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Almanzo James Wilder
Born	(1857-02-13)February 13, 1857 Malone, New York, U.S.
Died	October 23, 1949(1949-10-23) (aged 92) Mansfield, Missouri, U.S.
Spouse	Laura Ingalls Wilder (m. 1885–1949) «start: (1885)–end+1: (1950)»"Marriage: Laura Ingalls Wilder to Almanzo Wilder" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Almanzo_Wilder) (his death)

Almanzo James Wilder (February 13, 1857 - October 23, 1949) was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted U.S. writers.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Almanzo was born the fifth of six children to successful farmers James (1813-1899) and Angeline Day Wilder (1821-1905) on their farm near Malone, New York. His siblings include Laura Ann (1844-1899), Royal Gould (1847-1925), Eliza Jane (1850-1930), Alice M. (1853-1892), and Perley Day (1869-1934).^[1] As part of her Little House series of autobiographical novels, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote a book titled Farmer Boy about Almanzo's childhood in upstate New York.

Almanzo is a well-known character in the Little House books, and Laura writes about him, their courtship, and subsequent marriage in The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years. Almanzo was characterized as a quietly courageous, hardworking man who loved horses and farming. He was also an accomplished carpenter and woodworker.

Farmer Boy, by publication date, was the second book written in the Little House series (this is also verified by both of Laura's biographers, John E. Miller, in his book Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder (pp. 194–202), and William Anderson in his work Laura Ingalls Wilder - A Biography, (p. 199)). Published in 1933, it was followed by Little House on the Prairie in 1935. It recounts events starting when Almanzo was nine years old, in 1866. Among other things, he goes to school (when not needed at home for the farm work), learns to drive a team of oxen, attends a county fair, and enjoys a mid-19th century Fourth of July celebration in town. He also learns how to deal with being bossed around by his older siblings, particularly his strong-willed sister Eliza Jane, who would later become a teacher of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The original order of publication was changed by the publisher Harper with the release of the newly illustrated 1953 edition.

Moving out West[link]

The Wilders left Malone in 1875 due to crop failures, and settled in Spring Valley, Minnesota, where they farmed. In 1879, at the age of 22, Almanzo and his brother Royal and sister Eliza Jane moved to the Dakota Territory, taking claims near what would later become the town of De Smet, South Dakota. Laura made his fictional counterpart younger in order to reduce the 10 year age gap between them, and fudged the details of his claim paperwork. According to law a homesteader must be 21, so when Almanzo filed for his claim he said to the land agent "You can put me down as 21." Almanzo settled on his homestead with the intent of planting acres of seed wheat which he had cultivated on rented shares in Marshall, Minnesota the previous summer. It was in De Smet that he first met Laura Ingalls. The Ingalls family had been the first settlers in the area, before the town was formally organized, moving to the Dakota Territory from Walnut Grove, Minnesota, when Laura's father took a brief job with the railroad.

Laura wrote of Almanzo's admirable character in The Long Winter. Along with Laura's fellow school chum, Ed "Cap" Garland, (born Edmund Oscar Garland) Almanzo risked his life to save the pioneers of De Smet (including Laura's family) from starvation during the hard winter of 1881. Almanzo was 23 and Garland a mere teen when, in between one of the horrific blizzards that shook the region during the 1880-1881 winter, they went 12 miles (19 km) in search of wheat a farmer had supposedly harvested to the southwest of De Smet in the summer of 1880. They managed to find the farmer and purchase, after difficult negotiation (according to the book) 60 bushels of wheat, hauling it back on sleds that continually broke through the snow into slough grass, barely making it back to De Smet before a four-day blizzard hit the area.

Marriage to Laura Ingalls[link]

When Laura was just 15, and Almanzo was 25, he began courting her, driving her back and forth between De Smet and a new settlement 12 miles (19 km) outside town where she was teaching school. Three years later, on August 25, 1885, he and Laura were married in De Smet by the Reverend Edward Brown. They settled on Almanzo's claim and began their own little farming operations. The Wilders' daughter, Rose, was born December 5, 1886. Rose later became the author Rose Wilder Lane, a noted political writer and philosopher, whose writings helped influence Leonard Read's formation of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in the 1940s, promoting individual liberty, economic education, and property rights. Even today, Rose Wilder Lane is considered a seminal founding force in the American Libertarian Party.

During their first years of marriage, described in The First Four Years, the Wilders were plagued by bad weather, illness, and large debts. In spring of 1888, when Rose was still a baby, Almanzo and Laura were stricken with diphtheria. Although they both survived, Almanzo suffered from one of the less common, late complications of the illness, neuritis. Parts of his lower limbs were temporarily paralyzed, and even after the paralysis had resolved, he needed a cane to walk. Almanzo's inability to perform the hard physical labor associated with wheat farming in South Dakota, combined with a lengthy drought in the late 1880s-early 1890s, further contributed to the Wilders' downward spiral into debt and poverty.

The year 1889 proved the breaking point for the Wilders. In early August, Laura gave birth to a son. The son remained unnamed when, two weeks later, he suddenly died of "convulsions." She never spoke of his death and had no more children.^[2] Laura's own mother, Caroline, also lost her only son, Charles Frederick, when he died on August 27, 1876, at the age of nine months, when Laura was 9 years old. ^[3] Almanzo's only child, Rose, also lost a son, her only child, in 1909 or 1910 due to a possible stillbirth or an early death.^[4] Like Laura, Rose never had any more children.

That same month Laura and Almanzo lost their home to a fire and their crops to drought. In the words of Almanzo's daughter, Rose, "It took seven successive years of complete crop failure, with work, weather and sickness that wrecked his health permanently, and interest rates of 36 per cent on money borrowed to buy food, to dislodge us from that land."

In 1890, Almanzo moved his family to Spring Valley, Minnesota, to stay with his parents on their prosperous farm. It was a time of rest and recovery for the weary family. Between 1891 and 1892, the Wilders moved to Westville, Florida, in hopes that the warmer climate would help Almanzo regain his strength. To a limited extent it did, but Laura did not like the humid climate or the customs of the backwoods locals, so they returned to De Smet in 1892, and rented a small house in town. Between 1892 and 1894, Laura and Almanzo lived in De Smet, with Laura's family nearby. Rose was given special permission to start school early, and she soon proved to be an outstanding scholar. Laura worked as a seamstress in a dressmaker's shop, and Almanzo found work as a carpenter and day laborer. Together, they practiced extreme frugality and carefully saved money.

Settling down in Missouri[link]

On July 17, 1894, Almanzo, Laura, and Rose left for The Ozarks of Missouri by covered wagon, attracted by brochures of "The Land of the Big Red Apple" and stories of a local man who had traveled to Missouri to see for himself. On August 31, they arrived near Mansfield, Missouri, and placed a $100 down payment on 40 acres (162,000 m²) of hilly, rocky undeveloped land that Laura aptly named "Rocky Ridge Farm." This farm was Almanzo and Laura's final home. In Missouri, Almanzo and Laura's luck finally changed, and they lived the rest of their life happily and successfully. Over the 20 years, Almanzo built Laura her dream house: a unique 10-room home in which he custom-built kitchen cabinets to accommodate her small, five-foot (1.52 m) frame.

Rocky Ridge Farm was eventually expanded to about 200 acres (809,000 m²) and was a productive poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. Almanzo's lifetime love of Morgan horses was indulged, and he also kept a large herd of cows and goats. Having learned a hard lesson by focusing on wheat farming in South Dakota, the Wilders chose a more diversified approach to farming suited to the climate of the Ozarks. Almanzo lived out the rest of his life on his farm, and both he and Laura were active in various community and church pursuits during their time in Missouri.

Although royalties from the Little House books helped provide for Laura and Almanzo, Rose helped support her parents until the mid-1930s. Eventually their efforts at Rocky Ridge during the 30s and 40s, along with the royalties from Laura's books finally provided a secure enough income to allow them to attain a financial stability not known earlier in their marriage. Earlier in their marriage, Laura had also contributed to their income by taking in occasional boarders, writing columns for a rural newspaper, and serving as Treasurer/Loan Officer for a Farm Loan Association.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Rose lived on the farm for long periods of time, bringing electricity and other modern updates to the place, even building an English-style stone cottage for her parents, while taking over the farm house herself for about ten years. Almanzo learned to drive an automobile, which greatly improved the Wilders' mobility. They eventually took several long auto trips, including to California and the Pacific Northwest, and went several times to visit Laura's remaining family in South Dakota. When Rose moved permanently to Connecticut in about 1937, her parents quickly returned to their beloved farm house, later selling off the eastern land with the stone cottage.

Almanzo spent his last years happily tending small vegetable and flower gardens, indulging his lifetime love of woodworking and carpentry and tending his goats. He aided his wife in greeting the carloads of Little House fans who regularly found their way to Rocky Ridge Farm. Almanzo Wilder died at the age of 92 on October 23, 1949 after suffering two heart attacks. Laura died eight years later, on February 10, 1957. Rose lived until 1968. All three of them are buried in Mansfield, and many of Almanzo's possessions and handiwork can be seen at Rocky Ridge Farm, now the Laura Ingalls Wilder/Rose Wilder Lane Museum, as well as the Malone, New York and Spring Valley, Minnesota sites.

Almanzo Wilder appears to have been a quiet, stoic man, representative of the time and culture in which he lived. His love of farming, horses, and rural living are well documented. Most of what is known of his personality and inner character must be gleaned from his wife's and daughter's literary portrayals (the lead character of Rose's homesteading novel Free Land was based on Almanzo) and the remaining evidence left among his family and friends' written recollections.

Family[link]

Source: The Genealogy of Almanzo & Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Wilder family has very deep family roots in colonial Massachusetts Bay Colony, with his ancestors including David Wilder (1764-1851) and Edmund Rice.^[5]

Name origin[link]

In one of her books, Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder attributed to Almanzo Wilder the following explanation for his rather unusual first name: "It was wished on me. My folks have got a notion there always has to be an Almanzo in the family, because 'way back in the time of the Crusades there was a Wilder went to them, and an Arab or somebody saved his life. El Manzoor, the name was. They changed it after a while in England..."

Mansour is a common Arabic given name, meaning "victorious"; the article "al-" or "el-" merely means "the". Also, Al-Mansour is one of the most famous families in Saudi Arabia.

In the media[link]

Wilder was portrayed in the television adaptations of Little House on the Prairie by :

• Dean Butler (actor), in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels,
• Walton Goggins, in Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder films.

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.members.tripod.com/~PennyN/
2. ^ Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, by John Miller, 1998, page 84.
3. ^ Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder, by John Miller, 1998, page 36.
4. ^ The Ghost in the Little House, by William Holtz, 1993, page 51.
5. ^ "David Wilder in the Edmund Rice (1638) Association Database". Edmund Rice (1638) Association. http://www.edmund-rice.org/era5gens/p39.htm#i15726. Retrieved 26 March 2011. 

External links[link]

• Almanzo Wilder Farm - Almanzo's boyhood home
• Information on Malone, New York - from the website "Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Girl."
• Little House in Limbo: Article on Almanzo Wilder
• [1] - Almanzo's claim documentation discussed
• Little House Wiki: Almanzo Wilder

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2010)

Melissa Gilbert
At the 1991 Emmy Awards
Born	Melissa Ellen Gilbert (1964-05-08) May 8, 1964 (age 48) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, writer, producer
Years active	1972–present
Spouse	Bo Brinkman (1988–1992) Bruce Boxleitner (1995–2011)

Melissa Ellen Gilbert (born May 8, 1964) is an American actress, writer, and producer, primarily in film and television. Gilbert is best known as a child actress who starred as Laura Ingalls Wilder, on the NBC series Little House on the Prairie (1974–1984). As an adult, she has a long list of acting, voicework, writing, producing, and directing credits. Gilbert also served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild. On June 9, 2009 her autobiography, Prairie Tale: A Memoir, was released. She is also known for providing the original voice of Batgirl in Batman: The Animated Series.

Family and early career[link]

Born in Los Angeles, California, Gilbert was adopted one day later by actor and comedian Paul Gilbert (born Ed MacMahon, he changed his name to Paul Gilbert to get a Screen Actors Guild card)^{[citation needed]} and his wife, dancer and actress Barbara Crane, the daughter of The Honeymooners creator Harry Crane. The couple later adopted a son, Jonathan Gilbert, who co-starred with Melissa as Willie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Melissa's parents divorced when she was 8 years old. Her mother, Barbara, then married Harold Abeles, and together they had biological daughter Sara Rebecca Abeles (the actress known professionally as Sara Gilbert), born on January 29, 1975. On February 12, 1975 Paul Gilbert suffered a stroke and died at the age of 56. Barbara and Harold Abeles' marriage later ended in divorce.^{[citation needed]} Gilbert was raised in her adoptive mother's Jewish religion.^[1]

With Hollywood connections in her family background and a natural ability for entertaining at a very young age, Gilbert had already done dozens of commercials, including one for Alpo dog food with Lorne Greene (Michael Landon's television father on Bonanza) and attended school with his daughter, Leslie Landon. It was Leslie who informed her that she had won the role of Laura, beating out over 500 child actresses for this part. The pilot was shot in 1973 and was a ratings success. Almost a year later Gilbert began filming the series. Gilbert became extremely close to the Landon family after her adoptive father died. But a rift developed between Michael Landon and Gilbert after the revelation of Landon's affair with Little House's young makeup artist, Cindy Clerico.^[2]

Gilbert had no contact with Landon after Little House ended during the 1983–84 season. Seven years later, on May 9, 1991, when she saw a gaunt-looking Landon on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson discussing his pancreatic cancer, she was compelled to finally telephone him. She visited Landon at his Malibu home where he was, by then, bedridden, and they spent the afternoon together. Landon died one week later. When Gilbert gave birth to her son with second husband Bruce Boxleitner on October 6, 1995, they named him Michael, in honor of Landon.^[3]

[edit] Career after Little House

Gilbert has continued to work regularly, mainly in television. She starred as Jean Donovan in the biopic Choices of the Heart (1983), and as Anna Sheridan in three episodes of Babylon 5 with then husband Bruce Boxleitner in 1996.

For her contribution to the television industry, Gilbert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6429 Hollywood Blvd in 1985. Her then-fiance, Rob Lowe, was present with her when her star was unveiled during the ceremony. She is one of the youngest actresses to have been honored with a star.

Gilbert was called "The Queen of the television movies and mini-series", having starred in over 45 of them since the late 1970s. During the three months of filming for the television mini-series Zoya in St. Petersburg, London, Paris, Montreal, and New York, she was pregnant with her second child.

In 1998, she was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

In 2006, Gilbert appeared as Shari Noble, a patient looking to reconstruct her nipples after committing zoophilia with her dog in a season four episode of Nip/Tuck.

Gilbert regularly keeps in contact with her friend Alison Arngrim, who played her nemesis Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Although their respective characters were enemies for years, in real life they are close friends.

In 2008 and through 2009, Gilbert played Caroline "Ma" Ingalls in the musical adaptation of Little House on the Prairie. This world premiere production at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis was directed by Francesca Zambello and also starred Kara Lindsay as Laura. The show ran through October 19 and was on a US National tour for 2009–10.^[4][5] The tour ended in June 2010 at Starlight Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri.

In March 2012, Gilbert joined the cast of celebrity contestants on season 14 of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with Maksim Chmerkovskiy. During week four's show, she fell and suffered a mild concussion and was taken to a hospital. She went home to recuperate, but returned to continue in the competition.^[6] In week eight of competition, she was eliminated, finishing in fifth place.

Screen Actors Guild presidency[link]

Gilbert was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 2001 after a contentious candidacy, in which she ultimately beat her opponent, Rhoda actress Valerie Harper, 21,351 votes to 12,613 votes after a second vote was taken. In 2003, she was re-elected, defeating Kent McCord with 50% of the vote to his 42%.^[7] In July 2005, she announced that she would not seek a third term. She was succeeded by Alan Rosenberg, who assumed the guild presidency on September 25.

Personal life[link]

At age 17, she reconnected with then little-known actor Rob Lowe, also 17. They had met briefly when they were about 14. In 1981, Melissa, in her convertible, saw Lowe stopped next to her at a red light. Gilbert dated Lowe on and off for six years. During this time, both had affairs with other famous people. Melissa dated Tom Cruise, John Cusack, Scott Baio, and Billy Idol. After Lowe's failed romance with Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, he suddenly proposed to Gilbert. While making wedding plans, Gilbert found out she was pregnant. Upon being informed of the pregnancy, Lowe ended their relationship. Gilbert miscarried days later.^[8]

Heartbroken, Gilbert left for New York City to star in the play A Shayna Maidel. Gilbert was set up with actor Bo Brinkman, a cousin of actors Randy Quaid and Dennis Quaid. The couple married on February 22, 1988, only seven weeks after she ended her relationship with Rob Lowe. Gilbert became pregnant months later. US Magazine featured a very pregnant Gilbert wrapped in a sheer sheet and named her one of "America's Ten Most Beautiful Women" in 1988. On May 1, 1989, she gave birth to Dakota Paul Brinkman. After Dakota's birth, the couple began to have marital problems and divorced in 1992.

Only weeks after Gilbert's divorce filing, Bruce Boxleitner's ex-wife, Kathryn Holcomb, set Boxleitner up with Gilbert. Holcomb by then was married to actor Ian Ogilvy. Gilbert had met Boxleitner as a teenager when they both were on Battle of the Network Stars when Gilbert introduced herself, as she had a pin-up of him in her locker. But Boxleitner ignored her, as she was a teen and he was many years older than she was. After re-connecting, the couple started dating on and off for over a year. They were engaged twice and Boxleitner broke up with her each time. After reuniting for a third time, they finally married on January 1, 1995 in her mother's living room. Gilbert quickly became pregnant, but went into premature labor more than two months before her due date. She gave birth to a son, Michael Garrett Boxleitner, named in honor of Michael Landon, on October 6, 1995. His middle name is in honor of Garret Peckinpah, her friend Sandy Peckinpah's son, who had died suddenly of meningitis at age 16.

Gilbert is also stepmother to Boxleitner's two sons with Holcomb, Sam (b. 1980) and Lee (b. 1985).

She has battled alcoholism and drug abuse, which she wrote about in her 2009 autobiography.^[9]

On July 22, 2010 Gilbert underwent surgery to replace a disc as well as fuse a vertebra in her lower spine. The surgery was described as a complete success. While playing the role of Caroline "Ma" Ingalls in the touring musical Little House on the Prairie, a visit to the doctor revealed that she had been working with a broken back for months.^[10]

On March 1, 2011, Gilbert announced that she and Boxleitner had separated.^[3] On August 22, 2011, Gilbert filed for divorce from Boxleitner.^[11]

Filmography[link]

Films[link]

Television[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Melissa Gilbert at the Internet Movie Database
• Melissa Gilbert at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Prairie star wins union race
• Adoption
• Briefly mentions when she met her biological father
• Interview with Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, February 8, 1999

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder as an adult.
Born	Laura Ingalls (1867-02-07)February 7, 1867 Pepin County, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	February 10, 1957(1957-02-10) (aged 90) Mansfield, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Novelist,Schoolteacher, farm wife
Nationality	American
Period	1932–1943
Genres	Historical Fiction
Subjects	Midwestern & Western
Notable work(s)	Little House on the Prairie
Influenced Rose Wilder Lane
Signature

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family.^[1] Laura's daughter, Rose, inspired Laura to write her books.

Early life and marriage[link]

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, seven miles north of the village of Pepin, in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin,^[2] to Charles Phillip Ingalls and Caroline Lake (Quiner) Ingalls. She was the second of five children; her siblings were Mary Amelia, who went blind;^[3] Caroline Celestia, Charles Frederick, who died in infancy, and Grace Pearl. Her birth site is commemorated by a log cabin, the Little House Wayside.^[4] Her life here formed the basis for the book Little House in the Big Woods. (See the book entry for more information.)

A paternal ancestor was Edmund Ingalls born June 27, 1586 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England. He died on September 16, 1648 in Lynn, Massachusetts.^[5] She is also a descendant of the Delaney family[1] and Edmund Rice, a 1638 immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony.^[6]

In Laura's early childhood, her father settled on land not yet open for homesteading in what was then Indian Territory near Independence, Kansas—an experience that formed the basis of Ingalls' novel Little House on the Prairie. Within a few years, her father's restless spirit led them on various moves to a preemption claim in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, living with relatives near South Troy, Minnesota, and helping to run a hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa. After a move from Burr Oak back to Walnut Grove, where Charles Ingalls served as the town butcher and Justice of the Peace, Charles accepted a railroad job in the spring of 1879 which led him to eastern Dakota Territory, where he was joined by the family in the fall of 1879. Over the winter of 1879–1880, Charles landed a homestead, and called De Smet, South Dakota, home for the rest of his, Caroline, and Mary's lives. After spending the mild winter of 1879–1880 in the Surveyor's House, the Ingalls family watched the town of DeSmet rise up from the prairie in 1880. The following winter, 1880–1881, one of the most severe on record in the Dakotas, was later described by Wilder in her book, The Long Winter. Once the family was settled in DeSmet, Wilder attended school, worked several part-time jobs and made many friends, most importantly the bachelor homesteader Almanzo Wilder (1857–1949), whom she later married. This time in her life is well documented in the books Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years.^{[citation needed]}

On December 10, 1882, two months before her 16th birthday, she accepted her first teaching position, teaching three terms in one-room schools, when not attending school herself in DeSmet. In the book Little Town on the Prairie, Laura states that Laura received the certificate on December 24, 1882, but this was an enhancement for dramatic effect.^{[citation needed]} Laura's original "Third Grade" teaching certificate can be seen on page 25 of William Anderson's book Laura's Album (Harper Collins, 1998). She later admitted that she did not particularly enjoy teaching, but felt the responsibility from a young age to help her family financially, and wage earning opportunities for females were limited. Between 1883 and 1885, she taught three terms of school, worked for the local dressmaker and attended high school, although she did not graduate. Her teaching career and her own studies ended when she married Almanzo Wilder, whom she called Manly, on August 25, 1885, when she was eighteen and he was twenty-eight. Almanzo Wilder had achieved a degree of prosperity on his homestead claim, owing to favorable weather in the early 1880s, and the couple's prospects seemed bright. She joined Almanzo in a new home on his claim north of De Smet and agreed to help him make the claim succeed. On December 5, 1886, she gave birth to Rose Wilder (1886–1968) and later, an unnamed son, who died shortly after his birth in 1889.

The first few years of marriage held many trials. Complications from a life-threatening bout of diphtheria left Almanzo partially paralyzed. While he eventually regained nearly full use of his legs, he needed a cane to walk for the remainder of his life. This setback, among many others, began a series of disastrous events that included the death of their unnamed newborn son, the destruction of their home and barn by fire, and several years of severe drought that left them in debt, physically ill, and unable to earn a living from their 320 acres (1.3 km²) of prairie land. The tales of their trials at farming can be found in The First Four Years, a manuscript that was discovered after Rose Wilder Lane's death. Published in 1971, it detailed the hard-fought first four years of marriage on the Dakota prairies. Around 1890, the Wilders left DeSmet and spent about a year resting at Wilder's parents' prosperous Spring Valley (Minnesota) farm before moving briefly to Westville, Florida. They sought Florida's climate to improve Wilder's health, but being used to living on the dry plains, they wilted in the heat and Southern humidity, and felt out of place among the backwoods locals. In 1892, they returned to DeSmet and bought a small house (although later accounts by Lane mistakenly indicated it was rented). The Wilders received special permission to start their precocious daughter in school early and took jobs (Almanzo as a day laborer, Laura as a seamstress at a dressmaker's shop) to save enough money to once again start a farm.^{[citation needed]}

In 1894, the hard-pressed young couple moved a final time to Mansfield, Missouri, using their savings to make a down payment on a piece of undeveloped property just outside of town. They named the place Rocky Ridge Farm. What began as about 40 acres (0.2 km²) of thickly wooded, stone-covered hillside with a windowless log cabin, over the next 20 years evolved into a 200-acre (0.8 km²), relatively prosperous poultry, dairy, and fruit farm. The ramshackle log cabin was eventually replaced with an impressive 10-room farmhouse and outbuildings. The couple's climb to financial security was a slow process. Initially, the only income the farm produced was from wagonloads of firewood Almanzo sold for 50 cents in town, the result of the backbreaking work of clearing the trees and stones from land that slowly evolved into fertile fields and pastures. The apple trees did not begin to bear fruit for seven years. Barely able to eke out more than a subsistence living on the new farm, the Wilders decided to move into nearby Mansfield in the late 1890s and rent a small house. Almanzo found work as an oil salesman and general delivery man, while Laura took in boarders and served meals to local railroad workers.^{[citation needed]}

Wilder's parents visited around this time, and presented to the couple, as a gift, the deed to the house they had been renting in Mansfield. This was the economic jump start they needed; they added acreage to the original purchase, eventually owning nearly 200 acres. Around 1910, they sold their house in town and using the proceeds from the sale, were able to move back to the farm permanently, and to complete Rocky Ridge Farmhouse.^{[citation needed]}

Farm diversification[link]

Laura and Almanzo Wilder, 1885

By 1910, Rocky Ridge Farm was established to the point where the Wilders returned there to focus their efforts on increasing the farm's productivity and output. The impressive 10-room farmhouse completed in 1912 stands as a testament to their labors and determination to carve a comfortable and attractive home from the land.

Having learned a hard lesson from focusing solely on wheat farming in South Dakota, the Wilders' Rocky Ridge Farm became a diversified poultry and dairy farm, with an abundant apple orchard. Wilder, always active in various clubs and an advocate for several regional farm associations, was recognized as an authority in poultry farming and rural living, which led to invitations to talk to groups around the region.

Following her daughter Rose Wilder Lane's developing writing career also inspired Wilder to do some writing of her own. An invitation to submit an article to the Missouri Ruralist in 1911 led to a permanent position as a columnist and editor with that publication — a position she held until the mid-1920s. She also took a paid position with a Farm Loan Association, dispensing small loans to local farmers from her office in the farmhouse.

Her column in the Ruralist, "As a Farm Woman Thinks," introduced Mrs. A.J. Wilder to a loyal audience of rural Ozarkians, who enjoyed her regular columns, whose topics ranged from home and family to World War I and other world events, to the fascinating world travels of her daughter and her own thoughts on the increasing options offered to women during this era.

While the Wilders were never wealthy until the "Little House" series of books began to achieve popularity, the farming operation and Wilder's income from writing and the Farm Loan Association provided a stable enough living for the Wilders to finally place themselves in Mansfield, Missouri's middle-class society.

Wilder's fellow clubwomen were mostly the wives of business owners, doctors and lawyers, and her club activities took up much of the time that Lane encouraged her to use to develop a writing career for national magazines, as Lane had done. Wilder seemed unable or unwilling to make the leap from writing for the Missouri Ruralist to these higher-paying national markets. The few articles she was able to sell to national magazines were heavily edited by her daughter and placed solely through Lane's established publishing connections.

Rocky Ridge Farm, Mansfield, Missouri

Retirement[link]

For much of the 1920s and 1930s, between long stints living abroad (including in her beloved adopted country of Albania),^[7] Lane lived with the Wilders at Rocky Ridge Farm. As her free-lance writing career flourished, she successfully invested in the booming stock market.

Her newfound financial freedom led her to increasingly assume responsibility for her aging parents' support, as well as providing for the college educations of several young people she "adopted," both in Albania and Mansfield. Lane also took over the farmhouse her parents had built and had a beautiful, modern stone cottage constructed for them as a gift. However, when Lane left the farm for good a few years later, the Wilders, homesick for the house they had built with their own hands, moved back to it, and finished their lives there. By the late 1920s, they had scaled back the farming operation considerably and Wilder had resigned from her positions with the Missouri Ruralist and the Farm Loan Association. Hired help was installed in the caretaker's house Lane had built on the property, to take care of the remaining farm work that Almanzo, now in his 70s, could no longer easily manage.^{[citation needed]}

A comfortable and worry-free retirement seemed possible for the Wilders until the Stock Market Crash of 1929 wiped out the family's investments. The couple still owned the 200 acres (0.8 km²) farm, but they had invested most of their hard-won savings with Lane's broker. Lane was faced with the grim prospect of selling enough of her writing in a depressed market to maintain the financial responsibilities she had assumed, and the Wilders became dependent on her as their primary source of support.^{[citation needed]}

In 1930, Wilder asked her daughter's opinion about a biographical manuscript she had written about her pioneering childhood. The Great Depression, coupled with the death of her mother in 1924 and her sister Mary in 1928, seem to have prompted her to preserve her memories in a "life story" called Pioneer Girl. She had also renewed her interest in writing in the hope of generating some income. The first idea for the title of the first of the books was When Grandma was a Little Girl (later Little House in the Big Woods). After its success, Laura continued writing, given mental support and help in the form of her sister, Carrie, sharing her own memories.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Almanzo died in 1949, aged 92. Laura died on February 10, 1957, three days after her 90th birthday. Both died at Rocky Ridge Farm at Mansfield, Missouri. Both are buried beside their daughter Rose, at the town cemetery.

"Little House" books[link]

Book series collaboration[link]

Controversy surrounds Lane's exact role in what became her mother's famous "Little House" series of books. Some, like Timothy Abreu of Gush Publishing, argue that Laura was an "untutored genius,"^{[citation needed]} relying on her daughter mainly for some early encouragement and her connections with publishers and literary agents. Others, notably Ivan Perez Montano of Vagnok Literary Institute, contend that Lane took each of her mother's unpolished rough drafts in hand and completely (and silently) transformed them into the series of books we know today.^{[citation needed]} The truth most likely lies somewhere between these two positions—Wilder's writing career as a rural journalist and credible essayist began more than two decades before the "Little House" series, and Lane's formidable skills as an editor and ghostwriter are well-documented.^[8] But Lane's New York literary agent, George T. Bye, turned away the initial drafts, commenting that they lacked drama.^[9]

The existing evidence (including ongoing correspondence between the women concerning the development of the series, Lane's extensive personal diaries and Laura's first person draft manuscripts) tends to show an ongoing joint collaboration. The conclusion can be drawn that Wilder's strengths as a compelling storyteller and Lane's considerable skills in dramatic pacing and literary structure contributed to an occasionally tense, but fruitful, collaboration between two talented and headstrong women. Whatever the extent of the collaboration, it seems to have worked both ways: two of Lane's most successful novels, Let the Hurricane Roar (1932) and Free Land (1938), were written at the same time as the "Little House" series and basically re-told Ingalls and Wilder family tales in an adult format. The collaboration also brought the two writers at Rocky Ridge Farm the money they needed to recoup the loss of their investments in the stock market. Simply stated: if Wilder had not written the books, they would not exist—Lane had no interest in writing what she called "juveniles"—but had Lane not edited the books, they might well have never been accepted for publication let alone become famous.

Since the initial publication of Little House in the Big Woods in 1931, the books have been continually in print and have been translated into 40 different languages. Whatever the collaboration personally represented to the mother and daughter was never publicly discussed. Wilder's first—and smallest—royalty check from Harper in 1932 was for $500—the equivalent of $8,000 in 2010 dollars. By the mid-1930s the royalties from the "Little House" books brought a steady and increasingly substantial income to the Wilders for the first time in their 50 years of marriage. Various honors, huge amounts of fan mail and other accolades were granted to Laura Ingalls Wilder. The novels and short stories of Rose Wilder Lane during the 1930s also represented her creative and literary peak. Her name received top billing on the magazine covers where her fiction and articles appeared. The Saturday Evening Post paid her $30,000 in 1938 (approximately $450,000 in 2010 dollars) to serialize her best-selling novel Free Land, while Let the Hurricane Roar saw an increasing and steady sale, augmented by a radio dramatization starring Helen Hayes. The book remains in print today as Young Pioneers.

Celebrated author[link]

Lane left Rocky Ridge Farm in the late 1930s, establishing homes in Harlingen, Texas, and Danbury, Connecticut. She eventually ceased fiction writing and spent the remainder of her life writing about and promoting her philosophies of personal freedom and liberty. She became one of the more influential American libertarians of the mid-twentieth century. During these years, Wilder and her husband were frequently alone at Rocky Ridge Farm. Most of the surrounding area (including the property with the stone cottage Lane had built for them) had been sold off, but they still kept some farm animals, and tended their flower beds and vegetable gardens. Almost daily, carloads of fans would stop by, eager to meet "Laura" of the Little House books. The Wilders lived independently and without financial worries until Almanzo's death in 1949, at the age of 93. Wilder was aggrieved, but determined to remain independent and stay on the farm, despite Lane's requests that her mother come live with her permanently in Connecticut. For the next eight years, she lived alone, looked after by a circle of neighbors and friends who found it hard to believe their very own "Mrs. Wilder" was a world-famous author. She was a familiar figure in Mansfield, being brought into town regularly by her driver to run errands, attend church, or visit friends. She continued an active correspondence with her editors, many fans and friends during these years. Throughout the 1950s, Wilder was visited by Lane for long periods, usually for the winter. Once, Wilder flew to Connecticut with Lane for a visit to Lane's home. In the fall of 1956, Lane arrived in Mansfield for Thanksgiving, and found her 89-year-old mother severely ill from undiagnosed diabetes and a weakening heart. Several weeks in the hospital seemed to improve the situation somewhat, and Wilder was able to return home on the day after Christmas. But she was very old and very ill, and declined rapidly after that point. Wilder had an extremely competitive spirit going all the way back to the schoolyard as a child, and she had remarked to many people that she wanted to live to be 90, "because Almanzo had." She succeeded.

On February 10, 1957, just three days after her 90th birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder died in her sleep in her Mansfield farmhouse. With Wilder's death in 1957, ownership of Rocky Ridge Farmhouse reverted to the farmer who had earlier bought the surrounding land. The local townsfolk put together a non-profit corporation to purchase the house and its grounds, for use as a museum. After some wariness at the notion of seeing the house rather than the books themselves be a shrine to her mother, Lane came to believe that making a museum of it would draw long-lasting attention to the books. She donated the money needed to purchase the house and make it a museum, agreed to make significant contributions each year for its upkeep and also gave many of the family's belongings to help establish what became a popular museum that still draws thousands of visitors each year to Mansfield.^[10] Lane inherited ownership of the "Little House" literary estate for her lifetime only, all rights reverting to the Mansfield library after her death, according to her mother's will. After her death in 1968, Lane's heir, Roger MacBride, gained control of the copyrights. MacBride was Lane's informally adopted grandson, as well as her business agent, attorney, and heir. All of MacBride's actions carried Lane's apparent approval. In fact, at Lane's request, the copyrights to each of the "Little House" books, as well as those of Lane's own literary works, had been renewed in MacBride's name when the original copyrights expired during the decade between Wilder's and Lane's deaths. Controversy did not come until after MacBride's death in 1995, when the Laura Ingalls Wilder Branch of the Wright County Library (which Wilder helped found) in Mansfield, Missouri, decided it was worth trying to recover the rights. The ensuing court case was settled in an undisclosed manner, but MacBride's heirs retained the rights. The library received enough to start work on a new building. The popularity of the Little House series of books has grown phenomenally over the years, spawning a multimillion-dollar franchise of mass merchandising, additional spinoff book series (some written by MacBride and his daughter), and the long-running television show, starring Michael Landon. Laura Ingalls Wilder has been portrayed by Melissa Gilbert (1974–1984), Meredith Monroe (1997, 1998) and Kyle Chavarria (2005) in television series. Wilder once said the reason she wrote her books in the first place was to preserve the stories of her childhood for today's children, to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime.

Works[link]

• Little House in the Big Woods (1932), awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.
• Farmer Boy (1933) – about her husband's childhood on a farm in New York
• Little House on the Prairie (1935)
• On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), a Newbery Honor book
• By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939), a Newbery Honor book
• The Long Winter (1940), a Newbery Honor book
• Little Town on the Prairie (1941), a Newbery Honor book
• These Happy Golden Years (1943), a Newbery Honor book
• On the Way Home (1962, published posthumously) – a diary of the Wilders' move from De Smet, South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, edited and added to by Rose Wilder Lane.
• The First Four Years (1971, published posthumously)
• West from Home (1974, published posthumously) – Wilder's letters to Almanzo while visiting Lane in San Francisco
• The Road Back (Part of A Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys Across America, highlighting Laura's previously unpublished record of a 1931 trip with Almanzo to De Smet, South Dakota, and the Black Hills)
• A Little House Sampler, with Rose Wilder Lane, edited by William Anderson
• Farm Journalist : Writings from the Ozarks
• Writings to Young Women (Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues, Volume Two: On Life As a Pioneer Woman, Volume Three: As Told By Her Family, Friends, and Neighbors)
• A Little House Reader: A Collection of Writings
• Laura Ingalls Wilder & Rose Wilder Lane (Letters exchanged by Laura and Rose)
• Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings
• Laura's Album (A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson)

Legacy[link]

• Hall of Famous Missourians – Laura Wilder was inducted in 1993
• Missouri State Capitol – a bronze bust depicting her is on permanent display in the rotunda
• Missouri Walk of Fame – Wilder was honored on the Walk in 2006. David Ingalls, an Ingalls cousin, accepted the star.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum – located in Mansfield, Missouri.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum – located in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.^[11]
• Laura Wilder Elementary School – located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota^[12]
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary – located in Woodinville, Washington^[13]
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School – located in Littleton, Colorado^[14]
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School – located in Green Bay, Wisconsin
• Laura Ingalls Wilder Intermediate School – located in Schertz, Texas
• List of craters on Venus – Wilder crater located on the planet Venus was named after her.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School - Located in Springfield, MO.

In the media[link]

Wilder was portrayed in the television adaptations of Little House on the Prairie by :

• Kazuko Sugiyama (voice) in Laura, The Prairie Girl Japanese cartoon series,
• Melissa Gilbert in the television series Little House on the Prairie and its movie sequels,
• Meredith Monroe, Tess Harper (elder version), Alandra Bingham (younger version, part 1), Michelle Bevan (younger version, part 2) in Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder films,
• Kyle Chavarria in the miniseries Little House on the Prairie.
• Kara Lindsay in the musical

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Ingalls

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Laura Ingalls Wilder, Frontier Girl
• Beyond Little House: Comprehensive Laura Ingalls Wilder Blog
• Pioneer Girl, Laura Ingalls Wilder A-Z
• De Smet, South Dakota: The Little Town on the Prairie
• Mansfield, Missouri: Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home
• Independence, Kansas: The Little House on the Prairie
• Walnut Grove, Minnesota: Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum
• Burr Oak, Iowa: Wilder Museum
• Malone, New York: Almanzo Wilder Farm
• Bibliography, transcriptions, and images of all of Laura's Missouri Ruralist articles
• Laura Ingalls Wilder family letters:Highlights The Wisconsin Historical Society
• Little House Wiki: Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Laura Ingalls Wilder at Find a Grave