dancing little red tassels

Not once have I ever noted that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about "dancing little red tassels" on the bridles of Almanzo's horses in Little Town on the Prairie (see Chapter 13, "School Days"). Of course I'll be heading to the tack store tomorrow to buy some red tassels, and no, I don't have a horse.

Horse-hair tassels were not only decorative. They were sometimes added to ward off evil spirits. Their swinging also served to keep flies and other insects from lighting.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
unfairness and meanness
I've been reading Little Town on the Prairie again. The whole "Miss Wilder teaches school" section is one I usually skim. Yes, Miss Wilder seems to be an unfair teacher. But Laura Ingalls went on to marry Miss Wilder's brother and even let her own daughter live with her one day. And everybody knows now that Nellie Oleson (actually Nellie Owens) never lived in De Smet, so you can't really blame any of the story on her. Gennie Masters was supposedly the inspiration for Nellie's De Smet character, and in real life, it's obvious that some of the other big girls in school were quite friendly with Gennie, even if Laura herself might not have been.

Tonight, I really paid attention to all the times Laura wrote about Miss Wilder's unfairness.

After Carrie is forced to rock the seat by herself, LIW writes that Laura "hated Miss Wilder, for her unfairness and meanness." Laura grows angrier and angry as she rocks the seat herself, and says on the way home that "she would have done it again."

The next morning, Laura still hates Miss Wilder for her "cruel unfairness to Carrie." After noon break, Laura again thinks that she would "never forgive Miss Wilder for her unfairness to Carrie. She did not want to forgive her." And even later: "She did not forgive Miss Wilder. She felt hard and hot as burning coal when she thought of Miss Wilder’s treatment of Carrie." Even after the boys are openly chanting the verse about lazy, lousy, Lizy Jane: "She blamed herself, yet she still blamed Miss Wilder far more. If Miss Wilder had been only decently fair to Carrie..."

Over the weekend, Laura is miserable, but she still feels "a scalding fury against Miss Wilder." Yet after Pa and the other school board members have visited the school and Pa asks Laura to explain her part in what has been going on in the school, she doesn't mention Carrie at all.

Suddenly everything revolves around Nellie Oleson's behavior to Laura and her family in Walnut Grove. Nellie's past meanness and Laura's dislike for her are understandable, especially when you bring in the whole "town girl / country girl" backstory. But Miss Wilder was an unfair teacher, and I would have liked to have seen her treatment of Carrie at least mentioned when the whole story was wrapped up so neatly.

HISTORICAL NOTE: Eliza Jane Wilder actually taught the fall 1882 term in De Smet. Frank Clewett taught the winter 1883 (January - March) term in De Smet. Laura Ingalls Wilder writes this part of Little Town on the Prairie as if it happened the previous year, in 1881. Eliza Jane Wilder left De Smet in August 1881 to stay with a friend in Valley Springs, Dakota Territory. She did not return to De Smet until February 1882.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:54 PM

 
wilder $#@%! homestead
Here we go again. The James Wilder farm from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy has a new name: the Wilder Homestead. Why not have called it the Wilder Farmstead? Wouldn't that make more sense, considering the title of the "Little House" books about the place is titled:
F-A-R-M-E-R Boy?

From the dictionary:
NOUN: 1. A house, especially a farmhouse, with adjoining buildings and land. 2. Land claimed by a settler or squatter, especially under the Homestead Act. 3. The place where one's home is.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: To settle and farm land, especially under the Homestead Act.
TRANSITIVE VERB: To claim and settle (land) as a homestead, especially under the Homestead Act.

Yes, yes, yes, a homestead can be a farmhouse, etc. But the "Little House" books are about more than just any old farms, houses, and lands; the main idea in the De Smet books is homesteading as it concerned the Homestead Act of 1862. Homestead in the Ingalls/Wilder years implies filing on a homestead claim. The Wilders in the 1860s wouldn't have called their place a homestead. They would have called it (and did call it) a farm.

There are several Wilder homesteads in Kingsbury County, South Dakota -- those of Royal, Almanzo, and Eliza Jane Wilder. James Wilder neither homesteaded in New York nor in Minnesota. Charles Ingalls homesteaded in Redwood County, Minnesota, and Kingsbury County, South Dakota. The land erroneously called the "Ingalls Homestead" north of Walnut Grove (the dugout site) was -- all together now -- a PREEMPTION CLAIM.
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:34 AM

 
three hours
When Laura Ingalls was living in Redwood and Kingsbury Counties, local town businesses didn't typically close for Thanksgiving day. They would, however, close from perhaps ten to one in order to give everyone the opportunity to attend a midday church service and also to digest a "rousing big dinner."
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:41 AM

 
thanksgiving proclamations, then and now
Abraham Lincoln issued Thanksgiving Proclamations in the spring of 1862 and the spring of 1863; both proclamations gave thanks for victories in battle. Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation in the autumn of 1863 - the second Thanksgiving Proclamation in that year - gave thanks for the general blessings of the year. The second 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation, the first in the unbroken string of annual Thanksgiving proclamations, is regarded as the true beginning of the national Thanksgiving holiday. The presidential proclamations for 1867 (the year Laura Ingalls was born) and 2005 (the current year) have been transcribed below.

THANKSGIVING DAY 1867
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION

In conformity with a recent custom that may now be regarded as established on national consent and approval, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby recommend to my fellow citizens that Thursday, the 28th day of November next, be set apart and observed throughout the Republic as a day of national thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty Ruler off Nations, with whom are dominion and fear, who maketh peace in His high places.

Resting and refraining from secular labors on that day, let us reverently and devoutly give thanks to our Heavenly Father for the mercies and blessings with which He has crowned the now closing year. Especially let us remember that He has covered our land through all its extent with greatly needed and very abundant harvests; that He has caused industry to prosper, not only in our fields, but also in our workshops, in our mines, and in our forests. He has permitted us to multiply ships upon our lakes and rivers and upon the high seas, and at the same time to extend our iron roads to far into the secluded places of the continent as to guarantee speedy overland intercourse between the two oceans. He has inclined our hearts to turn away from domestic contentions and commotions consequent upon a distracting and desolating civil war, and to walk more and more in the ancient ways of loyalty, conciliation, and brotherly love. He has blessed the peaceful efforts with which we have established new and important commercial treaties with foreign nations, while we have at the same time strengthened our national defenses and greatly enlarged our national borders.

While thus rendering the unanimous and heartfelt tribute of national praise and thanksgiving which is so justly due to Almighty God, let us not fail to implore Him that the same divine protection and care which we have hitherto so undeservedly and yet so constantly enjoyed may be continued to our country and our people throughout all their generations forever.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of October, A.D. 1867, and of the Independence of the United States of America the ninety-second.
ANDREW JOHNSON.


THANKSGIVING DAY 2005
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION

Thanksgiving Day is a time to remember our many blessings and to celebrate the opportunities that freedom affords. Explorers and settlers arriving in this land often gave thanks for the extraordinary plenty they found. And today, we remain grateful to live in a country of liberty and abundance. We give thanks for the love of family and friends, and we ask God to continue to watch over America.

This Thanksgiving, we pray and express thanks for the men and women who work to keep America safe and secure. Members of our Armed Forces, State and local law enforcement, and first responders embody our Nation's highest ideals of courage and devotion to duty. Our country is grateful for their service and for the support and sacrifice of their families. We ask God's special blessings on those who have lost loved ones in the line of duty.

We also remember those affected by the destruction of natural disasters. Their tremendous determination to recover their lives exemplifies the American spirit, and we are grateful for those across our Nation who answered the cries of their neighbors in need and provided them with food, shelter, and a helping hand. We ask for continued strength and perseverance as we work to rebuild these communities and return hope to our citizens.

We give thanks to live in a country where freedom reigns, justice prevails, and hope prospers. We recognize that America is a better place when we answer the universal call to love a neighbor and help those in need. May God bless and guide the United States of America as we move forward.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 24, 2005, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship with family, friends, and loved ones to reinforce the ties that bind us and give thanks for the freedoms and many blessings we enjoy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirtieth.
GEORGE W. BUSH
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
"mary goes to college"
On this day in history, 1881, Mary Ingalls was enrolled at the Blind Asylum in Vinton, Iowa. November 23, 1881 - as in 2005 - was the day before Thanksgiving.

You have to wonder if Charles and Caroline Ingalls enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with Mary before returning to De Smet, or if they were traveling on that day. Were they even present during the enrollment process?

I always wondered why Mary started school in late November. The Blind Asylum had four terms per year - just like the De Smet school did - but the fall term typically started before November. Making sure that Mary was settled before winter travel made getting to and from Iowa a problem might have been one reason she started when she did. Getting the finances in order may have been another.

In early October 1881, Kingsbury County School Superintendent Amos Whiting notified the County Commissioners that Mary Ingalls was entitled to "the benefits of the Territorial Blind Asylum." The notice was forwarded to the Governor with a certificate from the Commissioners confirming that Mary was indeed entitled to tuition and room and board. This, of course, referred to an agreement made between Iowa and Dakota Territory, because there was no blind asylum as yet in Dakota. There was, however, one in Minnesota. It is not known if they accepted some of the students from Dakota Territory as well. The father of the director of the blind asylum in Minnesota actually homesteaded in Kingsbury County, quite near the town of De Smet. I have a feeling I've mentioned this before, but James J. Dow took up work with the blind and by 1875 he had devoted his life to it. His first daughter was named Mary Amelia.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:17 PM

 
no ague
Just fever.
102 degrees.
I'll see you next week.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:36 AM

 
search me
Although all of the "Little House" books are under copyright protection (Little House in the Big Woods will pass into the public domain in 2027; the others will follow accordingly), HarperCollins has allowed google to include searchable "Little House" books as part of their BOOK SEARCH program found at http://books.google.com.

Although you can't actually scroll through and read the "Little House" books online (because they're still copyright protected, remember), you can search for words or phrases as found in one or all of the books. Clicking on the advanced search option allows you to narrow your search in many ways; try it! For example: searching for the exact phrase ground cherries in all books by Laura Ingalls Wilder will open an image of the page in Little Town on the Prairie where ground cherries are mentioned. Ground cherry, however, will point you to The Long Winter, where "ground cherry preserves" were mentioned.

There are a few things I don't like about the search feature as far as the "Little House" books are concerned. The main one is that they keep track of your searches, and if you search for too many items in one book or by one author, they cut you off! You're suddenly restricted. So. You can use it, but just not toooooo much?

Another is that if you search for something that appears in a LOT of "Little House" books - the phrase Laura Ingalls, for example - you will be told that there are over four thousand occurances, but they only show you the first handful of them, even if you ask for 100 results. So even if you're searching in one book for something, you might not get all of the results or be able to view them.

Another thing I don't particularly like is that they used different editions of the books; they didn't use one set of "Little House" books to keep it consistent. Little House in the Big Woods is the gingham paperback, and By the Shores of Silver Lake is the trade paperback, for example. Maybe this shouldn't bother me, but it does. I also can't figure out if On the Way Home and West from Home are included in the searchable LH books. I don't think they are...

The last thing I don't like is that there are still all those mistakes in the "Little House" books to contend with. Try searching for the song "Angel Band," which is indeed one of the songs Laura Ingalls Wilder mentioned in The First Four Years. Can't find it? That's because in most editions, the lyrics are written with the words "angel bank," not band. If you don't know that at some point somebody made a typo that's been there in most of the editions to date, you'll never know about the real song. Same for the song "The Blue Juniata." It's not "wild roved an Indian main," but maid. And other little things won't be apparent using this search, like the fact that Laura herself sometimes spelled the family name Harthorn as Hawthorn. UPDATE: It seems that the site is using a corrected version of "The Blue Juniata," but I found that searching for "Lew Brewster" will only get you mention of his name in Little Town on the Prairie. In These Happy Golden Years, his name has been indexed as "Law Brewster." L-A-W. As in most cases, the searches are only as accurate as the person doing the nitty gritty stuff that makes them work.

But... it's a start, and you have to admire HarperCollins for letting even this much of the "Little House" text out of the bag a full twenty-plus years before they have to.
- posted by pioneergirl at 6:01 PM

 
this just in

The current issue of South Dakota magazine features an story written by Marian Cramer of Bryant, South Daktoa; Mrs. Cramer is a historian and writer who works at the Ingalls Homestead. She wrote about the Poor Farm in Kingsbury County, which was located just on the school section between Almanzo Wilder's tree claim and homestead claim.

The magazine also features an article about the Palmlund home east of De Smet. Cheryl Palmlund is director of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in De Smet.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:05 AM

 
parker homestead

One of my favorite summer get-away drives is the loop from Bozeman west to Norris, Montana, then north to Three Forks and home on I-90. The drive takes you past Parker Homestead State Park, an acre of land on which sits a sod-roofed shanty built in the early 1900s. It's not a replica; it's the real deal, and there are other original homestead buildings dotting the landscape in this part of Montana.

One thing that always strikes me about the original claim buildings I visit is the lack of head room. They all seem to have low door openings and a low-pitched roofline with a fairly low high point. Lack of trees on the prairie with which to build log cabins was probably one reason they were so short. Needing to heat the interior space was no doubt another.

For some reason, the replica Ingalls log cabins in Pepin, Wisconsin, and near Independence, Kansas, always seem too big to me. Too tall, with too much head room, and a footprint that seems a bit too roomy and spacious. I'm not saying that they are too big (after all, we don't know the dimensions of the original cabins), but that's what they seem like to me...

If you haven't had a chance to see the PBS show "Alone in the Wilderness" or read the companion book - One Man's Wilderness, An Alaskan Odyssey - about Dick Proenneke's life, then you should make a point to do so. When I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's account of her father building his log cabin in Indian Territory, I don't quite understand the passage of time - how long it would have taken for Charles Ingalls to gather logs and do the actual notching and stacking of logs or to build the rock fireplace. All that is described in detail in Sam Keith's book written from Proenneke's own diaries. Proenneke's cabin wasn't something that went up in a few days, and I don't think Charles Ingalls' was either.

I know little about log cabin construction except for what I learned playing with Lincoln Logs. I always wanted to live in a log cabin; unfortunately I'm married to someone whose dream house is a fussy Victorian - but on the inside, it should be "so modern it hurts." Since dream houses usually are pushed aside when dealing with reality, we've settled (so far) for a series of bungalows and Craftsman-style homes with ultra-modern touches. The next house is still a mystery, and dreams do change over the years. I've started dreaming about one-room schoolhouses more than log cabins, for example. And John dreams of timber framing.

Anyway, one thing that jumped out at me when reading about Proenneke's log cabin was that his logs were only notched on one side, not on both sides like Lincoln Logs are. The notched side fits over the rounded log below, but each log remains rounded on its top side. Only one side was notched because if both sides were notched, a hollow would be created where water could collect and rot the log (doink).

In Little House on the Prairie (see Chapter 5, "The House on the Prairie"), Garth Williams illustrated the Ingalls cabin as being built with logs notched on both the upper and lower surfaces of each log. If you read Wilder's description of how the cabin was built, however, it suggests that Charles Ingalls did indeed only notch the underside of each log.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:32 AM

 
wild prairie roses

Rose Wilder Lane was named after the prairie rose (Rosa arkansana or sometimes Rosa blanda), a shrub native to seven states: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Prairie roses can be grown in many more states, however, from Montana to Texas. The genus name comes from the Arkansas River at Canon City, Colorado.

The photo above is of a member of the rose family (Rosaceae), which contains over 100 species; this particular wild rose grows outside my back door here in Bozeman, Montana. Although now covered in snow, I remembered its beauty today and found the photo I had taken in June, still in the camera.

Wild prairie rose is a small shrub which grows from one to three feet tall, usually dying back each winter. Stems are covered with reddish thorns. The five-petalled flowers are about two inches wide and vary from pink to white to deeper rose, depending on growing conditions. Flowers bloom on new growth only, with three or more flowers per branch. There are many varieties and hybrids of wild prairie roses. One subspecies is Rosa arkansana Porter, named for Thomas Conrad Porter (1822-1901); in 1874, he first described the prairie rose for science.

You can find prairie roses growing on the open prairies, in pastures, and along roads and wooded areas. Laura and Mary Ingalls gathered prairie roses on the Ingalls homestead in De Smet, and there are wild roses still growing in the area. It is not the state flower of South Dakota, however; pasque flower has that honor.

In The First Four Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that she asked Almanzo what they should name the child they were waiting to be born, and he replied that they couldn't pick a name because they didn't know if it would be a boy or a girl. After a silence, Laura supposedly said, "It will be a girl and we will call her Rose." In Pioneer Girl, Laura wrote this about wild prairie roses: In June the wild roses bloomed. They were a low-growing bush and, when in bloom, the blossoms made masses of wonderful color, all shades of pink all over the prairie. And the sweetest roses that ever bloomed.

A private note to daughter Rose in the manuscript added: You are their namesake, my dear.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
the cost of coal
I was doing a bit of catch-up research on the Cooleys, so I stopped to read On the Way Home. I only have two published copies available at the moment (gingham paperback, first printing; and First Harper Trophy edition, 1976, hardback). Both have a typo in them that really jumped out at me this time.

August 21 - "...Coal is lying around on top of the ground and cropping out of every bank. At the coal mines, or coal banks as they call them, the coal is worth $5. a bushel." Compare this to something in the August 17 entry - "...There is a coal bank where men mine the coal and sell all they dig for $1.25 a ton."

I don't know about you, but if I had been the Wilders and Cooleys, I'd gone back to the $1.25/ton place and gone into the business of selling it for $5/bushel at Fort Scott!

Of course, the handwritten diary entry says that coal was 5 ¢ (cents) per bushel; Laura used the common symbol of a "c" with a "slash" through it, not the dollar sign. I could understand if the published text read $ .05 or something, but it's clearly five dollars and clearly a typo.

If anyone feels like checking different editions, I wish you'd let me know what yours say. I know that HarperCollins has corrected a few long-standing typos in the most recently published editions, but not all of them. That's the trouble with having a computer rather than an obsessed LIW purist doing your proof-reading for you. Btw, HC, I'm available, and I'll do it for free.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
no good to eat nor for anything else

There is a reference to Osage Oranges (Maclura pomifera) in Laura Ingalls Wilder's published On the Way Home diary entry dated August 14: "...Along the roads are hedges of Osage Orange trees, 20 or 30 feet high, set close together. They are thorny. Their fruit is like green oranges, but no good to eat nor for anything else."

The thing is: there is no reference whatsoever to Osage Oranges or thorn apples (another common name) in the handwritten diary itself. Anywhere. One wonders who thought it important to add this little bit of information to the published diary, and why?

Granted, the Osage Orange is an interesting tree and it does grow in the Topeka area (where the Wilders were when the orange-less diary entry was written). When French settlers ventured west of the Mississippi River, they found the Osage Indians, just as the Ingallses did when they settled in Indian Territory. The Osage Indians were known for their superior bows and other weapons used for fighting and hunting. The tree used by the Osage to make bows was unknown to the French, who called it bois d'arc, or "wood of the bow." Pioneers called it bowdark, and eventually it became known as bow-wood.

Pioneers soon learned that the Osage Orange was a valuable resource. It was used in everything that demanded a tough, strong wood, most notably in wagon wheels and rims. It was also found to be extremely useful as a living hedge. Osage orange was easily propagated and grew fast, but only to 20-30 feet high. In a few years it formed a tight, dense hedge with thorny branches that kept livestock where it belonged. It was easier to plant a living fence of Osage Orange rather than maintain fences themselves. The female trees produce a bright green, hard, softball-sized inedible fruit.

The last time I went to Rocky Ridge Farm, Cheryl/Jan/Yvonne and I drove to the Wayside, Kansas "Little House" site. I had never seen an Osage Orange, and when we were driving on dirt roads along the Verdigris River, I stopped the car and got out and picked up a few of the fruits. Of course I was laughed at, because they stink, you can't eat them, and "osage oranges aren't good for anything," just as Laura said.

But when we got back to Mansfield, I asked a native what Osage Oranges were good for, and she told me. I just wish I had one right about now, because there's someone I sure would like to knock the piss out of.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:25 PM

 
almanzo wilder did it
As did Carleton Fuller, Susie Power, Dan Loftus, Willard Seelye, Sam Owen, Charles Dawley, Henry Hinz, James McKee, and a host of other Kingsbury County homesteaders. "Do what?" you ask?

Took advantage of the Act of June 15, 1880. This law -- which is not the one that has to do with water rights and the Ute Indians, but there was another law passed on that day that did -- gave homesteaders who filed under the Homestead Act of 1862 and those who held tree claims filed under the Timber Culture Act of 1873 the right to convert - or commute - those claims to preemption claims. They could then pay cash for the land and not have to meet the five year residency requirement for homesteads or plant all those trees on a timber culture.

A settler was still only allowed to prove up on one homestead, one preemption claim, and one tree claim (each up to 160 acres in size), but once this Act was passed, homesteaders were converting claims right and left. Of course, many of these men and women were also turning around and selling their newly patented land right and left, suggesting that a lot more homesteaders went into the homesteading process with selling rather than settling in mind.

James McKee is a prime example. Although Laura Ingalls Wilder suggested in These Happy Golden Years that the McKee claim was a homestead and that Mrs. McKee complained about the lengthy residency requirement for homesteading which usually meant that the men stayed in town working while the women stayed on the claim "holding it down," this wasn't the case with the McKee family. Their claim north of Manchester where Laura went to stay with Mrs. McKee and daughter Mattie (actually Mary) had originally been filed on as a tree claim; thus, there was no residency requirement involved at all. When Mr. McKee decided to convert it to a preemption claim, suddenly there was the six months' residency requirement that had to be met. This is when Mrs. McKee, her daughter, and Laura Ingalls moved to the claim.

Exactly six months to the day after converting the claim to a preemption, Mr. McKee proved up on it and promptly sold the land at a profit. The McKees then picked up and moved away. The family most likely never intended to stay in Kingsbury County after final proof.
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:02 PM

 
railroad shanties
One last comment about By the Shores of Silver Lake: I just don't get the whole Silver Lake railroad camp concept. I can understand that the camp moved from the Brookings area to Silver Lake, and that it involved the tearing down and rebuilding of boarding shanties, offices and barns, etc. What I don't understand is what was left of the Silver Lake camp after all the men left? All of the buildings? Some of them? None but the surveyors' house? Except remember that suddenly the "office" used by the surveyors appears when the Boasts arrive and need a place to stay...

But obviously some of the rest of the buildings were left in place over the winter, which doesn't exactly go along with Laura walking by "the soiled spots where the camp had been" when they leave Pa's (still standing) shanty to move to the surveyors' house. Wouldn't these buildings or others be needed farther west at a camp the following summer? The grading was in Huron during the summer of 1880.

It mostly gets confusing when homesteaders start to arrive on the scene in late winter / early spring and the surveyors house suddenly seems to be the only place where men can stay. What about the shanty the Ingallses had lived in before winter set it? It had three bunks. What about the boarding shanty? Since the Ingallses' stove is just being stored in the back room, why not put it in one of the existing buildings and let the men go gather their own brush to burn - and stay there? Why not burn lumber from some of the railroad buildings?

Why, too, do the men need to be "fed" and have "beds" provided for them in the first place? More than once, Ma takes one of the girls' beds and apologizes that there aren't covers enough, to which the men reply that they will "use their overcoats." Suppose these greenhorns (and others not so green) hadn't found anyone between the Big Sioux and the Jim (which most seemed to think would be the case)? Would they have both starved and frozen to death because they had NO food and NO blankets/bedrolls with them? Surely these men knew how many miles they had to go to reach their destinations and realized that at least their horses would need to rest and be fed at some point?

Which begs the question: Since the Ingallses had run an actual hotel in the past (Burr Oak), why didn't Pa build rush to build one (even to sell later) as soon as homesteaders started arriving? Why not set up a hotel in the boarding and cook shanties? They were running what amounted to a hotel, anyway, and the entire family realized what a lucrative business it was going to be for someone. Mr. Beardsley arrives with a load of lumber with which to build a hotel, but the Ingallses have been living there for months with plenty of lumber available. It's not like Pa doesn't use the railroad lumber to build his store building that spring, is it? That's what Laura says, and whether Pa paid the railroad for it later is beside the point.

All the talk about Ma and the girls making $42.50 is one thing. According to LIW, the family left Plum Creek with their debts paid. What about the $300 Pa made before the camp closed for the winter with "not a penny going out before spring"?
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:30 AM

 
a muskrat's winter home
From St. Nicholas magazine, October 1938:

When late autumn comes, you are likely to see the dome-shaped houses of the muskrat down along the marsh or in a shallow pond or creek. Often there are several of them in a group, for muskrats tend to be sociable.

Strangely enough, a muskrat builds its winter lodging out of the food it likes best to eat. Grasses, rushes, and the stems and leaves of water plants are gathered and placed on the bottom of the pond or slow-moving stream as a foundation. Then, without any special arrangement, more plants are heaped on the first ones and plastered with mud until the house becomes a dome-shaped structure, rising sometimes two or three feet above the water.

The part of the house above the water is hollowed out for a living-room, and from this room one or more tunnels lead down through the stems, roots, and leaves into the water below the point where the water would freeze. This is so that the owners will not be ice-bound, for the part of the house above the water usually has no openings except perhaps an airhole or two.

Muskrats build their dome-shaped winter homes only where shores are flat. Where shores are high, they burrow into the banks and use these snug underground hiding-places as both winter and summer homes.

The muskrat's winter lodge made of plants is much like the one constructed by the beaver except that it is smaller and not so strongly built.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:34 AM

 
good dogs have their reward

Today was what we will forever call "puppy weather" - cold, windy, and snowy, the best kind of day when you're an Alaskan malamute. Although Georgia died a year ago and we had her body cremated, we had never done anything with her ashes. Should they be buried in the yard of the house we were about to sell? Should they be scattered along the Grant Creek trail where she spent her puppyhood or around the Elk Grove pond where she loved to swim as an old dog?

Today, John and I scattered Georgia's ashes in the woods along the Continental Divide (elevation at the road: 6393 feet) where we hiked to from near Homestake Lake in Montana. It was 29 degrees and snowing, the first real snowfall of the season.

Thank you, Georgia, for every day of the ten short years you shared with us. You will always be missed and always fondly remembered, especially when it's puppy weather.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:57 AM

 
famous last words
I just finished reading By the Shores of Silver Lake again. This reading, I made note of the times Charles Ingalls said something would happen or be one way, then it wasn't. I don't know if Laura was writing what really happened or if these were merely plot devices. But for what it's worth, here are the ones that jumped out at me:

(1) In the beginning of the book, Pa says he'll be able to draw fifty dollars a month while looking for a homestead. Yet, he doesn't even bother to look at land near the Big Sioux camp (where he has been until September, when Ma and the girls join him), and he still hasn't had time to look for a homestead when they are settled in the Surveyors' house. It's not until wintertime that he "stumbles" upon the homestead site, and it doesn't seem as if he's been looking in the meantime.

(2) When talking about the buffalo wolf tracks Pa sees around the barn, he says he'd "hate to meet one without a gun." Yet that's exactly what Carrie and Laura do, because Pa was "careless" and thought all the wolves had left.

(3) Pa says that he "doesn't believe the winters are going to be so bad" in Dakota Territory. Later in the winter, he says that "if this is a sample of a Dakota winter (i.e. mild), then he's glad they came west." Ha! Think what the next book is...

(4) Once Pa finds the homestead, he says he can "get out to Brookings and file on that claim next spring before anybody else is looking for a homestead." But settlers start arriving before spring!

(5) The family moves into Pa's store building and he says they'll "be warm enough now that spring has come." But there's a blizzard shortly after they move in.

I have something else to say about By the Shores of Silver Lake, but it can wait for another day.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:34 AM

 
tupperware
A friend recently asked me if I thought Laura Ingalls Wilder had ever used Tupperware. Well now, that's something I'd never thought about before!

It wasn't until the 1950s that Tupperware parties were all the rage; Tupperware sold in stores earlier hadn't really caught on. It doesn't seem likely to me that Laura was attending Tupperware parties during the last half-decade of her life. Besides, what need would she have for new-fangled storage containers and drinkware?

I don't remember anything like Tupperware on display at Rocky Ridge, either - not in the kitchen itself or in the museum. Then again, Laura had left the contents of her house to Neta Seal (with the exception of a few things). Shortly after Laura's death - when it was decided that the home would become a museum - most of the household items and furniture were purchased back from Mrs. Seal. It would make sense that "food storage containers" might not be on the list of things desirable for the home or museum. After all, you don't see canning jars on display, and surely Laura had some of those.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:53 AM

 
contagious laughter
We don't even know what the joke is, but when Mr. Boast laughs--" Laura said to Mrs. Boast. / Mrs. Boast was laughing too. "It's contagious, she said." (By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 20, "The Night Before Christmas")

I have been sitting here trying to think of a person - at some time, somewhere - who made me laugh when they laughed, whose laughter was (as Mr. Boast's supposedly was) contagious. I must be an awfully somber person or hang around with awfully somber friends, because I can't think of a soul. Not now. Not ever.

I even tried to think of comedians or actors I've seen on televison, in person, or in movies. Still nothing. I can't think of a single time in my whole life when I heard someone laugh and it made me laugh, even though I had no clue "what the joke was." There are plenty of smiles out there; people whose smile makes me smile. But outright laughter? Nope...
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:00 AM

 
happy birthday, freddy
On this date in "Little House" history... Charles Frederic Ingalls was born in 1875 in North Hero Township (Redwood County) Minnesota. The Ingalls family Bible records his name as Charles Frederic (no k), but most people assume Ma meant to spell it the traditional way, and do so. Laura always wrote his name as "Freddy."
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM