Classic Authors: Laura Ingalls Wilder
© Susan Jensen
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born on February 7, 1867, in Pepin, Wisconsin. She was the second of four daughters born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. Moving from state to state in a covered wagon, became the norm in Laura's childhood. Her father, a self-proclaimed pioneer, dreamed of going west and exploring uncharted territory. Laura grew up in De Smet, South Dakota, where her family were among some of the first residents of the town.
Laura received her education here and there, in the one-room schoolhouses of the various places in which she lived. She began attending school in Pepin at 4 years old and continued until the age of 16. To help support the family, she went to work as a seamstress until she earned her teaching degree in December 1882. Her first teaching job, 12 miles away at the Bouchie School, took her away from her beloved family. Laura boarded with the Bouchie Family and suffered from homesickness. A local farmer, Almanzo James Wilder, became her savior: he roughed blizzards and storms to ferry Laura home every weekend.
What began as a favor to Charles Ingalls ended in a blossoming romance: Laura and Almanzo were married on August 25, 1885. The young couple survived a range of disasters in the early years of their marriage: ill health, failed crops, a fire which burned down their house, and the death of an infant son. Finally, they settled on Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Gradually, their little log cabin became a large and sprawling farmhouse. Their only child, Rose Wilder (born December 5, 1886), grew up in Mansfield.
Rose, who became a prolific writer in her own right, encouraged her mother to write down the stories of her childhood. The mother and daughter team worked together to produce what would become the Little House on the Prairie series. Laura began writing "Little House in the Big Woods" in 1931 and it was released the following year to instant success. All of the books in the series, except "Farmer Boy," are Newbery honor books. The books were made into the popular television series "Little House on the Prairie" and endured many seasons.
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