No. 45, February 2008
Journal
Little House on the Prairie
by Delores Miller
It has been a long winter here on the farm in Wisconsin, February 2008. Over 60 inches of snow, many days temperatures never get above zero. We are hunkered down in the house, with nothing to do but read books and houseclean nooks and crannies and closets.
Found tucked away the complete boxed set of 'Little House On The Prairie' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. These were our five children's favorite books growing up, and this set is tattered and torn.
Now the ten grandchildren are beginning to read them to learn about pioneer life in the late 1800s. I found used boxed sets on Abe.Books.com.
Russ read the books about 20 years ago, refuses to reread them, especially 'The Long Winter' where they had to tie a rope to the barn to find their way in the blizzards and twist hay to burn in the stoves to keep warm. This 'Long Winter' occured in the Dakota in 1880-1881. Cattle froze, trains could not get through, people starved.
Because it is too cold to walk outside, roads too icy to drive out and about I started again reading the books. These were my favorite books, too, during the 1940s when I was in grade school. We were so glad, in our small country school, when the traveling library box of books came every month from the State Capital in Madison, Wisconsin.
Laura Ingalls Wilder who was born in 1867 began writing her childhood experiences in 1932 with 'The Little House In The Big Woods', when the Ingalls family lived in Western Wisconsin on the Mississippi River near the small town of Pepin. From there they moved to Kansas by covered wagon, back to Minnesota and finally in the Dakota Territory where she met and married Almanzo Wilder.
There was deprivation and hard work. Crops were ruined by storms and grasshopper plagues.
Other books in the series are:
Little House On The Prairie
Farmer Boy (which was where Almonzo was born and raised until the whole family moved to Minnesota. We did not understand why.)
On The Banks of Plum Creek
By The Shores Of Silver Lake
The Long Winter (and so appropriate to read this cold 2008 winter)
Little Town On The Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years
And one more book, published after Laura's death of the trip to Missouri by covered wagon in 1894, a diary found by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane.
For those interested in these books and the Wilder and Ingalls families, tours are available to visit all the sights and locations in New York State where Almanzo was born, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. Web sites on the internet computers give more information on these locations and families.
Russell and I have visited most of these state historical sites, starting with Pepin, Wisconsin and a reproduction of the log cabin, to DeSmet, South Dakota to Mansfield Missouri, the cemeteries, the homes, the tree claims.
Laura was a very good writer. Mixed fiction with non fiction in telling her stories. She died in 1957 a few days shy of her 90th birthday.
The television series 'Little House On The Prairie' does not follow closely the books written by Laura. Too many liberties taken with characters and locations.
It is much better to read the original books to learn of pioneer life, and we even in 2008 have much to learn.
Check out these books at your local library.
copyright 2008, Russell and Delores Miller