family traveled to Uncle Peter's farm in eastern Minnesota, where Pa helped with the harvesting. While there, baby Freddy became ill died on August 27, 1876.

The family, saddened at the loss of their son, moved on to Burr Oak, Iowa, where Pa's friend Mr. Steadman had purchased a hotel. The family lived in the hotel, and Ma and Pa helped the Steadmans manage it. They did not like the work, and moved first to some rented rooms over a grocery, and then to a little brick house outside of town.

The family's last child, Grace, was born in Burr Oak on May 23, 1877. The family was homesick for their friends in Walnut Grove, so they returned in the summer of 1877 to live in town while Charles did carpentry and other odd jobs, and opened a butcher's shop.

Laura and Mary were eager to find out what had happened in Walnut Grove while they were away. They found that Nellie Owens now had a rival, Genevieve Masters, the school teacher's daughter. Nellie and Genny fought for the leadership of the girls but it was Laura who became the leader, without even trying.

In 1879, Mary suffered a stroke and lost her eyesight. In that same year the Ingalls family made their final move when Aunt Docia from the Big Woods arrived and offered Pa a job as a railroad manager in Dakota Territory.

When the railway work moved on, the Ingalls family stayed. Together with their friends, the Boasts, they became the first residents of the new town of De Smet. Pa and Laura would have happily gone further west but Ma insisted that they stay put so that the children could get an education. Pa filed a claim on 160 acres of land 3 miles southeast of De Smet.

The Hard Winter of 1880-81 resulted in almost continuous blizzards from October to the following May. The blizzards made it all but impossible to travel in or out, and trains could not run to bring in supplies.

By late 1881, the family had saved up enough money to send Mary to the blind school at Vinton, Iowa. The government supplied the money for her tuition, but Ma and Pa had to pay for transportation to and from the school, and for suitable clothes for a young college girl.

As a teenager Laura had become rather a shy girl and initially found it difficult to mix with people. She seemed quite fearful of crowds. Laura worked hard at school and showed a great interest in English, history and poetry. Unfortunately, Genevieve Masters had arrived in De Smet and along with the teacher, Eliza Jane Wilder, began to cause trouble for Laura. However Miss Wilder left the school and Laura was able to become top of her class.

At the early age of 15, Laura earned her teaching certificate. She was hired by the Bouchie School, 12 miles away, and boarded with the Bouchie family. Mrs. Bouchie was apparently going through a mental breakdown due to the isolation of the settlement, and Laura was frightened of her. She was therefore very grateful when a young man, Almanzo Wilder, a local farmer and brother of her old teacher, offered to drive his sleigh through howling gales and freezing temperatures each weekend to bring her home.

At first Laura thought Almanzo was doing it only as a favor to Pa. Over the next three years, however, she gradually allowed Almanzo into her affections and they married on August 25, 1885.

Their daughter Rose was born December 5, 1886, but the farming life was no easier for the newly married couple than it had been for Laura's father and mother. Droughts and hail storms ruined crops and kept them in debt. Diphtheria and over work led to Almanzo being crippled. Their second child, a baby boy, died unnamed soon after his birth in August 1889. An accident in the kitchen resulted in their house burning down.

Almanzo and Laura left De Smet to live with Almanzo's parents in Spring Valley, Minnesota, but the weather did not help Almanzo's health. They moved to Westville, Florida, where Laura's cousin Peter had made his home. Almanzo's health improved, but Laura could not take the heat, and the women did not accept her socially because she was a "Yankee". In 1892, Almanzo, Laura, and little Rose returned to De Smet.

On July 17, 1894, the Wilders left South Dakota again. This time, they traveled to Mansfield in the Ozarks of Missouri. They arrived on August 30, and purchased Rocky Ridge Farm. The house began as a small log cabin, but Laura and Almanzo added to it over the years, until it became the large rambling farmhouse that it is today.

Laura began to write articles for the Missouri Ruralist and other magazines. In 1930 she wrote her autobiography which she called Pioneer Girl. She could not find a publisher, but she rewrote part of it, with Rose's help, as Little House in the Big Woods. The book was an instant success, and children all over the world begging Laura to tell more stories about Laura and Mary. The result was the Little House books.

Almanzo died on October 23, 1949, at the age of 92. Laura died on February 10, 1957, at Rocky Ridge Farm at the age of 90.

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Laura's "Little House" Books
Laura's daughter Rose became a famous writer in the early 1900s. Rose recalled the stories her mother had told her during her growing-up years, and thought that other children would be as interested in those pioneer stories as she was. She encouraged her mother to write down the stories, and Laura did. The first manuscript of what would eventually become the "Little House" books was called Pioneer Girl, and told of Laura's entire childhood, until she married Almanzo Wilder. This manuscript was rejected by e***ors, and has never been published.
Laura then reworked a part of her manuscript into a picture book for children, called When Grandma was a Little Girl. This book focused on the stories Pa had told Laura and Mary when they were very little girls in the Big Woods. This book was gradually expanded into its present form, and published under the title of Little House in the Big Woods in 1932.
Over the next decade, Laura continued her story book by book, until in 1943, young Laura was married in These Happy Golden Years. This book completed the "Little House" series.
Over the next few years, Laura's books were translated into a number of languages, and they gained popularity all over the world. In the 1970s and early 80s, Michael Landon's television series Little House on the Prairie made Laura's name even more well-known.

Laura's books tell the story of the great hardships involved in settling the American Mid-West in the context of her warm and loving family. The Ingalls family made the most of the many setbacks they experienced and found real joy in their small victories. The honesty and detail of the books makes them interesting historical and social documents of the period, as well as entertaining reading. The "Little House" books have attracted interest from scholars since they represent a rare example of pioneer literature written from a child's perspective.
The Little House Series
The Little House series were written in the 1930s, while Mrs. Wilder was in her 60s. Although slightly fictionalized, they nevertheless tell a marvelous story about a young girl growing up in the late nineteenth century.

Little House in the Big Woods : Five year old Laura Ingalls and her family, Pa, Ma, Mary, and Baby Carrie, live in a log cabin in the big woods of Wisconsin, a full day's walk from the nearest town, Pepin. There are many aspects of farm life that Laura learns, such as making cheese, hog butchering, butter churning, and fur trading. She even goes to town for the first time. Laura and Mary have many childhood games, and get to sit on Pa's knees and hear him tell the stories of when he grew up or of when his father grew up. There is even a sugaring-off dance at Grandpa's!
Farmer Boy : Nine year old Almanzo Wilder and his family, Father, Mother, Royal, Eliza Jane, and Alice, live on a large farm outside of Malone, New York. Almanzo goes to school, helps cut ice from a river, farms, goes to the town celebrations, and gets shoes and toys when the cobbler and peddler visit. He has a young boy's huge appetite, and man does he eat! Almanzo also wants to have a horse of his very own, but Father thinks he is too young. Will he ever get one?
Little House on the Prairie : The Ingalls family decides to move from Wisconsin to Kansas and build a new home on the prairie. They face many hardships while traveling, build a new little cabin, encounter the very few settlers in the area (which was Indian Territory at the time), sickness, prairie fire, good and bad Indians, and finally realize the heartbreak of losing their new farm. Here they meet Mr. Edwards, who becomes a very special family friend, and Dr. Tann, a black doctor to the Indians. A book that has been banned in many libraries for racial content, it actually shows how settlers of the time felt. Some were prejudiced, some weren't. Even within the same family there were often differences of opinion.
On the Banks of Plum Creek : The Ingalls family get a new start in Minnesota. They live in a little dugout in the side of a creek and then move to a real house. They experience happiness and also disappointment, when the grasshopper plague hits. The girls' start school and Laura meets her childhood enemy, Nellie Oleson. The girls swim, slide in the hay, play in the creek, make fishtraps, go to the town church, and much more! There is even a town Christmas tree.
By the Shores of Silver Lake : The Ingalls life has been full of heartbreak since the end of the last book. Mary, the eldest daughter, is now blinded from an attack of scarlet fever. The family is very poor; they have never quite got back on their feet after the grasshoppers. But there is the good in their life, too. Now, a new baby has been added to the family, Grace, with her big blue eyes. And, Aunt Docia, Pa's sister, is willing to give her brother a job working for the railroad for $50 a month in the Dakota Territory. So Pa leaves and the girls follow a few weeks later, taking their first train ride. A railroad camp is an exciting place, but the family likes it best that winter, after everyone has left, and they are alone on the prairie in the big, white, Surveyors' House, the largest they've ever lived in. But will Pa find a homestead before all the land in the new town of De Smet is taken?
The Long Winter: On October 1, 1880, a blizzard hits the tiny town of De Smet. Who ever heard of a blizzard that early? Then, when Pa goes to town for supplies, an old Indian comes in the store and warns the town that this winter will have 7 months of blizzards. Every seventh winter is hard, but the third seventh winter is the hardest of all, and it is this winter. So the Ingalls family move to a store building they own in town. The family is trapped in the little rooms until the end of April as blizzard after blizzard hits the town, only letting up for a day or less every week or so. No trains can get through and the town is running out of food and feul. Learning to twist hay into haysticks for burning and to grind wheat in coffee mills just for bread are a few of the survival skills learned that winter. And just as the town is about to eat their last reserves of food, a daring Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder go in search of some rumored wheat many miles away.

Little Town on the Prairie: The hard, long winter is over. The Ingalls are back on their farm. And Laura gets a job sewing. From here she can see the town growing, and she is saving money to help send blind sister Mary to College. That fall Laura goes to school. There she meets friends Mary Power, Minnie Johnson, and Ida Wright, the minister's adopted daughter. Also, Nellie Oleson moves to De Smet and treats Laura just as bad as ever. Then the new teacher, Miss Wilder, decides that she hates Laura and Carrie, but loves Nellie. The town has socials, literaries, and many other forms of amusement. There is even a revival at church, and the dashing Almanzo Wilder, owner of the perfect pair Morgan horses, walks Laura home. Finally, Laura is offered a real job, teaching at a settlement 12 miles away. Even though she is only 15, she passes her teacher's examination and gets her first certificate.
These Happy Golden Years : Laura Ingalls, now a 15 year old school teacher, is living with a woman that hates her and a man that spends all his time as far from the house as possible. Three of her five students are older and taller than she is. If it wasn't for that nice Wilder boy, Almanzo, taking her home every weekend, even in 40 degrees below zero weather, she wouldn't be able to handle it. After her teaching term is over Laura returns to school life in De Smet. Now there are sleigh rides on Sunday with Almanzo and fun with her friends during the week. Once spring comes, Laura even gets to help Almanzo break horses to drive! Laura gets two more teaching jobs and has a romantic courtship with "that Wilder boy". In the end, Laura gets a new "Little House", this time one of her own.

The First Four Years : Published after her death, this book is not as polished in style as the others. The first four years of the Wilder's marriage is full of many joys, and also many hardships. The Wilder's two children are born, Rose, and a boy who dies shortly after birth. Storms destroy the crops and the debts keep mounting. Then a serious disease threatens Laura and Almanzo. But the Wilders never give up on their life or their love for each other.
On the Way Home : This is Laura's diary of her move to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894. With an opening and closing chapter by Rose Wilder Lane to give background and an ending to the story, it is a very good account of the trip to their new home. Some of the times they had were funny and some were hard and saddening, but they eventually got to what would become the Wilder home for the rest of their lives, Rocky Ridge Farm.
West From Home: This is a collection of letters, mostly from Laura (or Bess, as she was called) to her husband Manly, while on a trip to San Fransisco in 1915 to visit their daughter, Rose, who was, at this time, a newspaper reporter. This book shows how Laura was good at noticing everything and being the eyes for her husband back at home, skills she would later put to use in writing her Little House series.
Also, there are collections of the articles that Laura Wilder wrote for the Missouri Ruralist, a collection of quotes, and a collection of her and her daughter Rose's articles:
Little House in the Ozarks, e***ed by Stephen W. Hines
Laura Ingalls Wilder, e***ed by Barnes and Noble
Words From A Fearless Heart: A Collection of Wit, Wisdom, and Whimsy, e***ed by Stephen W. Hines
A Little House Sampler, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane, e***ed by William T. Anderson

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