Prairie Fires: The American Dream of Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Book Summary by Kavita Jhala

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A coming together and detailed account of the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Key Points:

How much of truth can be put into fiction?

How much can a fictionalized truth be held as a fact?

 

A much loved author, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life was nothing simple and yet, she tried to put simple pleasures in life first. Pulling out 7 books from her memoir into children’s books, how much of it is fiction? How much factual? We really don’t know until certain things are put together like census, data, history, geography, prevailing conditions, political climate and ecological aspects, letters, newspaper articles into this book which stitches like a quilt; the American pioneer life that Laura built in her stories. Caroline Fraser, puts out a historical biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder for the readers to hold all the points together and get the whole life story of the author in place.

 

 

 

About the Author:

Editor of the Library of America edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books; Caroline Fraser is also the author of Rewilding the World and God’s Perfect Child. She has written for The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books and The Atlantic, among others. She currently lives in New Mexico.

About the Book:

A narrative non-fiction with an eye-opening account of Laura Ingalls Wilder chronicling the lives of her parents, Laura’s as well as that of her daughter, Rose. The author follows the 3 generations of settlers interlaced with America’s slide into drought, locust impact, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depressions as well as the political turmoil starting from the Homestead Act. Converting the frontier myth into a gritty account this book is an unsentimental examination of a century of epochal changes in America and the life of  Laura Ingalls Wilder whose classic stories grip readers even today.

Who is it for?

This book touches upon class, social constructs, psychological impact, physical, economic, political, cultural and demographic conditions of settlers into the American soil. This book can be useful for :

Fans and readers of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books
Readers of political history of America
Journalists and reporters who want a detailed account of the Indians and the impact of Homestead Act
Academicians and Scholars who need to dig deeper into the Pioneer history and how it shaped the existence of Agriculture
Psychologists who need to delve into the effects of starvation, conflicts and poor economic conditions on the settlers in America
Anthropologists who map out the entire period of conflict of Indians with the settlers and the impact of ecology on humans
Agriculturalists who need to understand the agricultural disadvantages on American soil
Ecologists and soil experts who want a historical perspective on the American soil conditions and the impact of farming practices.

Summary:

Laura Ingalls Wilder, an American author is well known for her Little House in the Prairie Series for children. How did this book come out? Where does this all start and impact Laura? Read more about Praire Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Trigger:

On a spring day of 1924, in April, 57 years old Laura Ingalls Wilder received a telegram in Missouri. Her mother, Caroline Ingalls, had died. She had not seen her mother for more than 20 years.

“Memories”, she wrote, “we go through life collecting them whether we will or not! Sometimes, I wonder if they are our treasures in heaven or the consuming fires of torment when we carry them with us as we, too, pass on.”

Famous for her books, Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, Little House on the Prairies, On the Banks of Plum Creek, By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long WInter, Little Town on the Prairie and These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder is a life story of poverty, struggle and re-invention - an American Dream.

On the Frontier (Were it all began):

“Once upon a time…. A little girl lived in the Big Woods…..” - the opening line of Little House Series. Big Woods is the actual name of the dense forests in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota. The first whites came there. They were French Trappers who came in the 1660s for the value of land due to timer and hardwood. The Indians of Dakota called it “Mni sota Makoce'' , land where the waters are so clear they reflect the clouds.

It was the dispossession of the Dakota with the Homestead Act of 1862 as well as the Civil War that set the stage for Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life.

In the beginning of the 19th century, Dakota occupied forest and the prairie west of the Mississippi River. Based on the seasons they followed the practice of hunting, fishing, gathering wild produce and growing crops.

Their existence slowly turned precarious with the disappearance of beaver, buffaloes and the white settlers who introduced alcohol and brought out the smallpox disease. The trespass began in 1803 when Thomas Jefferson bought the interior of North America from France. This 530million acres between Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains was bought at  415 Million $. Over the decades, a series of treaties were negotiated between the U.S and the Dakota. They were legally dubious, based on inaccurate translations of the language of the Indians which looked into encroaching their land. By 1851, 6 thousand Dakotas were consigned to a severely narrow reserved strip of land that was one hundred and 40 miles long and 10 miles wide on the bank of Upper Minnesota River. Between 1854 and 1857, 5 million acres of public land was sold to Minnesota Territory at rock bottom price of $1.25/acre. By 1859, Minnesota became an American state with a population of 150,000 whites.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln brought out the Free Soiler argument which later became The Homestead Act. He signed it into law in May 1862 promising 160 acres to citizens over 21 years like women, migrants and free slaves. With only $10 as the filing fee, potential homesteaders could claim their acreage by proving that they have cultivated the land for 5 years and built structure over it. In absence of these conditions, claimants could still prove their 6 months of stay on the property. Lincoln had never set foot on Minnesota and was distracted by the Civil War to foresee the impact and the havoc of the settlement on tribes still living on the land.

The first settlers arrived in the winter of 1855 when the Indians were away hunting. They moved into the bark houses belonging to the Dakotas. When the original inhabitants returned the squatters refused to budge arguing for their rights. Soon smallpox broke out among the Indians diminishing their population. The leader of Mdewakanton band, the legendary chief known as “Little Crow” held talks in Washington with no success. The Dakotas started begging for food. The squatters cleared the land.

To Dakota, The Homestead Act led to the act of war. In June 1862, they were in a perilous state. The winter was harsh, their corn harvest was damaged and they were forced to eat unripe fruit and marsh grass to survive. This led to attacks on warehouses for food. On August 16, 1862, annuity payment arrived at St. Paul only 100 miles away but the Dakota was starving. Dakota soldiers demanded war. On 19 August they attacked New Ulm wherein 24 settlers were killed and 60 wounded. Army reinforcements were sent. The U.S - Dakota War carried on for 4 weeks throughout the Minnesota River Valley. During the hostilities 650-800 white settlers were killed. By September, the Dakotas were decisively defeated at the Battle of Wood Lake. Ramsey declared on September 9, 1862 that the Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be either exterminated or driven beyond the borders of the state. Sibly planned death sentences of 303 Dakota prisoners. December 26, 1862, they were executed. It was the most grotesque public event in national history. To say that it was the largest mass execution in American history is no exaggeration. On the other side, 1700 women, children, elderly and friendly villagers who didn’t fight were forced to march with wagon trains 150 miles from Camp Release to Fort Snelling. Minnesota also drove the Winnebago tribe who had no part in the uprising off their reservation, south of Mankato.

The summer of 1863 saw the Sibley expedition of thousands of men to drive all Dakota from state. More than 150 were taken prisoners, 2000 unarmed Ynkton men, women and children were slaughtered. Governor Ramsey declared a bounty on male Dakota skulls at 25$ per head. The order remained until 1868. By 1867, only 50 Dakota were left in Minnesota. That year a baby girl was born just across the Mississippi in a little house in Big Woods.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote, “I was born in a log house within miles of legend-haunted Lake Pepin.”. It was the widest swollen pit of Mississippi presided by Maiden Rock with a 400ft limestone bluff that has everyone telling a story about it due to its arresting features. The Indians believed that it was a lover’s leap. When a Dakota girl fell in love with a young man. She leapt to her death when she was forced to marry another. Those who passed at dusk, claim to hear her sorrowful song. Maiden Rock captured the imagination of Charles Ingalls (Laura’s father), who told his daughters stories about the rock, the lake and the Indians. Charles was charming and a great storyteller. “The feeling, the voice and the dim light over the log wall make a picture that will never fade”, Laura wrote.

Rich people have records but not poor and the Ingallses were without power or wealth. They were a few miles from the shores of Lake Pepin (later called Pepin Country) but they had no records. Generations of Ingalls left things behind and travelled light. Charles Ingalls being born on the crossroads, wandered all his life putting up his hopes of a better future. His rootlessness reflected generations of struggle to latch on the land. Edmund Ingalls arrived in Salem Harbour in 1628 with an expedition of the 1st governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Endercoft. What remains is Edmund’s last will and testament to his wife; his house in Lyon would go along with cattle and corn. Heifer calf to one daughter, two ewes to another and Mary got her heifer calf. Looking back to the family, Edmund’s granddaughter,  Martha Ingalls Aven Carrier (born to Edmund’s daughter Faith) was victim of England’s lurid Salem Witchcraft Trials. She was dubbed “Queen of Hell''. She was 38 years old in 1692 and mother of several children. She was tried at the gallows and hanged.

80 years later, Laura’s great grandfather, Samuel Ingalls was born in 1770 in New Hampshire. Samuel became a writer capturing the suffering of the Yeoman farmers in a way that undermines Thomas Jefferson’s golden vision of labour. As a young man, Samuel lived in Canada, married Margaret Delano (descendant of one of the passengers of Mayflower) who generations later would produce American President (Delano branch of the family). In 1825, he published his book “Rhymes of the Unlearned Poet”. They lacked finesse but made up for the emotion. No original copies survive but it was known that the theme was ’American Exceptionalism’. He also wrote “A Ditty on Poverty”. Samuel had a family of 10, his 3rd son being born on January 10, 1836 as Charles Philip Ingalls. In Cuba, where they were staying at that time, wilderness was thinning out. When Charles was 4 yr old, the last wolf howl was heard around 1840. With America's greatest depression, the Panic of 1837 lasting 7 years; when Charles was 8 or 9 years, his family loaded their wagon and headed out to the West to Elgin, Illinois. Illinois boasted of a thrilling wolf - howling wilderness.

At first, the family thrived in Illinois with 164 acres of Kane County land which was gone - probably sold or taken away. Charles' father appeared in the 1850 census as a labourer. Charles by that time had picked up a violin and went to a “subscription school” that was started in 1840 by Charlotte Griggs. The family in 1853 moved towards Wisconsin. They settled in Jefferson County near the village of Concord, buying 80 acres of land on the back of Oconomowoc River. By this time including Charles, they were 6 children.

Caroline Lake Quiner was born on December 12, 1839 near Brookfield, Wisconsin and latter would meet the Ingalls family. Like the Ingallses her family too had travelled before arriving to Milwaukee. Her father was silversmith but had turned to other work on the frontier. On November 10, 1845, he was caught in a storm while sailing the ocean with a load of lumber. The ship capsized and no bodies were found. Caroline was 5 year old and with 6 children under 11 years; her mother though resourceful woman and intelligent was taxed beyond endurance. Caroline never talked about those hard times to her daughter Laura.

The living conditions of the frontier settlers were primitive. Dirty floors, tiny un-insulated cabins, water drunk directly from the river and mattresses were stuffed with corn shucks or straw. Clothes were expensive. The Quiners’ experiences with starvation had a permanent mark on Caroline and her siblings. When the Indians started camping again, their fears rose and their mother moved them west to a farm near Oconomowoc River. She remarried, 4 years after her husband’s death. There was marginal improvement due to marriage with Frederick Holbrock. Once when the couple fell ill, the children were horrified. However, they got well and soon they welcomed their half-sister Lottie who was the pet of the family.

At 16, Caroline began teaching in a schoolhouse where she was the pupil. Her teacher was Mary Moore and years later she would name her first child, Mary. Caroline wrote a brooding essay, “The Ocean” (based on her father’s tragedy) in a fluent style.

In 1854, Charles Ingalls’ family bought property nearby and the Quiners felt supported by the neighbours. In 1857, Charles Ingalls bought half of the family properly - 40 acres - from his father and mortgaged the lot at 50$. In 1859, Martha and Caroline’s brother Henry married Polly Ingalls (Charles’s younger sister). On February 1, 1860, Charles and Caroline were married. In July 24, 1860, Martha married a neighbour, Charles Carpenter who had bought property up North in the Pepin Country. In the 1860 federal census, Charles at 24 was described as a farmer with a personal estate of 50$ and real estate of a 1000$. In 1861, Peter Ingalls married Eliza.

When Lincoln was elected in November 1860, Southern states began to secede. 38 banks failed. Factories closed. Crop prices got too low and freight charges were high.

Crop prices reduced led to non payment of mortgage and taxes and hence Charles and his father lost the land. In January 1862, the first Ingalls farm in Wisconsin was auctioned off. In 1862 summer, Charles and Caroline settled at a visiting distance from Concord. In fall, Charles, Caroline, Martha and Carpenter moved to Pepin Country. At the time of their relocation, Wisconsin was embroiled in the Civil War. The Ingallses, Carpenters and Quiners were wary of the military. When Martha and Caroline’s eldest brother Joseph Quiner joined the Infantry Regiment in January 1862, times were bad. Soldiers got an enlistment bonus in addition to pay and allowance to families. Joseph’s wife Nancy had 2 small boys to think of and she was frantic about the Battle of Shiloh. Joseph had received a wound and he died due to reopened wound bleeding on April 28. In a few months, in August 1862, nearly 48,000 men were asked to enlist. All able-bodied white men from 18 years to 45 years were told to join in. However, Martha and Carpenter being pioneers, soon all families were in Pepin Country between late 1862 to the summer of 1863.

In August 1862 when the Ingallses and Quiners were about to set out to the Big Woods, the Indians made a surprise attack. In 1865, Martha and Charles, Eliza and Peter, Polly and Henry had half a dozen children between them. Charles and Caroline were still shifting from place to place. On January 10, 1865, Mary was born to Charles and Caroline. The Civil War came to an end and Lincoln was dead. Recession began and the banks collapsed costing the Ingallses their meagre savings. 2 years later on February 7, 1867, Laura was born near the legendary haunted Lake Pepin.

In April 1868, Charles sold property for $1,012.08 receiving $100 in cash and promissory notes. Henry Quiner also sold his 80 acres to the same farmer. In increase in the value of land could be because of the built cabins and acreage. Agricultural schedules of 1870 reveal that Henry Quiner’s property boasted of 40 acres of ploughed fields. For Charles Ingalls, clearing of forested area was quite a labour intensive task than living on the prairies.

An influential economist, Thorstein Veblen, after an intensive examination of Number 2 spring wheat and the gold standard of agrarian commodity of wheat noted that it reached its peak value in 1867 (the year Laura was born) selling for $143 a bushel in Chicago. Charles was into land buying at that time though he did carpentry and trapping to supplement income as part of the reconstruction bargain. Charles Ingalls and Henry Quiner were into land buying, having bought 80 acres for 700$ a piece to be paid in increasing installments.

Charles was in Pepin Country in October 1868. In 1869, Charles, Caroline and the 2 girls made a 400 mile journey to Missouri by covered wagon. “The wagon was home”, Laura later recalled. They didn’t stay in Missouri since the land was prone to flooding by Yellow Creek. Laura Ingalls saw an expanse of prairie grass as they went southwest from Missouri to Kansas. It was her earliest specific memory. Later in life, she conjured it again and again. The isolated vista in her memory, the prairies represented tabula rasa - wilderness as purity and free from human stain and experience. In her memoir she recalled the scene: “I lay and looked through the opening in the wagon cover. It was lonesome and so still with the stars shining down on the great, flat land where no one lived.” Her portrayal of the Big Woods not being inhabited was an omission. In fact, people did live in Kansas and fought over it too.

The federal government had originally planned to dump the continent’s original inhabitants in Kansas. In 1830 when Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act; strips of land were assigned to Choctews, Creeks, Cherokees, Osages, Shwnees, Pawnees, etc. But white men wanted it and soon Kansas territory was an early proxy battlefield in the Civil War, giving it a reputation of a “squatter state”.

 

A forerunner to the Homestead Act was the 1841 Preemption Act that made the Indian land open to claims. Squatters like Charles Ingalls could permanently remove the Indians. In 1862, the Dakota War was still fresh in mind and South eastern Kansas was home to Osage Indians. Being 6 ft tall, they were not shy of defending their land. They organized poses (Moh Shon Ahketa) with which the whites and other tribes were haunted. The Osages had reason to be angry. Multiple treaties were made to their disadvantage and yet the settlers kept compromising on their hunting grounds, corn crops and their independence. In 1865, they moved into the Osage Diminished Reserve; a 50 mile wide strip where homesteading was prohibited. In a few years, many were starving as the settlers illegally started squatting again. Demoralized, the Osage signed another agreement called Sturges Treaty; a crooked deal that would sell the land for pennies. But the federal politicians were scared of another Dakota War. The treaty turned into a political scandal. Yet the settlers kept coming in and the Osages furiously demanded their money thinking that the agreement was in effect. 

 

Charles Ingalls built a cabin within this Osage Diminished Reserve. In 1869, the Osage posted instructions to the intruders to get out. The settlers refused proclaiming that only the soldiers could dislodge them. In early 1870, 7 thousand settlers crowded Montgomery

Country. The Osage were out on their semi-annual hunt and the whites took advantage of their absence. Osages began to retaliate. The U.S-Indian agent, Isaac Gibson was alarmed and reported that the Osages were on a breaking point.

 

“We sold our lands to the government nearly two year ago (in the Sturges Treaty), have received no pay, but the white men came at once and took our lodges and corn patches and he has brought great many cattle that eat our winter food. The commissioner said we should have a new country but you won’t let us go there nor protect us here. If the government don’t like that treaty, why don’t they let us make another? We have no place to live. We want to live in peace with the white man, but we can’t here; he robs us of our homes.”

 

Gibson urged his superiors to take action immediately; if not, 4,4000 Indians would massacre. Soldiers were sent to ensure that the Indians didn’t attack but they didn’t remove the errant settlers. Ingallses wasn't provocative but their presence was illegal. They had fell 400 logs that winter. Gibson consulted government lawyers over the timber rights of Osages but the lawyers did nothing. The family’s experience during this time was put in the 20 page memoir handwritten by Laura in 1930 which got published in “Pioneer Girl”. Laura was 3 year old at that time and was unaware of the tensions and the acrimony. 

 

In 1870, everyone was sick and had fever. Malaria was common in the prairie frontier. The Ingallses were given Quinine by frontier doctor, George Tann. He was an eclectic medicine man administering botanical treatments with no formal training. The Osage returned from a hunting trip in the summer of 1870. Once they came, they demanded to be fed and took all the meat and tobacco. Slowly all of them started coming to the Ingallses and camping nearby. On 3 August, 1870, a new baby sister, Caroline who was born slight and frail. The fall of 1870 saw the weather turning dry. The Ingalls left again since the white people were to go off the land. For some time they waited in Missouri. By spring of 1871 they were in Wisconsin. The family spent a little more than a year there  but it shaped Laura’s temperament and outlook for life. It made her who she was. At 35, Charles had no male child yet. They had economic loss in Kansas. 

 

May of 1871 found Ingallses among their extended family and parents. Charles, Caroline and the girls lived a few weeks with Henry and Polly Quiner. It was a happy and prosperous summer with food and purchase of pig, cow, puppy and a cat. Readers of Wilder’s memoir will recognize this raw material which came into writing. In her 1st volume Little House in the Big Woods, Laura writes, “ were very warm and snug and happy in our little log house, the woods.” she recalled in her memoir. At 4, Laura attended “Barry Corner School'' with her sister Mary and Uncle Henry’s older children. She was taught by Anna Barry.

In 1873, Charles sold his Wisconsin land again. It was another miscalculation. The Ingallses were on their own while the Great Depression struck. In February 1874, Charles Ingalls went across frozen Mississippi and Minnesota with family. Laura got a present from him on her 7th birthday. ‘The Floweret: A Gift of Love’ (saddle stitched) book of illustrated poems. Charles may have been a poor farmer but he was a thoughtful and literate man. He treasured books like Caroline. On 24 May 1874, they settled in North Hero township property. In June, the land preemption claim was filed by Charles. It was 2 miles North, then known as Walnut Grove. Their dugout and ‘soddies’ (freestanding houses built of sod squares from ground) were common in treeless Great Plains during the sod-house frontier built in 1850 till the end of the century. They were cheap and had crude climate control, warm in winter and cool in summer. During 1874 summer, Charles and Caroline with the townsfolk organized and helped raise money to build Walnut Grove’s first house of worship ie. Union Congregational Church of Christ. On December 20, 1874, Rev. Edwin H. Alden delivered the first sermon. Charles was Church’s trustee. WIlder recalled her father donated “boot money” (to replace footwear with holes in them) to buy a church bell. 

 

In June 1873, before the Ingallses had arrived, locusts swarm had damaged everything. However, the previous year’s swarm had left their eggs and when Charles ploughed the land the grasshoppers flew. With no seed or plant for next season, it was hard. In June 1875, Ingallses wheat crop was damaged by locust swarm; the largest recorded called ‘Albert Swarm’. This locust plague was the worst and most widespread natural disaster, estimated to cause $200 million damage. Charles sold his horses and walked 100 miles east to work the harvest where the damage was not done. Prairie fire arrived that fall. On November 1, 1875, the boy was born to Charles and Caroline. They named him Frederick. On November 30, Charles signed a form confirming that he was without means. During the spring of 1876, Caroline fell gravely ill but later she recovered. The doctor’s bills added to the debt. In 1876 July a second swarm of locust again damaged the crops. There was no help from the government. On completing his preemption claim, Charles paid $431 for land, sold it for $400 in 3 days and the family prepared to move 200 miles east to Bur Oak, Iowa. Laura was 9 at that time. Her whole childhood became essential for the family's survival by working as dishwasher, cook, maid, babysitter, waitress, etc. Their brother Freddy died at 9 months. The hotel partnership was a cheated deal and soon the family moved out of the hotel into rooms above the grocery. The girls liked this house. Fire broke out in the saloon and they took out

residence in the outskirts of the town in spring of 1877. On may 23, Grace was born. Mrs Staar, wife of the family doctor, requested the Ingallses to allow her to adopt Laura. “Peonage” or debt slavery though outlawed in 1867 was still common in south and her parents required. Charles led his family at night in a covered wagon to a different country.

 

With a combination of charity and odd jobs, the Ingallses stayed at the Walnut Grove for 2 years. Laura worked at the Masters Hotel for 50 cents. In 1879, Charles was elected Walnut Grove’s 1st justice of peace which didn’t require legal education but literacy. Laura missed weeks of school, running errands for friends and Masterses. That April, Mary got a headache that would not go away. She was baptized and had sudden sharp pains in the head with high fever. She had hemorrhage and partial facial paralysis. On June 26, her health improved but her sight was imparied. Laura would be the eyes of Mary. Moving to Dakota Territory, then Silver Lane and then De Smet, the family continued to travel instead of settling down. When in De Smet, the October Blizzard affected the entire region. After a hard wait for many days the Wilder brothers set out to help their community by braving the blizzard and the cold to get wheat grains.

 

In February 1882, Laura turned 15. She also turned out to be fierce, impulsive and had a strong reaction to injustice. In 1883, fall, Laura had  a teacher Ven Owen who earned her respect. In December 1803, Laura was told to give a teaching exam for which she passed receiving a 3rd grade certificate, adding to the financial earning for her family by teaching. Almanzo Wilder (one of the Wilder brothers who had saved the De Smet community in a blizzard) started seeing Laura and soon they were engaged. Laura was 17 year old. She married Almanzo on the morning of August 25, 1885. 

Laura was beset with responsibilities and she was worried about money. In April 1886 at the age of 19, Laura was pregnant. With crops affected by thunderstorms, Almanzo revealed to Laura that they had a debt of $500. Laura was crushed. They moved to a small rented place. Robert Boast, an old family friend, once offered to allow his wife to raise the Wilders’ baby, Rose. They were shocked and refused. It is well to remember that a similar proposition was offered to Laura as a baby.  In June 17, 1887, Almanzo got the paperwork for his homestead and in July their barn and haystack caught fire. Their debts kept accumulating meanwhile. On February 7, 1888, Laura fell ill with Diptheria. Laura’s case was severe and Almanzo cared for her but he too fell ill. After they recovered, Almanzo soon was diagnosed with a stroke of paralysis, a result of over-exertion due to diphtheria. Wilders’ life would be forever affected by this. Though after sometime Almanzo resumed many farm duties, he was forever cripppled and needed cane for support. 

 

Laura was soon pregnant and one day Ole Sheldon dropped on a grain sack full of Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley novels. This was an auspicious gift. On April 2, a prairie fire burnt miles of prairie, houses and livestock. The winds blew all the trees Almanzo had planted and they were further in debt. July brought cyclones too and on July 11, 1889, a baby boy was born. The infant had spams one day and died. August 3, their house caught fire. Rose was only 3 years old but this loss of home would echo throughout their lives. Rose thought that she was responsible for the fire and she was no longer a carefree girl anymore. 

 

In 1889, they went to Spring Valley, Minnesota. People felt the Panic of 1893 and then the Great Dust Bowl of 1930s. Abraham Lincoln, Homestead Act, Railroads, rains led to new Plains literature like L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. In1894 the Wilders thought of settling in Missouri. Rose hated her school but she liked the small library. After sometime, James WIlder bought the Mansfield home which Almanzo and Laura were staying in and presented the deed to his son. He died a few months later. This gift helped them save and they invested in the acreage in Rocky Ridge. 

In the spring of 1902, Laura heard that her father was seriously ill due to congestion in lungs now called Coronary Thrombosis (tobacco heart). He died on June 8, 1902. Sometime after his death, Laura wrote the essay of her earliest memories of him. Thereafter distinct signs of literary ambitions began to emerge. Rose was taken to study in Louisiana with her Aunt Eliza. She then began to work in the Western Union. In 1908, her byline appeared in the Call “The Constantly Increasing Wonders in the New Field of Wireless”. Rose Wilder slowly learnt the trade of journalistic standards which would later help her as well as her mother. 

 

Rose married Claire Gillette Lane in San Francisco on March 24, 1909. She was 22. The marriage was an unhappy one. Soon Rose was pregnant. The baby was stilborn baby boy. Later, Rose had a surgery which left her unable to have children. Rose started writing stilted articles for “Women’s Paper” of Kansas City Post. Meanwhile, Laura was delivering reports and speeches for Eastern Star meetings. Rose started advising her mother on money-making newspaper schemes. 

 

In 1910, there was a social shift. Americans began living and consuming. Laura was 44 year old then. Laura began to be featured in agricultural topics under the name of A,J WIlder. She

was writing for the state newspaper. Laura began writing articles and poems about the prairies, food and farming

 

Mother-daughter correspondence related to writing continued. In April 1917, Rose was 31 and a celebrity biographer. Wilder at the age of 50 was farm activist, member of Masonic organization, club woman, secretary-treasurer for Mansfield branch of federal farm Loan Association, columnist and ruralist. She was publishing 21-22 columns in 1916-1917. In 1918, Rose divorced from Gillette. In 1924, Caroline Ingalls died - a trigger - for Laura to write down a memoir.

 

Rose started meeting famous people and having adventures in far flung places. She was soon confiding her suicidal tendencies in her diary. Rose’s life was full of economic boom and fall. She started buying homes, redesigning them and ended up having money problems due to this. Her mother continued writing due to this volatile life. The Wilders continued to live frugally. Laura retired from her post of secretary-treasurer. Rose Lane meanwhile spent $11,000 on construction of Rock House while she redid her parent’s home nearby. She descended into severe depression and was later diagnosed as manic-depressive though she hated going to any doctor and never went. Mary had a paralysing stroke in 1928 and died on October 17. 

 

The “Pioneer Girl'' covering the first 18 years of her life was completed in spring 1930 by Laura. The Harper Brothers accepted it and it was titled “Little House in the Big Woods” and 15 illustrations. The book was a hit. Laura was asked for more books for children and soon 7 books were written in total. This writing period was fraught with mother-daughter communication that was strained and yet they kept writing. Rose was competitive and jealous of her mother and she had mental health issues too that clouded her judgement with regards to spending money. In 1933, the Wilders paid off their balance of money to the federal farm and was now free of debt. With the success of her book, Laura started travelling but she mostly said no she stayed home with Almanzo. Rose’s “Hurricane'' was a success and then she wrote only 3 short stories. She was on a mental decline. 

In the last years of her life, Laura’s sister Grace died in 1941. Carrie died in 1946. In July 1949 Almanzo had a heart attack. On October 23, he had a second heart attack and died. Laura’s last years of life were comfortable due to the profits of her Little House Series of books. She was lonely. WIth diabetes and having had a fall, she could not live long.

On February 10, 1957 after her 90th birthday, Laura Ingalls finally came to the end of the long road. Her last words to her readers was ,”It is a beautiful world”. A shrine was made dedicated to her. Her daughter was in neglect. On Oct 30, 1968, she went to sleep and never woke up. 

Wilder’s death led to opening up of several manuscripts, letters and deeds matching them with the census records and historical occurrences and the discrepancies began to emerge. It seemed that Laura’s original manuscripts were different from those published. Her daughter would edit her manuscript while typing and then send to the publishers. Mostly, Laura didn’t know but when she did, she didn’t like it. This friction was a constant in her writing years but it seems that she did nothing about it. Rose’s fictionalized exaggerations prevailed and sometimes Laura’s own attempts to not reveal much led to it

being a fiction book rather than a memoir. Despite all of this, the books are considered classic American pioneer books even today.

 

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