Who was the real Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder?

Laura Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867 in Pepin, Wisconsin to her parents Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The family moved several times, across multiple states in Laura’s young life before settling in De Smet, South Dakota. As a young woman, Laura began helping her family financially by becoming a teacher two months before her sixteenth birthday. Later, Laura admitted that she didn’t enjoy teaching but felt the need to help her family.

At the age of eighteen, she married twenty-eight year old Almanzo Wilder. Married life was difficult in the beginning for the Wilders. Almanzo suffered from complications from a bout with diphtheria that left him partially paralyzed, the couple’s newborn son died at twelve days old and they lost their home to a fire accidentally set by their young daughter Rose. After several years of severe drought the Wilder’s were left with debt from being unable to make a living on their farm. In 1894, they decided to start over by moving to Mansfield, Missouri and buying property which they later named Rocky Ridge Farm. In the beginning the farm wasn’t prosperous, but over the years the Wilders were able to increase their property to 200 acres, add-on to their farmhouse and have a fairly prosperous fruit, poultry and dairy farm.

Laura began writing for the Ruralist newspaper. Her column, “As A Farm Woman Thinks” gained a loyal following. After the Wider’s lost most of their savings in the stock market during the Great Depression, Laura began writing down her memories in hopes to generate some income. Her first book Little House in the Big Woods was published in 1932. By 1943, Laura had a total of eight books published and two more were published after her death in 1957. Her books are still in print today and have been published in over forty languages. A bust of Laura sits in the Hall of Famous Missourians in the Missouri State Capitol Rotunda. More information on the Wilder’s life and farm in Missouri can be found in my post Laura Ingalls Wilder Home.

If you love the Little House TV series take a peek at my post Lunch With Almanzo Wilder!