American Author Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder

   Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder

 

 

[1867-1957]

 

   Laura Elizabeth Ingalls

Alias: ½ Pint, Bessie, Beth

              Born: February 7, 1867 Pepin, Pepin County Wisconsin
             Died: February 10, 1957 Mansfield, Wright County Missouri
             Spouse: Almanzo James “Manly” Wilder
             Parents: Charles Phillips Ingalls, Caroline Lake Quiner
             Occupation: Housewife, Politician, Author, Business Woman
             Cause of Death: Cerebral Hemorrhage
             Date of Burial: February 13, 1957
             Death Certificate #: 11919
            Age at Death: YRS: 90 MOS: 0 DYS: 3
            Interment: Mansfield Cemetery, Mansfield Wright County Missouri

 

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder - Biography

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was the second child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and was born on February 7, 1867, in Pepin, Wisconsin. She travelled with her family, and then later with her husband, and like her father, she loved to travel and always wanted to go West.

 

In De Smet, South Dakota she met and married Almanzo James Wilder. When Laura was teaching school twelve miles away when she was only sixteen, Almanzo came and took her back and forth each weekend behind the Morgan horses Laura loved so much - Prince and Lady.

 

After courting for two and one half years, they were married on August 25, 1885, with the bride wearing black. They spent four years trying farming which is documented in The First Four Years, which ended with a fire which destroyed the home Almanzo "Manly" had worked so hard to build.

 

In De Smet, on December 5, 1886 Rose was born. In August 1889, Laura had a baby boy who died shortly after.

 

The Wilder's then spent several years living with various family members while Almanzo gained his strength back from his bout of diptheria, which resulted in his partial paralysis. In 1890, Laura, Almanzo and Rose lived with Almanzo's parents in Spring Valley, Minnesota.

 

Between 1891 and 1892, the three then moved to Westville, Florida in hoped the warmer climate would help Almanzo's legs. Laura hated living there so much, they returned to De Smet. In July, 1894 the three then left for Laura and Almanzo's final home, Mansfield, Missouri where they bought Rocky Ridge Farm with the hidden $100 bill. Laura's diary of the trip is published in On the Way Home.

 

After publishing many articles locally, Laura began to work on her memoirs, in a manuscript entitled Pioneer Girl. The concept of this book, which was essentially the whole series in one, lead to the start of the Little House series which was published by Harper and Brothers (now known as HarperCollins) children's department.

 

Laura died on February 10, 1957 at her Rocky Ridge home, the last surviving member of her pioneering Ingalls family.

 

Many museums and historic sites have been set up in the hometowns where Laura spent her life, and many of her items are located at each site.

 

Source:

http://www.laurasprairiehouse.com/family/lauraingallswilder.html

 

Findagrave.com

Pioneer, Author. Born Laura Elizabeth Ingalls in Pepin, Wisconsin, the second daughter of Charles and Caroline Quiner Ingalls. The Ingalls family traveled by covered wagon to short residences in Iowa, Minnesota, and Kansas, before settling in DeSmet, South Dakota, one of two families who founded the town. To help her sister, Mary , receive an education at a college for the blind, Laura obtained her teaching certificate at age 15. In 1885, Laura married Almanzo James Wilder in DeSmet, and their daughter, Rose, was born the following year. In 1894, the young family relocated to Mansfield in the Missouri Ozark Mountains, where Laura and Almanzo built the prosperous Rocky Ridge Farm. During World War I, Laura became a columnist for The Missouri Ruralist , with the popular and thoughtful weekly, "As A Farm Wife Thinks". In 1932, she began writing the "Little House" books, an 8-part series, hand-written over 11 years, and delightfully illustrated by Garth Williams, based on her pioneer childhood and youth. In her books, Laura stressed the importance of family, faith, simple values, and self-sufficiency. The books have remained enduringly popular, continuing to be published and read worldwide today. After 63 years of marriage, Almanzo died in 1949, Laura continued to live at Rocky Ridge Farm until her passing in 1957, at the age of 90. In 1954, Garth Williams designed the bronze Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for presentation to Laura as the first recipient. The medal, administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, is an annual award presented to "an author or illustrator whose books, written in the United States, have made, over the years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children." There are museums across the United States at the sites where the Ingalls and Wilder families lived, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum at Rocky Ridge Farm, where the home that Laura and Almanzo built by hand has been preserved just as when the Wilders' were in residence. Laura and Almanzo's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, became a noted novelist and political writer.

 

Source:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1625