Uh uh, he wasn’t stillborn, he was born alive, and died a few months later. A line in the book that sums it up the best explains that in the cases of his birth and his death the doctor arrived too late.
I love these books, too. What struck me was that these most people in that era lived and died within a 5-10 mile range of their homestead. I can’t even imagine the courage and spirit of someone like Charles and Caroline Ingalls. They picked up what little they had to go to a place completely unknown, knowing in their hearts that they would probably never see the people back home again. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it would be to hug my mother and father and siblings for the last time. Staggering.
Another thing that struck me, something that was so different from the t.v. adaptation, is how melancholy Laura was. You can tell, even in her sanitized version, that her heart was set on Cap Garland and not Almanzo Wilder. I get the distinct feeling that she “settled.” A telling point: her book “The Happy Golden Years” was not about her marriage and old age, which is what I assumed it would be, but rather about the year or so before her marriage, living the last years at home with her parents.
And she pretty much ended the story after the first few years of marriage. I have a feeling that there was a lot of conflict and sadness for her. The death of her son was undoubtedly astounding for her. And there house burning down. So much sadness.
I read a book on the Ingalls and apparently Laura was dead set against following in her father’s footsteps. She wanted to go back east where it was easier (and warmer) and did not want Almanzo to farm for a living because it was too hard and too unpredictable.
The book also had pictures of the family. And while I know it was customary for the time to have people NOT smile for the photograph. But Pa Ingalls wasn’t NEARLY as handsome as Michael Landon. 
If you have any question about how hard and tenuous life along the settlement line and just behind it was in the late 19th Century, just go look at some prairie grave yards, especially the small private and township cemeteries in western Iowa and Minnesota and into the Dakotas and Nebraska and Kansas. You will be floored by the number of graves for children and young adults. Think how many of us would be alive if we didn’t have antibiotic drugs, an understanding of germs, clean water, reliable preserved food and access to modern medical attention and if we were dependent on the management of large animals for our livings. Those days of rugged individualism and self-reliance were greatly days of very real survival of the fittest and most fortunate.
Under those circumstances, with your very life dependent on the working of forces beyond your understanding, is the piety of the age any surprise? The Hand of God was the only explanation that made any sort of sense. It also explains why those people accepted their lives with such equanimity.
But somehow or other, when I was little, I didn’t really realize how horrible it is. More exciting and different. The physical labor seemed hard… and I remember the walking long distances and the treats that were few and far between…
but, for some reason, how bad it was didn’t sink in when I read them as a child (even though it really was right there in the book.)
(We weren’t allowed to watch the TV show, so I know that didn’t taint my picture of prarie)
I should re-read them.
One of the episodes that stands out the most in my memory is in … geez, I think it’s in Plum Creek when Pa’s friend Mr. Edwards fights his way through a flood to get to their house in order to bring Laura and Mary their Christmas treats – oranges. And the girls are so thrilled to get oranges! It’s quite a striking contrast to the orgy of gifts that goes along with many people’s Christmases.
Of course the other memorable moment which I swear scarred me for life is when Jack the dog … well, Jack gets old … and … sniff you know …
ahhh, the LHOTP books. I wanted to live them, when I was younger–I was fascinated by the past, by the clothes and the way of life. I had my “prairie girl” outfit, and I still remember saving up to buy leather boots just like Laura had I think it’s time to reread them–see what I pick up, all these years later.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a good biography of Laura, and/or the real story of her family? The bits I’ve read on this thread are fascinating.
Hmmm, this is interesting – what blinded Mary? I’ve never heard anything about a stroke. I dug out the best reference I have: A Little House Sampler, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane (heads up on this book, Sunhawk!).
Page 29: “. . . Mary was blinded by spinal meningitis in 1879 (scarlet fever is given as the cause in By the Shores of Silver Lake). . . .” [and also in Little Town on the Prairie, p. 8]
None of the definitive online sources (LIW Homestead, LIW Museum) had anything to say on the subject. I’ve learned the hard way not to trust fan sites and the like.
Anybody have a better source, confirming or dissenting?
I’m happy to see that Laura and her book have so many other fans. She has been my personal heroine for over 30 years and I have read all the LH books numerous times. (I planned a lengthy trip with my Mom to see all the “Little Houses” in 2001, but financial and health setbacks on my part have prevented us from embarking on that adventure.)
On several occasions I have read The Long Winter in one sitting when I felt a depression episode coming on. It always helps me to see that others have had things far worse than I have.
I don’t know that Laura “sanitized” her books, but I do know that at the time the events in her books occurred, and at the time she wrote them, people did not air out their dirty linen the way they do today. The Ingallses were quite religious, Ma more so than Pa, and it was their faith, IMHO, as well as their pragmatism and good humor that kept them going through adversity.
One thing that keeps the Ingalls family from appearing victims of grinding poverty is their dignity. Caroline (Ma) always insisted that the family remain “civilized,” dressing the girls appropriately, schooling them in etiquette and manners, even when they were “100 miles from anybody.” I think Ma and Pa were really concerned when they first got to Silver Lake and the only people around were the rough railway workers. Once they moved into the Surveyor’s House for the winter, remember how she kept the girls safe in the attic, away from all the rowdy boarders. Ma was much more prim and proper than Pa, but they made a good match. Remembering what Ma wrote in Laura’s autograph album gives a good key to her character:
If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek/Five things observe with care/To whom you speak/Of who you speak/And how and when and where.
None of the Ingallses were really educated, except for Mary, and it seems her 7 years at the school for the blind taught her mostly manual training. Laura had what I think we would consider an 8th grade education today. Despite formal education, they were resourceful, practical and craved reading material. They treasured the few books they had. Remember how grateful Laura and Ma were for all the newspapers and magazines Mrs. Boast passed on to them the winter they lived in the Surveyor’s House. They were so happy to have something to entertain Mary and the little girls during those cold, lonely days.
Because she lacked an education, there is a ** theory that Laura wasn’t actually the author of her books, that they were really written by Rose**. It is explored in a book called Ghost in the Little House. Can’t recall the author right now. I don’t know if this is true: Laura’s books only cover about 15 of her 90 years, and for many of those years (before she started writing her books in the lates 1930s) she wrote columns for local newspapers in Missouri and was an editor of regional farm publications. Many of these writings are published in other books you all may be interested in reading, and I’ll get the particulars for them. I can’t access my copies at the moment.
In these columns and essays, Laura sometimes writes about episodes that later made their way into the LH books. It’s fun to get another perspective. Laura’s writing style is formal and somewhat quaint, but she definitely has her own literary voice. I have no doubt that Rose edited her mother’s work, and I believe that “Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus” may be Rose’s invention, but for the most part I think we can take Laura at her word.
Lastly, reagarding Cap Garland: everyone who reads the books loves Cap, and Laura may indeed have set her “cap” for him instead of 'Manzo. All I can learn about him is that he died young, and I don’t know of any author who knows much about more. His saving the wheat with Almanzo when DeSmet was starving is a story worthy of Jack London.
Hmm…that may be true, but that’s not how I remember reading the book. (My copies of the books are at my parents house, so I’ll have to do this from memory) There was a scene when she’s sitting at home, listening to the sleighing parties go back and forth outside the house, feeling lonely and abandoned and wishing she hadn’t told Almanzo she wouldn’t go with him anymore out of pride. Then there’s a knock at the door, and it’s Cap Garland. Instantly she thinks of Almanzo, and Mary Power, and she doesn’t know what to say. Then Cap explains that he’s there on Almanzo’s behalf (for some reason I can’t remember), and she’s very happy with that answer.
Another scene…the night they get engaged, Laura goes in to tell her parents. Her mother says something to the effect of, “Are you sure, Laura? Sometimes I think it’s the horses you care for more than their master.” Laura replies, “I couldn’t have one without the other.” Pa coughs, and Ma smiles, and Laura knows they understand what she’s too shy to say. To me, that scene shows that she’s in love with him.
Of course, all that may have been invented after the fact and not be truthful at all, but I do think that’s the way she intended us to read the story. Also, I believe the series ended there simply because that’s where her childhood ended. YMMV, of course.
Besides, if you ever look at a picture of Almanzo during that period, you’ll see that he was quite the hottie. (IMHO)
Just a bit of info I remember reading somewhere…Cap Garland died in his early adulthood (20 or 21 or so, I think) in some kind of farm machinery accident. A tragic end for such a heroic and likeable young man.
Two books I mentioned earlier:
Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane by William V. Holtz, out of stock at Powells.com
Little House in the Ozarks by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Stephen W. Hines, Ed. available from alibris.com (This is a highly enjoyable collection of her columns for newspapers and magazines.)
:eek:One of the scariest things I ever read was Mary getting scarlet fever and going blind!
Of course it might have had something to do with the fact that my mom gave me the book to read while I was home for a week with
wait…
you know what’s coming…
SCARLET FEVER!!!
[sub] and man did it suck, high fever for a week, two nights in the ER in a water bath beacuse I spiked to 106…I can to this day close my eyes and see the pattern of cracks in the paint of the ceiling of our living room[/sub]
Oh man I was just wrecked, I wouldn’t sleep because I thought I would close my eyes and never see again:eek: :eek: :eek:
To give another POV of how hard life was then, my I humbly submit:
- The forest was thick in Ingham County in the spring of 1834. Two brothers walked a few steps and stopped again. Raising their axes up over their shouldres, they took aim, and chopped at huge trees. A few feet at a time, swining and chopping, the brothers worked hard all day to clear a trail wide enough for their two oxen and wagon to travel on.
[snip}Then one day the oxen wandered off into the woods wearing their yoke. A yoke kept the animals together so they could work as a team and pull heavy loads.
The oxen were lost for days, and when the brothers found them, one had died from hunger. The other had been dragging its partner around the woods looking for food and it was not much more than bones. It died, too. *
From Saw mills and sleigh bells: stories of Mid Michigan Settlers
EC nicely written. Makes me want to re-read the Little House books again. Don’t worry, soon you will get to see where Laura Ingalls lived and it will be worth the wait and delay. 
And I don’t think the books were ‘sanitized’ per se, remember kids view things differently. *Yea!, we survived a fire. Oh…here comes a thunderstorm, boo. Rebuild the house, but Uncle Jack breaks his leg, boo, but we get to eat part of his pumpking pie, yeah! Oh wait, here come a horde of locust. Boooo. And a band of savage injuns. Boooo And look, a tornado. Yeah, because it wipes out the injuns and I don’t have to slop the hogs now, yea! But we gotta rebuild the barn again, boooo. But Uncle Jack is up and at 'em, but Aunt Mary has diptheria, booo… *
I don’t think it’s fair to say there were no handouts, although certainly things were very different. Another page on the website zev linked to states that both the federal and the state governments did attempt to help out after the locust plague Laura wrote about in On the Banks of Plum Creek. Her family may not have been offered the help because there wasn’t enough to go around and, believe it or not, they didn’t have it so bad, considering. This page mentions farmers too broke and in debt to even hitch up their wagons and leave, starving to death. (Actually I can now see that this was a big part of Ma’s fears when Pa had to go east and they didn’t get a letter for so many weeks. As long as he was alive, she figured they’d get through somehow - but without him, they were in deep trouble.)
Also, the farm outside De Smet, the one where Ma and Pa finally found a small measure of prosperity, was part of a huge “handout” program - the Homestead Act.
[slight hijack]
A substute teacher we had once made us write about any person, living or dead whom we would like to have lunch with. I picked LIW. The woman told me she was a fictional character. She was absolutely convinvced that the woman didn’t exist. I was absolutely convinced that she was a real person. I was very upset the next day when the sub wasn’t there because I had brought the books to school. I really wanted to see her face when I showed her the author.
Hmph. Fictional indeed. [/slight hijack]
By “sanitized” I mean that since LIW was writing about her life, she undoubtedly withheld whatever she didn’t want us (or her daughter) to know.
Remember, the books were written 50 years after the events took place. Laura kept no diary, and her parents and sisters were dead. She did them from “memory” and whose memory is great thinking about 50 years ago?
crazy…
I went home and saw my books and decided they would be great read-aloud material.
I began to read LHITBW last night to Mr Baboon.
We were struck by two things:
Laura had a doll, Susan, that was a corncob. Literally.
We talked about how much simpler things were back then in that getting oranges for Christmas really truly was a treat.
We also discussed how life back then was all about surviving and not much else.
We laughed when I told him that if I had to spend a whole day making butter, well, someone just ain’t getting butter!
I remember reading them as a child and adoring the series. Now as an Adult, I am able to read between the lines and I feel i have learned alot already.
I watched “Frontier House” when it was on, and when the kids (who’d only been out in Montana a couple months) were given oranges as a treat by their new teacher, it was like the scene in the LHOTP books. Those kids were absolutely thrilled to have an orange. At one point, when the father of the California family when to trade at the general store he brought back some canned peaches, The kids were so ecstatic, and asked their mother why they never got anything like that at home. Her response was “You wouldn’t touch something like that if I served it to you at home”.
StG
I loved those book as a child and must now get them again. I was always under the impression that she died while writing the last book. No idea where I got that from.
I blame this series for getting me addicted to maple sugar, of all things. I recall a story where they have a big gathering during the syrup harvest and drizzle hot syrup in pans of snow to make candy. I still want to try doing that!
Another reason I loved these books was for the descriptions of food gathering and preparation. I can’t explain it, but I love books like this. The Yearling is the same way for me.
(I also watched Frontier House obsessively!)
There is a ** Little House Cookbook **. Very authentic and good too.