Laura Ingalls Wilder - Her Life!

The Life of the Original Little Girl on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder
By Abi Stram | September 20, 2023
Original Article HERE

The original article did not name any pictures - 

I have named them . . . just trying to give it a good guess!

I really don't know - I'm gonna guess this is Rose

In 1932, the book Little House in the Big Woods was released, kicking off the series that would become a sensation. With eight books, films, stage shows, and a massively successful television show, the series has been a favorite for generations. Writer Laura Ingalls Wilder based the books on her own childhood, depicting the lifestyle of 19th-century America. Take a deeper look into the real life in the Little House on the Prairie.

The Real Ma And Pa
If you ever read the Little House books and wonder what Ma and Pa look like, just take a look at this picture. This photograph of Wilder's parents, Charles and Caroline Ingalls, was taken on February 1, 1860, the day they got married. They look thrilled, don't they? So how did these two lovebirds meet?

Laura's parents on their wedding day, Feb 1, 1860

Charles and his family moved west from New York, becoming next-door neighbors to Caroline's family. The families became very close, frequently socializing together. So close, that three separate marriages would take place between the families. The Ingalls had their first child, Mary Amelia, in 1865. In 1867, they had another girl named Laura. After a few years, they wanted a change and moved to Missouri.

Little House on Native American Land
The Ingalls went to live on the Osage Indian Reservation in Kansas in 1869, under the impression that white settlers could make a home there. But upon arriving, they realized that they legally couldn't claim the land, and federal troops threatened to remove them and other illegal settlers. Meanwhile, Daughter Carrie was born there in 1870.

I'm guessing Carrie, Mary and Laura

Ingalls depicts her father as more sympathetic to the Osage than the other intruders, but she is later criticized for describing and depicting the tribe as rude, uncivilized, and animal-like. Near the end of the book, the Osage are forced to leave Kansas, while Ingalls recalls crying to her father, demanding an Osage woman’s baby.

Moving Around
A year later, the family moved back to Wisconsin. They spent three more years there, and then the town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota came calling to them. It was a life that was never settled, and Laura Ingalls Wilder would only know this sort of existence for many years to come. They became a family of six in 1877 when Grace Pearl was born.

Almanzo's family - Almanzo standing behind his father.

Having lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa, the Ingalls needed to settle, especially as there were money troubles at that time. It was in 1879 that Charles managed to get a job in the Dakota Territory with the railroad, where he worked as a bookkeeper and clerk. The family then relocated to De Smet in South Dakota.

Life In The Town
Laura experienced a wide range of life growing up, inspiring her writing later on. She said, "I realized I had seen and lived it all - all the successive phases of the frontier, first the frontiersman, then the pioneer, then the farmers and the towns." The family lived on the outskirts of the city where they made their best effort to survive and make money.

I think this is Mary

Laura had to take greater responsibility for her family during this time, as she was taking care of her sister Mary who, before they came to De Smet, had gone blind. In her books, Ingalls claimed it was caused by scarlet fever. But a 2013 study revealed Mary had gone blind from a brain disease. Dealing with "acts of God" was a fact of life back then, and the family had its share.

The Scarlet Fever
As mentioned above, it is said that Mary Ingalls lost her sight after she contracted a fever, more precisely the Scarlet Fever, as depicted in the book The Little House.

Mary again?

However, even though the Scarlet Fever plays the role of the villain in numerous children books, the truth is that Mary turned blind because she had an inflammatory condition that attacks the brain called viral meningoencephalitis, according to the journal Pediatrics.

Stormy Days
In De Smet, which had been growing larger at the time, the Ingalls suffered through awful storms in the winter. Laura never forgot these, and they made it into the book The Long Winter. A horrible blizzard came in their second year there, and everyone in town had to do whatever they could to make it through, like making flour by putting their wheat into their coffee grinder when their supply ran out.

Winter in South Dakota - file picture

They had neither enough food nor wood, and they had to burn hay that they gathered and packed together just to stay warm. The storm was so bad that when Charles went out, he would follow the path of a string that was tied between the house and the barn, otherwise, he may have gotten lost as he barely had any line of sight.

Getting An Early Start
It was not all harsh winters at this time though. Laura proved to be a bright girl at a young age, and she did well socially and academically. These would be formative years for her, with her education giving her the lifelong literary skills that would immortalize her life story. Long before she ever wrote, though, her intelligence got her a job.

I'm gonna guess this is Laura?

Like her mom, Laura decided to get a teaching certificate, and she was only 15 years old when she stood in front of the classroom and started teaching. In 1882, Laura was already a career woman.

Too Cool For School
Despite Laura’s intelligence that few at her age possessed, she actually never graduated high school. De Smet’s education system was underdeveloped, so there was nowhere that she could go to keep learning. However, that did not stop her from getting an education on her own.

A typical school room - file photo

She always read a lot, given that her mother was a teacher, which got her ahead even while her formal education was lackluster. She was always ahead of the curve, so when it came time to hire a new teacher, Laura was a natural fit for the job, and she never stopped learning or teaching.

“Manly”
Laura was extremely mature for her age, being in her mid-teenage years when she started teaching, so it is not surprising that the man she fell for was a whole decade older than her. His name was Almanzo Wilder, and Laura referred to him affectionately as “Manly.”

Laura and Almanzo?

Almanzo took an interest in Laura and gave her his attention by taking her to and from her workplace with his buggy, which was 12 miles from her home in De Smet. The two became friends and then fell in love, and in 1885 they sealed the deal and got married when she was 18 and he was 28. Laura became Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the couple moved onto his land and took up the farm life. But it would not be easy for them, and it would not be long before they saw some bad days.

Hard Times
Life in those days was not as simple as it is today, and there were many serious life concerns at that time that we never even need to think about. While Laura gave birth to a girl named Rose in 1886, things should have been looking up, but dark times were ahead. They were struck by diseases and drought which greatly impacted their livelihood.

Almanzo as a young man?

Worst of all, Almanzo got an infection of diphtheria. The disease is highly uncommon today, with vaccines that prevent its spread given at birth, but in this era before modern medicine, it could ruin someone’s life. Almanzo went from being healthy and strong to becoming paralyzed and being unable to farm.

Gone Too Soon
The Wilder family’s troubles did not end there. In August of 1889, Laura gave birth to her second child, this time a boy. However, he died after only two weeks of life. The Wilder family had seen enough devastation for one lifetime, but sadly even more were to come and plague them.

Working on the railroad - file photo

Around the same time their child died, their house was destroyed in a fire. With no home, no crops as a result of the drought, no income, and memories of their tragedy haunting them, they knew they needed to start fresh. In 1890, they made the move to Minnesota to settle in Spring Valley.

Starting Over
The previous years were full of hardship, but the Wilders persisted. They needed to regroup and regain their strength in order to build a new life for themselves. It would be a long journey, as life is, but they would recover from their tragedy and make their way in life.

A Little Red Schoolhouse!

In one photograph taken in 1891, a reunited Ingalls family is shown. Laura is in the center with her hand on her father’s shoulder, and she looks to be in good spirits despite everything she went through. Caroline is sitting on the left, and next to her is Carrie, while Mary sits on the right with Grace next to her.

Sunny Days Ahead
As Almanzo was still struggling with his condition, Laura had to assist him with work. They were always on the lookout for a new life they could make for themselves, and they decided that some higher temperatures may do Almanzo good, so they decided they would move once again, this time to Florida.

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While it seemed like a good idea, especially as it had great opportunities for farming, the weather in the state did not sit right with Laura, and she especially took poorly to the high humidity. In 1892, they made a home once again in De Smet.

Starting Over Again
After a few years in De Smet, the Wilders made their home in Missouri, moving to Mansfield in 1894. With their savings, they set up Rocky Ridge Farm on a piece of land that was on the outskirts of town, which they still lived in. They made a living selling firewood, which they would sell for just 50 cents, and began to rebuild their lives.

Plaque

They planted apple trees.  After seven years, the fruit started to grow, which helped their business. It also helped that Almanzo’s parents contributed to their rent. Things were starting to look up for Almanzo and Laura as they had accrued 200 acres of land, and they were finally able to move to their farm and sell off the house which they lived in in the town. After 20 years, their farm became a success for them, and they sold fruit, poultry, and dairy.

Land of the Big Red Apples
Missouri was promoted for its apples, and many saw the state as having potential riches for those who relocated there to grow and sell them. With how much difficulty the Wilders went through, they knew that everything they did was a risk, but thankfully their move to Missouri paid off for them.

Laura had seen and done so much at this point. She said, "Then I understood that in my own life I represented a whole period of American History.” While the hardships that came in the trial and error of moving around the country her entire life were tough, they gave her a valuable experience that few other writers could claim.

Putting Her Life To Paper
As Laura settled into her new life of stability and success, she was able to become part of the community. She was a valued member of various clubs and spoke in favor of local farm associations. When it came to her farming lifestyle and poultry, she had extensive knowledge, and she would go around and give talks to help educate people. With teaching in her blood, she simply had to share everything she had learned.

With all of the hardships Laura endured, it may come as a surprise that Laura eventually became a successful writer. However, her life experience was so rich that her writing would only be richer, even if it came relatively later in life. It was in 1911 (she was 44 years) that she first wrote an article, having been asked to send something in to the Missouri Ruralist. She took her lifestyle of educating and brought it to print, and her work was so well received that she got a regular column and became an editor. Until the mid-1920s, Laura was writing about all sorts of matters related to rural living for her column “As A Farm Woman Thinks,” with columns about her family and even travel writing and events in the First World War. On top of this, she also worked with the Farm Loan Association in her area to provide local family farmers with small loans.

Always Writing
Laura was prolific in her writing, and this image shows her actual handwritten documents. Laura was a talented writer, but it was her rich life experience that made her writing so special and significant.

Laura's actual writing

Among the topics that Laura wrote about was her journey traveling from South Dakota to Missouri. Now that everybody broadcasts their lives, this may seem mundane, but at a time when few people actually put their lives down on paper, Laura provided people at the time with someone they could identify with, and they are great historical documents for readers today.

Pioneer Girl
Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane became rather successful as a writer in the 1920s, and she knew her mother, as gifted as she was, could also find great success if she turned to books. With Rose cheering her on, Laura put together a book called Pioneer Girl in 1930. Laura was in her 50s, and she would finally write her first book.

I'm gonna guess this is Rose

Pioneer Girl was an autobiography, and unlike her later books geared more for children, this was intended for adult readers. Despite covering similar material as her Little House books, it contains many parts that are disturbing for younger audiences, with violence and realistic depictions of what life was like. The book, which Rose edited and took to New York to find a publisher, was rejected and would only be published in 2014 by the South Dakota Historical Society Press. Even though Wilder’s first book never took off, it set the stage for her to write her later works which would find massive success.

The Crash
In 1929, the Wilders saw their savings wiped out when the stock market crashed at the onset of the Great Depression. During this time, Rose had to step up and help out on the farm. No matter where people were in their lives, the Depression impacted them one way or another, and everybody had to work harder to make it through.

Thankfully, though, they did not lose their farm. It was a tough time for everybody, but for Laura, it was a time of great productivity as she threw herself into her writing. This period of mother and daughter working together to keep the family farm from going under would end up bringing them to success they never thought possible as Laura finally would write the books that made her famous.

A Novelist’s Debut
While Pioneer Girl did not take off, Laura got attention for a book she was writing based on her life called When Grandma Was A Little Girl. She was asked by New York editors who showed interest in the book to take the story further and make it more appealing to younger readers.

Her first written book, before the title change

With fiction appearing to be a more compelling medium for her life story than nonfiction, Laura got to rewriting her story. With the help of Rose, she was able to get the book in the hands of some big names, and Harper & Brothers published the book in 1932 with the new title Little House in the Big Woods.

Success
After Little House in the Big Woods was published, Laura got a royalty check for $500. This would be the smallest royalty check she ever received and considering that it was worth nearly $9,000 in today’s money, that’s nothing to scoff at. The books took off quickly, never going out of print and eventually being released around the world in translations into 40 languages.

Birth home of Laura

Things were looking up for the Wilders, and their hard work had paid off. Even during the depression, the family did not have to struggle as much as many, and with success came fame and respect for Laura.

A New Chapter
The era following the publishing of Little House in the Big Woods was definitely a new chapter in the Wilder family’s life. It is not often that a woman in her 60s publishes her first book to massive acclaim and success, especially after a life that was a constant struggle and had little stability.

Her first book with title change

The hard work of Laura and her family had paid off, and this humble, hardworking family now had their story told to the world, thrilling and inspiring readers far and wide. It seems highly improbable, and yet somehow inevitable, that this girl who bounced around from farm to farm her entire life and became a school teacher at the age of 15 would write a massively successful book series.

The Series
Little House in the Big Woods was just the start, and the entire series lived up to the promise of the first book. The story jumps to the Almanzo’s family in New York for the book Farmer Boy, and the third book Little House on the Prairie shows the Ingalls going to Kansas and leaving behind their cabin. It continues in On the Banks of Plum Creek when the Ingalls go to a Minnesota farm.

They leave Minnesota and go to the Dakota Territory in By the Shores of the Silver Lake, and The Long Winter depicts the blizzard that struck and left them to fend for themselves in that difficult time. The time when Laura becomes a teacher is recalled in Little Town on the Prairie, which touchingly shows Laura working so her sister could afford to go to a school for blind students. Laura and Almanzo’s relationship is covered in the book These Happy Years.

Through A Child’s Eye
The Little House books blend fiction and non-fiction, and they do so by taking the real-life childhood of Laura Ingalls Wilder and telling them through the perspective of her as she was growing up. This made for great reading, and as Laura said, "The spirit of the frontier was one of humor and cheerfulness no matter what happened. It shines through all the volumes of my children's novel.”

The famous book gets a stamp!

The one book that was not from Laura’s perspective was Farmer Boy, which detailed the life of her husband Almanzo from when he was a boy. Whether you want to see the books as true to life accounts of what happened or simply as escapism, you will come away happy.

Growing Up
One charming thing about the books is that they are not simply a linearly told story, but are a portrait of what a young girl was going through and how she saw the world. Each book represents a period of Laura’s life, and her character grows as the story progresses.

Over the period that the books were released, the readers grew up alongside the character, and they could relate to her every step of the way. This makes them even more meaningful and is part of why they are so timeless. Even though life back then was so different from how it is today, we see that many experiences of growing up are universal.

Creative Liberties
As true to life as the Little House books are, they are not strictly autobiographical. Laura knew how to make her stories more effective by changing elements of her life, adding some details, and taking out others. This was also necessary as she knew the stories were meant for young audiences, and she did not want anything that would be too disturbing or boring for them.

For a more accurate look at her life, Wilder’s autobiographical works and her letters are highly informative. However, the Little House books are a great start, and they certainly always feel real, even if some parts here and there are not exactly how it happened.

Mother-Daughter Team
Laura was a big influence on her daughter Rose, and in turn, Rose was a big influence on her. Rose married salesman Claire Gillette Lane in 1906 and became Rose Wilder Lane, the name she would come to write under even after she got divorced. After marrying, Rose moved around a lot, just as she had done growing up, and she was in need of money, so got jobs writing for newspapers. This blossomed into a successful writing career that really took off once she got hired by the San Francisco Bulletin as a writer and editor, and she eventually began to write books.

Rose knew her mother could be successful as well and encouraged her to get started. She was her mother’s editor and used her connections to get Laura’s work published in McCall's and Country Gentleman, which were both read nationally.

Authorship
Some people hold the belief that Rose was actually the true writer of the Little House books, or if not the writer then the one who took Laura’s rough drafts and transformed them into their final forms. We have evidence that the two collaborated, as letters and documents show, but we may never know the full truth. What we do know is that both mother and daughter were talented and that the 1930s were a very busy time for them.

In the same decade that Laura published most of the Little House books, Rose published the most famous works of her career. Let the Hurricane Roar was released in 1932 and Free Land was released in 1938. The books were similar to her mother’s books in their subject matter, but her audience for them was older.

The Story Of Rose
While Laura Ingalls Wilder is the more famous name today, her daughter Rose Wilder Lane is a well-known and important literary figure whose story is just as fascinating as her mother’s. She moved to San Francisco after she finished high school, and she became a writer and got married.

Rose

As San Francisco was such an exciting city that is conducive to artists, she thrived, and she also developed a political awareness. She first identified with socialism, but when she took a trip to Europe, she found the light in libertarianism, which she would end up being a founder of in America.

Ideology
Rose is an intriguing figure, both for her own work and for her role in her mother’s work. It was in her political statements that she really becomes unique, though. She wrote in 1935, “I am now a fundamentalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez-faire, and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit.”

She continued, saying, “Also I will tell you why the relative freedom of human spirit is better — and more productive, even in material ways — than the communist, Fascist, or any other rigidity organized for material ends." These ideas are a world away from the content of the books, but it is not hard to see how the hardships of her upbringing gave her a can-do spirit.

Daughter Of Liberty
Rose’s books had a big influence on politics at the time. Writing about libertarianism, she helped contribute to its growth in the U.S. She wrote books about Libertarian ideologies and was one of the key voices singing its praises at the time.

Rose

A journalist named John Chamberlain wrote about just how important Rose’s work was. He wrote that "If it had been left to pusillanimous males probably nothing much would have happened.” He added that “Indeed, it was three women — Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand — who, with scornful side glances at the male business community, had decided to rekindle a faith in an older American philosophy."

New Edition
The Little House books were a success from the start, but they really took off in 1953 in new editions that had artwork in them. These drawings were done by Garth Williams, who was a big name in the world of children’s books, having done both Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web.

Laura was content with the life that her success brought her, but as content as she was, she never stopped writing. She said that "I have thought that I would spend what is left of my life living, not writing about it, but a story keeps stirring in my mind and if it pesters me enough I may have to write it down."

In The End
Laura struggled for a lot of her life and only found success in her later years. In just over a decade, she had eight books, and she continued writing, with many books that would eventually be published after her death. The final installment of the original Little House series was published in 1943, and Laura lived on until 1957, often greeting fans who came to her home to meet her.

Almanzo died eight years before her. He was 92. They were still living on Rocky Ridge Farm despite selling off large portions of the property. They liked to garden, and they kept some of their animals. After her husband’s death, Laura lived by herself and was well taken care of by her community. It was just three days before her 90th birthday that she passed away, and she was buried with her husband and later her daughter.

Remembered Fondly
Laura Ingalls Wilder made an impact on people’s lives. So many people grew up loving her stories and felt a strong connection with her, and many wanted to show their love for her work. Laura said, "The children send me their pictures, Christmas cards and presents, valentines, birthday cards, and gifts. I think I had letters from every state."

Fans can visit important sites in her life, as this historical marker in Florida indicates, showing where she had briefly lived in the Sunshine State. Her name can be found in many places that have been dedicated to her, including schools and libraries, and her work is still widely read today.

Final Project
Laura had health problems in her final years, but she was still writing. Her final project, which she never thought would see the light of day, was an account of her life in the years following her marriage, and the difficulties she and her husband went through at that time.

These writings sat for many years after Laura passed away. In fact, it was not until Rose died in 1968 that the manuscript was discovered by Roger MacBride, who was Rose’s literary executor. He knew that what he found would be of interest to fans, and he saw that it would be published.

The First Four Years
These documents finally saw the light of day in 1971 when The First Four Years hit the market and gave fans a look into the difficult times the author had in the late 19th century. People who grew up reading her books now got a more adult perspective on her life, and it was a real treat for people to go back to the world of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life many years after her last books were published.

As the book picks up where the last Little House book left off, many consider it to be, at least unofficially, the ninth book in the series. It certainly functions as one, though whether or not that was on Laura’s mind is something we will never know. Instead, we just have to enjoy it for what it is.

Book Of Letters
Among Laura’s many posthumous books is West From Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The book collects letters that Laura wrote to Almanzo when she went to San Francisco in 1915. She visited Rose and went to the World’s Fair, writing about her experiences on this journey she took in her middle age.

The book also serves as a diary of the time the Wilders were on their journey from South Dakota to Missouri, and for this reason, some fans feel it belongs with the rest of the Little House books, as it covers the same period and setting. It is definitely a riveting portrait of its era.

A Steady Supply
Fans of Wilder never ran out of content for them to consume, from all of her posthumous work and the many landmarks around the country that they could visit related to her. There were many other works in other mediums as well, most notably the television show from 1974. On top of the show, there was an anime released in 1975, made for TV movies in 2000 and 2001, and an ABC miniseries in 2005. A stage musical also was created and it toured around America in 2009, and there was a documentary about Wilder’s life in 2015.

On TV
While the many multimedia projects based on Little House are interesting to look at, it is the 1974 television show that truly stands out. Everybody loves to see their favorite books or the books they never got around to reading, made into shows, and when they get it right it can be truly special. That was the case with NBC’s Little House on the Prairie.

The show ran for nine seasons and over 200 episodes before its finale in 1983. It was a massive success and even got nominated for a few Emmys. It was not just in America where it was popular, but it was surprisingly a sensation in Spain, where it ran under the title La Casa de la Pradera. One of the show’s stars was Michael Landon, who played Charles. He was originally just hired to direct the show, but he said he would only do it if he could also play Pa.

Award In Her Honor
Wilder was highly acclaimed in her lifetime and was a five-time runner-up of the Newbery Medal which celebrates excellence in children’s literature. Given out by the American Library Association, it is the top prize a children’s book can receive. She never won, but she got something even better: a new award in her honor.

The ALA gave Wilder a lifetime achievement award in 1954, and they created the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, which would be given to a living author or illustrator who is published in America and has made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children".

Controversy
Few major works can go unscathed without having a major controversy, and Wilder’s work is no exception. Her works reflected the time that she lived in, so there was expectedly going to be content that is not compatible with our values today. The racial content in her books led to the award with her name on it being renamed.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award has since been renamed the Children's Literacy Legacy Award due to people taking offense to Wilder’s work. The association justified their decision, saying, "While we are committed to preserving access to Wilder's work for readers, we must also consider if her legacy today does justice to this particular award for lifetime achievement, given by an organization committed to all children." Regardless of some controversies that have come up, Wilder’s books have stood the test of time and will be beloved for many generations to come.