Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder? Read online

  For Maya Demuth, born at home on a mountain in Maui—PBD

  For my father, on his epic journey these past six months—TF

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  Text copyright © 2013 by Patricia Brennan. Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Tim Foley. Cover illustration copyright © 2013 by Nancy Harrison. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2013032701

  ISBN 978-0-698-15971-6

  Version_1

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Who Was Laura Ingalls Wilder?

  Wagon Trail

  The Big Woods

  School Days

  Coming and Going

  Dakota Territory

  A Hard Winter

  Growing Up

  Laura and Almanzo

  Reliving Memories

  The Little House Books

  Timelines

  Bibliography

  Who Was

  Laura Ingalls Wilder?

  In 1874, two horses slowly pulled a covered wagon across the open prairie. The man with the reins, Charles Ingalls, had twinkly blue eyes and a long curly beard. Inside the wagon were his wife and daughters, plus everything the family owned.

  A seven-year-old girl named Laura gazed out the back of the wagon. She saw an enormous green prairie stretching to the skyline. Not a tree was in sight. How different this was from the woodland home she had left behind in Wisconsin.

  The Ingallses were traveling west. They didn’t know exactly where they would end up. This wasn’t the first time they had moved to a new home by covered wagon. And it wouldn’t be the last. They were part of a huge wave of pioneers pouring out of the East to settle the vast stretches of untamed land in the middle of America.

  To young Laura, this trip meant adventure. At nights, the family camped outside and Pa played his fiddle. Laura thought that “the stars were singing.”

  The Ingallses would enjoy many happy times like this. But they faced terrible hardships, too. Everything about frontier life was extreme. In winter, there were blizzards. In summer, the land was sometimes as dry as dust. There was sickness and the danger of wild animals. The Ingallses would need to draw on deep wells of courage in order to survive.

  Even after Laura’s childhood was long past, her memories remained strong. In her sixties, Laura started to write a book for children called Little House in the Big Woods. Laura kept writing until she had a whole series of books about her childhood.

  Laura’s pa liked to call her “little half-pint” and “flutterbudget.” But the world came to know her as Laura Ingalls Wilder, one of the best-loved children’s authors ever.

  Chapter 1

  Wagon Trail

  Laura Ingalls was born a pioneer. Her parents were pioneers, and so were her grandparents. She was born on February 7, 1867, in a log cabin that Pa built. The place was Pepin, Wisconsin, in an area known as the “Big Woods.”

  Pa (Charles Ingalls) grew up in New York State. Cities in the East were growing bigger and bigger. New York City already teemed with over three hundred thousand people. That life wasn’t right for the Ingalls family. They wanted land of their own on the wide-open frontier. So they moved west. In time they settled in Wisconsin, near the farm where Ma (Caroline Quiner) grew up. Ma’s family had come from Connecticut. But pioneer spirit had driven them west, too. The Ingallses and Quiners were good neighbors. They got along so well that three of the Ingallses married three of the Quiners!

  Ma was a schoolteacher before she married Pa. Calm and gentle, she loved Pa’s bright personality. Pa played the fiddle, worked hard, and dreamed big dreams.

  By the time Laura was two, Wisconsin was getting too crowded for Pa. The edge of the frontier had moved west of the Mississippi, and Pa wanted to move with it. He and Ma decided to go to Kansas.

  For several weeks, the Ingallses traveled in a covered wagon. There were no roads, just wagon trails. Rivers and streams had to be forded.

  PRAIRIE SCHOONERS

  LIKE MOST PIONEERS, THE INGALLSES TRAVELED IN A COVERED WAGON. IT WAS KNOWN AS A PRAIRIE SCHOONER. A SCHOONER IS A BOAT. AND THE CLOTH COVER ON THE WAGON LOOKED SOMETHING LIKE A SAIL. SIX OR SEVEN ARCHED TREE BOWS, ATTACHED TO THE SIDES OF THE WAGON, HELD UP THE CANVAS TOP. THE WHEELS WERE MADE OF WOOD AND RIMMED WITH IRON. THE BED OF THE WAGON WAS MADE AS WATERTIGHT AS POSSIBLE SO IT COULD FLOAT ACROSS RIVERS AND STREAMS.

  * * *

  Sometimes Pa jumped into the water to calm the horses. It must have been a long, bumpy trip for little Laura and her four-year-old sister, Mary.

  Somewhere near the Kansas border, the wagon tracks ended. It seemed a good place to stop. It wasn’t! The Ingallses were in Indian Territory on land that still belonged to the Osage tribe. Pa thought it was okay for pioneers to settle there.

  But he was wrong.

  Pa built the family another log cabin. Few trees grew on the flat, grassy plains of Kansas, so logs came from trees that grew at a nearby creek. Laura’s earliest memories were of the time she spent in this house.

  One night Pa carried Laura to the window to see a pack of howling wolves. They surrounded the house, with their faces pointing to the moon. In Little House on the Prairie, Laura wrote that their “eyes glittered green” and “their howls shuddered through the house.”

  Laura always remembered this night with awe. Nature filled her with wonder. And as long as she was with her family, she felt safe and secure.

  On the prairie, danger was never far away. Laura’s whole family fell deathly ill with malaria. A doctor named George Tann gave them a bitter medicine called quinine. Dr. Tann was an African American. Few African Americans lived on the frontier. Luckily for the Ingallses, Dr. Tann was there to save their lives.

  In the spring of 1870, tensions grew between the Osages and the settlers. The US government wanted to push the Osages farther west—to Oklahoma. The Osages held councils. Would they stay and fight, or leave? Night after night, the Ingallses heard their loud cries and wild drum-beating. In the end, the Osages decided to leave peacefully. They knew they were vastly outnumbered by the settlers who wanted their land.

  OSAGE NATION

  BEFORE SETTLERS CAME, THE OSAGES LIVED IN A VAST AREA OF THE OHIO RIVER VALLEY. GRADUALLY THEY LOST THEIR LANDS IN TREATIES WITH THE US GOVERNMENT. BY THE TIME THE INGALLSES ARRIVED, THE OSAGES WERE LIVING IN A FIFTY-MILE-WIDE RESERVATION IN KANSAS. THE OSAGES HAD TO GIVE UP EVEN THAT LAND IN A TREATY IN 1870. THE NATION SETTLED ON A RESERVATION IN WHAT IS NOW OKLAHOMA, WHERE THEY LIVE TODAY.

  THE OSAGES WERE BIG-GAME HUNTERS. TWICE A YEAR, THE ENTIRE TRIBE LEFT THEIR VILLAGES AND HUNTED BUFFALO ON THE PLAINS. MEN OF THE TRIBE WERE WELL-KNOWN FOR THEIR HEIGHT, USUALLY STANDING OVER SIX FEET TALL. THEY SHAVED T
HEIR HEADS EXCEPT FOR A LOCK OF HAIR ON TOP. ALL OF THE OSAGES WORE BEAUTIFUL CLOTHING— SOFT DEER AND BUFFALO SKINS DECORATED WITH BEADS AND FEATHERS.

  * * *

  Young Laura did not understand what was happening to the Osage people. But she remembered seeing them ride past the Ingallses’ cabin in a long, sad line.

  Shortly afterward, the Ingallses left Kansas, too. The man who had bought the Ingallses’ cabin in Wisconsin couldn’t afford to keep it. He wanted the Ingallses to take back their farm. So the family returned to Laura’s birthplace in the Big Woods.

  Laura was four when they left their little house on the prairie. But the prairie would call the Ingallses back again.

  Chapter 2

  The Big Woods

  Back in Wisconsin, Laura looked forward to a treat that came just once a year: roasted pig tail! In the fall, the Ingallses roasted the family pig to have meat for the winter. The pig had roamed wild all year. Besides eating the tail, the kids got to play with a balloon made from the blown-up pig bladder!

  In the Big Woods, Pa hunted for rabbit, squirrels, deer, and bears.

  He made bullets by pouring melted lead into a mold. Ma cooked what Pa brought home in big pots on the woodstove. Pa trapped, too—for mink, foxes, and wolves that he sold in town. Ma churned cream into golden lumps of butter. The secret for making it yellow was scraping in carrots. Pa built all the furniture—tables, chairs, and beds. Ma sewed all the clothes.

  She sewed Laura a rag doll, too, painting on the smile with ink made from pokeberries.

  In the winter of 1873, when Laura was six, Pa’s “itchy foot” acted up again. That was what he called his restless spirit. This time he wanted to move to open grasslands in western Minnesota. The railroad went there now. New towns were springing up along the tracks.

  Winter was a good time to go because the Mississippi River was frozen. The Ingallses could drive their wagon straight across the ice. But the girls came down with scarlet fever. By the time they were well enough to travel, the ice was much thinner.

  Laura never forgot the sounds of the creaking ice as the family crossed the Mississippi. It was terrifying! That night, the family heard sharp exploding sounds. The ice was splitting apart. They had made it across just in time!

  “All’s well that ends well,” said Pa. It became one of Laura’s favorite sayings.

  On the other side of the river, the family found a cabin to stay in until spring. Then they set out on the trail again. Everywhere Laura looked was a sea of rippling grasses.

  During stops, Laura ran free in the tall grass. Her sunbonnet dangled down her back. The warm sunshine on her face felt wonderful. Mary kept her sunbonnet tied under her chin, like Ma wanted. Ma was teaching her girls to be ladylike—even on the trail. Being quiet and good seemed easy for Mary. But not for an active girl like Laura.

  The Ingallses’ wagon stopped in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Pa bought a farm “on the banks of Plum Creek.” That would later be the title of one of Laura’s books.

  The farm came with a house—a very unusual house. It looked like a cave dug into the bank of the creek. The front was made of sod bricks. Thick roots of prairie grasses held the bricks together.

  At first Laura wasn’t sure she liked living in a dugout. Everything was made of dirt—the floor, ceiling, and walls. Snakes and bugs might crawl out of the walls! Grass grew on the roof because the roof was part of the plains. One time the family ox ran over the roof and rammed its leg straight through!

  Soon enough, Laura didn’t mind the dugout. She was learning the pioneer way of “making do.” And anyway, Pa was building a new house with store-bought boards and windows!

  SOD HOUSES

  THE PLAINS WERE ALMOST TREELESS. SO SETTLERS MADE SOD HOUSES BY CUTTING “BRICKS” OUT OF THE GRASS-COVERED GROUND. THEN THEY LAID THE BRICKS ROOT-SIDE UP SO THE BRICKS COULD GROW INTO ONE ANOTHER. OVER TIME, SOD WALLS BECAME VERY STRONG AND SOLID.

  ALTHOUGH SOD HOMES WERE SMALL AND DARK, THEY OFFERED GOOD PROTECTION AGAINST BOTH COLD AND HEAT. ALSO, THEY WERE FIREPROOF, KEEPING DWELLERS SAFE FROM FIERCE PRAIRIE FIRES.

  A STANDARD SOD HOUSE WAS FREESTANDING. SOME SETTLERS MADE DUGOUTS INSTEAD, BY TUNNELING INTO THE SIDE OF A HILL AND BUILDING A SOD WALL IN FRONT.

  * * *

  Chapter 3

  School Days

  Mary and Laura started school in Walnut Grove. The schoolhouse had just one room and one teacher for all grades. There was one blackboard—an actual board painted black.

  School was two and a half miles from home, and the girls walked the whole way.

  Seven-year-old Laura was very shy at first. She wasn’t used to other children. But Laura was spunky. Before long, she was leading the girls in games at recess.

  One classmate named Nellie Owens made fun of Laura and Mary for being farm girls. Nellie’s father owned a store in town. She had pretty clothes and new toys. Nellie’s teasing made Laura mad.

  In the Little House books, Laura turned Nellie into a character named Nellie Oleson. Then millions of readers disliked Nellie as much as Laura did.

  At home, Laura was happy. Every morning, she got up before sunrise to walk the cow to pasture. Rising at dawn became a lifelong habit.

  Besides caring for the cow, her other chores were sewing, gardening, cooking, and watching over Carrie, her little sister who had been born in Kansas.

  Then disaster flew in on the wind.

  Just before the harvest of 1875, the Ingallses watched an odd dark cloud appear in the sky.

  Suddenly, Laura felt things hailing down on her. Grasshoppers! Millions of them! They fell to earth and started eating everything that grew. Soon the prairie was covered inches thick with insects.

  GRASSHOPPER SWARMS

  NORMALLY A GRASSHOPPER LIVES ALONE. BUT WHEN IT’S VERY DRY AND HOT, GRASSHOPPERS SOMETIMES JOIN TOGETHER IN GIANT SWARMS THAT ARE CARRIED BY THE WIND.

  FOR FIVE YEARS, FROM 1873 TO 1877, GRASSHOPPER SWARMS DESTROYED CROPS IN WESTERN MINNESOTA. THEY APPEARED IN CLOUDS THAT WERE OVER 275 MILES WIDE. THE THICK SWARMS BLOCKED OUT THE SUN. BESIDES DEVOURING ALL THAT GREW, THE HUNGRY INSECTS ATE WOOL FROM LIVE SHEEP AND CLOTHES OFF PEOPLE’S BACKS. USUALLY A SWARM STAYED TWO TO SEVEN DAYS IN ONE PLACE. THEN THEY LEFT THE SAME WAY THEY CAME IN: ON THE WIND.

  * * *

  Pa tried desperately to save his wheat crop. He lit fires around the fields to smoke out the grasshoppers. But it was useless. In a few days, the green prairie had turned brown. The grasshoppers flew away on the wind. But Pa’s wheat crop was wiped out.

  What would the Ingallses do now?

  Pa decided to go east until he came to a farm where grasshoppers hadn’t destroyed the crops. He’d work to earn money and then return home. With no money for train fare, Pa ended up walking two hundred miles!

  Happily, Pa returned with enough money to last the winter. Then a special surprise came. Laura’s little brother, Freddy, was born.

  The following spring, millions of grasshoppers hatched from eggs laid the year before. What was the sense of planting more wheat? It would just be destroyed. So when a friend of Pa’s asked him to come to Iowa to help manage a hotel, Pa said yes.

  The Ingallses sold their farm and new wooden house. Pa said no “pesky mess of grasshoppers” could beat them. But the hard times were not over.

  On the way to Iowa, the Ingallses stopped by to see relatives in eastern Minnesota. While there, Laura’s little brother suddenly took ill and died. Freddy was just nine months old.

  Laura never wrote about her little brother. Losing him was too sad for her, and she thought it would be too sad for readers, as well.

  Chapter 4

  Coming and Going

  Ma believed that “it takes all kinds of people to make a world.” The truth of that saying became clear to Laura in her new Iowa home—which happened to be a big hotel!

  The h
otel in Burr Oak seemed grand to Laura. There were eleven rooms and a wide front porch! Ma and Pa both worked at the hotel. Ma did laundry, cooking, and cleaning for the guests. Laura and Mary also had jobs, washing dishes and waiting on tables.

  Next door was a saloon with a bullet hole in the door. A man who was drunk had shot at—and missed!—his wife. The exciting story gave Laura a thrill. But it did not please her parents, who wanted to keep their girls away from the rowdy barroom. Soon they moved to a little house at the edge of town.

  Burr Oak was an “old town.” Unlike newer frontier towns, many houses were made of brick. So was the two-story school that Mary and Laura attended.

  There were fifty-seven kids in Laura’s class! Laura shone in her studies. Not only bright, she worked hard to stay at the top. Reading books became one of her greatest pleasures. She’d get lost in them for hours.

  One day Laura came home from school to find a woman talking to Ma. She wanted to adopt Laura! Ma smiled. No, she said, she couldn’t possibly do without Laura. In those days, families sometimes let a child be adopted, especially if times were tough. Laura knew her family would always stick together, no matter what.

  Laura badly missed the prairie. She didn’t like the dusty town. Neither did Pa and Ma. When word came that the grasshoppers had left Walnut Grove, the family packed up to return to Minnesota.