We have a young friend who is in love with the Little House on the Prairie books, so when Barney told me that we could visit one of the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived, we were both excited that we could show her this location. At first I assumed that we’d be at one of Laura’s homes in her books, but when I read online about this spot, I learned that this was the last place Laura and her husband, Almanzo, lived. We were able to see these 2 homes, as well as walk through a museum of her life and the history of her books.
So why did the Wilders move to the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri? In 1891, the Ozark Mountains were opening to development, and the couple heard stories of the “Land of the Big Red Apple.” When they moved here the land was covered with apple orchards (that are gone now). The docent in the museum showed us the size of the applies by curving her hands together and then spreading them out a couple of inches. Mansfield, Mo., was so different from the locations they lived in previously. Now they could see trees and green grass. [When their daughter Rose was an adult, she wrote some books that were a continuation of her mother’s stories.]
So with a $100 bill they had saved, the family of 3 moved here in 1894. When they arrived in the little village of Mansfield, they knew they had found their new home. They bought a 40-acre farm just a mile east of the town square [we drove to the town and it was really close]. The land had a log cabin and 800 trenched apple trees.
They started with a small farmhouse and added to it as they had more money.
See the opening behind Laura?
This must have been a popular feature of the time, because my mom wanted such a throughway from the kitchen to the screened porch when they built our home in the late 1950s.
After their daughter Rose was an adult and an accomplished journalist in New York City, she decided her parents needed a modern home for their retirement years. She came home and had the following Rock House built for them. Rose then lived in the farmhouse. After Rose left a number of years later to pursue her career, her parents moved back to the farmhouse that they had built together and in which they were most comfortable.
After Laura and Almanzo returned to the farmhouse, this part of the farm was sold. In 1990, the Wilder Association purchased the property, and the restored house was dedicated in 1997.
So what is so important about the Rock House? Rose talked her mother in writing stories about her childhood when Laura lived in the Rock House and Rose lived in the white farmhouse. Laura started writing The Little House on the Prairie in 1928 while living here.
When Rose had the house built, she had all new furniture made and delivered to the Rock House. When her parents moved back to the farmhouse, they took the furniture with them.
Wilders’ history
On July 17, 1894, the family of three (Rose was only seven) left De Smet, SD, in search of a new home. Traveling by covered wagon, they arrived in Mansfield on August 30. This was their home for over 60 years.
Here the Wilders established a dairy and ran a fruit and poultry farm. Eventually their property was enlarged to nearly 200 acres. In 1911, Laura started a career as a journalist, writing about rural life. Rose was able to get these stories published. Between 1932 and 1943, she published the Little House books from her memories of pioneer life. Almanzo died at Rocky Ridge in 1949 at the age of 92. Laura lived here until her death in 1957 at the age of 90.
writing the Little House books
The next picture shows us what Laura looked like at the age of 70 when she wrote On the Banks of Plum Creek in 1937. Amazing the resemblance to the actress who played her, Melissa Gilbert.
We’re never too old to try something new.
Her editor at Harper & Brothers urged her to write a third book with a working draft title of High Prairie. It was the story of the Ingalls family’s covered wagon trek from Wisconsin to Kansas.
some of the Little House books
After the birth of the Ingalls’ third daughter, Caroline Celestia, in August 1870, the family is facing growing uncertainty in their Kansas home. Federal troops were preparing to remove settlers from the Osage Nation [in present-day Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma], and threat of displacement—combined with financial hardship—led Charles Ingalls to return his family to their little house in the big woods of Wisconsin in 1871.
Although their time in Kansas was brief, the prairie left a lasting impression on Laura. During this period, the Ingalls relied on their surrounding community during illness and hardship. This experience would later shape Laura’s understanding of frontier life and cooperation.
Just 4 years old, Laura lives in the little house with her Pa, her Ma, her older sister Mary and her younger sister Carrie, and their trusty dog Jack. Pioneer life was hard because the family had to grow or catch all their own food as they prepared for a cold winter. But an exciting Christmas was ahead as the girls celebrated with homemade toys and treats. The parents were planning for spring planting, bringing in the harvest, and making their first trip to town. Every night the girls felt safe and warm in their little house with the happy sound of Pa’s fiddle sending them to sleep. So begins the beloved story of a pioneer girl and her family.
The family leaves their little house on the prairie and travels in their covered wagon to Minnesota. Here they settle in a small sod house on the banks of beautiful Plum Creek. Soon Pa builds a wonderful new little house with real glass windows and a hinged door. Laura and Mary are able to go to school, help with chores, and fish in the creek. At night the girls still enjoy listening to their Pa play his fiddle. But misfortunes come in the form of grasshoppers and a terrible blizzard. The pioneer family has to work together to overcome these troubles.
The Ingalls family moved from the banks of Plum Creek to the wilderness of the unsettled Dakota Territory. Here Pa works on the new railroad until he finds a homestead claim that is perfect for their new little house. Laura takes her first train ride as she, her sisters, and their mother come out to live with Pa on the shores of Silver Lake. After a lonely winter in the surveyors’ house, Pa puts up the first building in what will soon be a brand-new town named De Smet on the beautiful shores of Silver Lake. The family’s covered-wagon travels are finally over.
The little settlement that weathered the long, hard winter of 1880-1881 is now a growing town. Laura is growing up and goes to her first evening social. Mary finally is able to go to a college for the blind. Best of all, Almanzo Wilder asks permission to walk home from church with Laura. And Laura, now 15 years old, receives her certificate to teach school.
Laura is growing up in this little town on the prairie. At 15, she lives apart from her family for the first time as she teaches school in a claim shanty 12 miles from home. While very homesick, she knows her salary will help pay for Mary’s tuition at the college for the blind.
During school vacations, Laura has fun with her singing lessons, going on sleigh rides, and best of all helping Almanzo drive his new buggy. Friendship turns to love for this couple in the romantic conclusion of this Little House book.
We’ll be going to De Smet on this trip and will be able to see a replica of their homestead. Can’t wait.
Rose takes over the Little House books and complies more of Laura’s writing
In 1894, Almanzo and Laura made their last pioneer journey from De Smet, SD, to the Missouri Ozarks. They packed their belongings in a hack (horse-drawn wagon) and made the 650-mile trip with another family, averaging about 16 miles of travel a day, spending Sundays resting, and passing through generally settled areas.
Laura kept a daily diary of the journey, describing the towns, rivers, crop conditions, and events as the drove south. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, wrote a forward and an afterword telling of the reasons for the move and their early life on Rocky Ridge Farm.
In 1915, Laura traveled by train from Missouri to San Francisco where Rose was living and working as a journalist. Rose wanted to host her parents for a visit and show them the wonders of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition and the World’s Fair. But Almanzo wasn’t able to leave their Missouri farm, so it was Laura’s letters that gave him the chance to see what she saw during her visit to California. She wrote often, describing her activities, the beautiful spots she saw, and the wonders of the Fair.
Laura received coaching from Rose on writing techniques, because, as she told her husband, “I want to do some writing that will count.” These letters, gathered here, allow the reader to experience Laura’s adventures and her intimate thoughts as she shared with her husband the events of her exciting journey.
background of the Little House books
With the publication of her first two books, Laura Ingalls Wilder became a rising star in the children’s book world. The Depression years limited book sales, but the books’ modest royalties were welcomed by the Wilder family. Her editor encouraged her to write a 3rd book, working title of High Prairie. It was the story of the Ingalls family’s covered wagon trek from Wisconsin to Kansas and their pioneer adventures in Indian Territory. In March 1933, Rose wrote to the editor, “My mother is now doing another book about her childhood experiences among the Indians. It promises to beat Little House in the Big Woods.”
Laura’s memories of life in Kansas were minimal since she was a toddler when her family arrived and 4 years old when they returned to Wisconsin. As such, she relied on family talks to create a novel geared to children, in addition to researching the history of Montgomery County, Ks.
Rose and Laura made a car trip to the Independence, Ks., area to explore the landscape where the Ingalls’ cabin might have been. On lined school tablets, Laura penciled an adventurous Western narrative of her family’s life on land that belonged to indigenous people. The region was the Osage Diminished Reserve that wasn’t open to settlers until a treaty was completed between the natives and the U.S. government in 1871. “Pa was a squatter,” Laura admitted to Rose. He was never able to put down roots as an official homesteader on the land where he built a cabin. [Explains why the family moved around so much.]
Laura as an adult
We had such a good time in southern Missouri, now on to St. Louis and our first Louis and Clark stop!
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