Little Laura Ingalls

 Most all children today know who Laura Ingalls is—and why shouldn't they? Not only have her books brought Laura Ingalls into our modern world, but the re-runs of Little House on the Prairie can still be seen on TV. This allows our children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren to grow up with little laura Ingalls.

Long ago on February 7, 1867 in Big Woods, Wisconsin, a baby girl was born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. They named her Laura Elizabeth. As she grew, she learned how to word paint by describing details to her blind sister, Mary.

Laura's first book, Little House in the Bigwoods, was about her first home where she was born. Laura pulled from her memory, everything she could about their little cabin, including the sound of Pa's axe cutting through timber.

In Little House on the Prairie, she continues telling her family's story, and their journey to Kansas. She includes their bulldog, Jack, and tells how he trotted faithfully along side the wagon wheels. In On the Banks of Plum Creek, she writes about moving again to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

Laura never mentions her little brother, Freddie Ingalls, who died while on their journey to Iowa to help friends run a hotel. After their venture there, the Ingalls family moved back to Walnut Groove. And from there, Pa set off to lay tracks for the railroad.

In By the Shores of Silver Lake, the Ingalls family joined Pa in the Dakota Territory. It was in this territory Laura earned her teaching certificate at age fifteen, and was hired to teach at a school twelve miles away. She met a young man, Almanzo Wilder, and they married on August 25, 1885.

After a few years, and several moves, including one to Florida, the Wilders moved to Missouri, and settled into farming. Laura became the household editor for the Missouri Ruralist Magazine. They now had a daughter, Rose, and their second child, a boy had already died.

Later in years Rose become a reporter, and encouraged Laura to write about her life. At Rocky Ridge Farm in 1930, Laura wrote her autobiography Pioneer Girl. Unable to find a publisher, she rewrote it as Little House in the Big Woods. Children loved it, and begged for more, and the Little House Books were born.

Today, tourist can visit the Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri, where Laura wrote the stories. Here you can see Pa's fiddle on display, and the lined yellow writing tables Laura wrote her stories on are enclosed in glass cases.

Laura Ingalls Wilder died on February 10, 1957 at Rocky Ridge Farm at age ninty. Today the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal is given to a children's author every two years. Although she is no longer with us, Little Laura Ingalls will always be alive in her books, and the hearts of her readers.

© 2000jpinkerton