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The Real Story of Laura's Life
The life of Laura Ingalls as depicted on Michael
Landon's popular television series Little House on the Prairie, the life of
Laura Ingalls as told in her Little House books, and the life of the real Laura
Ingalls are three very different stories. Although Laura's books are based on
her life, she did make changes when she felt it made for easier reading; her
books are classified as historical fiction, not autobiography. This page was
designed to tell the story of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born
on 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 and 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 1880-1881 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
on 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 overwork 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.
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