Laura Ingalls Wilder
Birth: February 7, 1867 Death: February 10, 1957 (90 years old) Laura wrote novels and was a teacher by profession. Her most popular work is Little House on the Prairie. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born near Pepin, a village in Wisconsin (a.k.a. the "Bigs Woods"). Her father was Charles Phillip Ingalls and her mother, Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. Her other, younger siblings were Caroline Celestia (Carrie), Charles Frederick, who died at nine months old, and Grace Pearl. Childhood Home-sites of Laura Ingalls Wilder When Laura was a young child, Charles settled the family near Independence, Kansas. This land at that time was Indian territory and had not been opened for homesteading. They lived there for two years before returning to Wisconsin and the same cabin where Laura was born. Within a few years, they moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Then, they lived with relatives near South Troy, Minnesota. Following that, they moved to Burr Oak, Iowa and helped run a hotel. Back to Walnut Grove the Ingalls family went, where Charles served as the town butcher and Justice of the Peace. Once he accepted a railroad job in spring 1879, he moved to eastern Dakota Territory. The family joined him there in that fall. Their final homestead (Charles, Caroline, and Mary), was in DeSmet, South Dakota in the winter of 1879-1880. The next winter, 1880-1881, was one of the worst on record in the Dakotas. Laura described that winter in her book called "The Long Winter". Once settled, Laura went to school and made many friends. She also met Almanzo Wilder, a fellow homesteader. Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Young Woman Laura accepted her first teaching position at fifteen years old. It turned out that she was not necessarily passionate about teaching. She said that she taught more out of a responsibility to earn money for her family. Teaching was one of the very few options she had, as a female, to work. Her teaching came to an end when her and Almanzo married on August 25, 1885 and she became Laura Ingalls Wilder. 
Almanzo's homestead claim, north of DeSmet, was becoming prosperous at that point. Laura gave birth to Rose wilder on December 5, 1886. In 1889, they had a son, which was never given a name since he died soon after he was born.The first few years of Laura and Almanzo's marriage had a great deal of trials. They included Almanzo becoming partially paralyzed due to a life-threatening case of diphtheria. He used a cane for the rest of his life. The death of their son took place during these first years, as well as their home and barn being destroyed by fire, years and years of severe drought that got them into debt and unable to make an income from their land. In the book The First Four Years, were published Around 1890, the Wilders moved to Almanzo's parents' prosperous farm in Minnesota in order to take some time and rest. They moved to Westville, Florida to attempt to find a climate that would improve Almanzo's health, but the climate proved to be too hot and humid, unlike the dry plains where he was used to living. In 1892, they went back to DeSmet and bought a small house. They both were able to work as they were given special permission to send their daughter, Rose, to school early. Almanzo was a day laborer and Laura, a seamstress at a dressmaker's shop. This was the only way they could save money and start a farm again. Rocky Ridge Farm After two years of hard work, they moved to Mansfield, Missouri, and used their savings as a down payment on land with a house on the out-skirts of town. They named the property Rocky Ridge Farm. Over twenty years, they turned the 40 acres of heavily-wooded, stoned-covered hillside
The amount of success that they managed to work to was just not enough to keep them on the farm, so they moved to the actual town of Mansfield (nearby) in the late 1890's and rented a small house. Almanzo worked as an oil salesman and general delivery man. Laura took in boarders and served meals to local railroad workers. They spent all of their spare time working on the farm and planning for the future. Around this time, Almanzo's parents visited with a gift for the couple. It was a deed to the house they had been renting in Mansfield. This was all the financial help they needed to complete Rocky Ridge. They sold the rent-house and with that money were able to move back on the farm for good. The Wilders' Rise To Middle Class By 1910, Rocky Ridge Farm was established and the Wilders could focus on building the farm's productivity. They completed their impressive, ten-room farmhouse in 1912. Initially, they chose to only grow a wheat crop in South Dakota, but after an unsuccessful experience with that, they decided to diversify their farm with poultry, dairy, and a large apple orchard. Their daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, had developed a writing career. This inspired Laura to write. She was offered a permanent position as a columnist and editor with the Missouri Rurualist around 1911. Her column was entitled "As a Farm Woman Thinks". She held that position through the middle of the 1920's. She also had earned income working with a Farm Loan Association giving out small loans to local farmers from her farmhouse office. Between the farm and Laura's writing and position with the Farm Loan Assoc., they earned a stable enough income to be considered middle-class in Mansfield. The Wilders' Retirement As Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder aged, their daughter Rose began to take on the responsibility to take care and support them. After having lived in a modern stone cottage that Rose had built for them, the Wilders' yearned to live in the house they had built with their own hands. After Rose moved away permanently, Laura and Almanzo moved back in to their large farm house for the rest of their lives. Things were looking good financially for the Wilders' as they entered into the last "season" of life. But the investments they were depending on crashed with the Stock Market in 1929. They then had to depend on Rose for financial support. In 1930, around the dark time of The Great Depression and following the death of her mother (1924) and her sister Mary (1928), Laura was driven to pursue a manuscript she had written about her childhood perhaps to preserve the stories and in hopes of making an income from writing. Her biography was called "Pioneer Girl". Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Book Series Laura wrote Little House in the Big Woods (originally going to be called When Grandma was a Little Girl) as the first of her book series. Little House, published in the early 1930's, was successful and Laura went on to write more books. After Little House in the Big Woods was published, Laura's books have been and still are in print today, all over the world. Five additional books were published including On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), The Long Winter (1940), Little Town on the Prairie (1941), and These Happy Golden Years (1943). Within just a couple years of publishing Little House, Laura Ingalls Wilder received enough royalties from the Little House book series to provide steady and significant income for her and Almanzo. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Beloved Author Though the Wilders were often alone at their farm on Rocky Ridge, they were often, almost daily, visited by fans who hoped to meet the beloved author. In 1949, Almanzo died at the age of 92. Laura stayed on the farm and lived alone for eight years, though she had many friends and neighbors who watched out for her and assisted her with getting to and from town (Mansfield). Laura Ingalls Wilder died at the age of 90. In 1974, 17 years after her death, the television series Little House on the Prairie debuted and held popularity for nine seasons. Wilder said once that the original reason why she wrote her books was to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime. In 1993, Laura Ingalls Wilder was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians, and a bronze bust depicting her is on permanent display in the rotunda of the Missouri State Capitol. Wilder was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame in Marshfield, Missouri in 2006. Return to Old Fashioned Living from Laura Ingalls Wilder
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with a log cabin having no windows, into a somewhat successful, 200-acre farm bearing poultry, dairy, and fruit. They replaced the old cabin with a ten-room farmhouse with outbuildings.
