i'm dreaming of a white christmas...
...and when the white runs out, I'll be drinking the red.

Heading out to spend the holidays doing holiday-type stuff in stressful family-type situations. I hope Santa is good to you, whether he arrives on pack mule or by sleigh.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:14 PM

 
two dozen years
When Lansford and Laura Ingalls had been married 24 years, they had both grown children and two children under the age of five.

When James and Angeline Wilder had been married 24 years, they were two years away from having their last child.

When Charles and Caroline Ingalls had been married 24 years, they had a child in college and had yet to prove up on their homestead.

When Almanzo and Laura Wilder had been married 24 years, Laura had yet to publish a single Ruralist article, and the "Little House" books were still over twenty years in their future.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
why misuse of the word "homestead" bothers me so much... again
Recently there have been questions asked on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Literary Society as to why it makes Nancy (me) so upset for the museum formerly known as the Wilder Farm to change its name to the Wilder Homestead.

Let me assure you that it makes me every bit as upset for the "Little House" site near Malone, New York, to call itself the Wilder Homestead as it does for the site near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, to call itself the Ingalls Homestead.

The men and women who work for or are in charge of the various "Little House" historical homesites and museums are guardians of history. They should, of course, strive for accuracy in all aspects of their operation, which in the case of the Ingalls / Wilder museums and the "Little House" books is multi-fold. There will always be visitors who come to the "Little House" legacy with varied knowledge. This includes not only those who travel there in person but who visit the museum websites and discussion forums, or who read publications which mention or showcase these sites and book characters. People may be familiar with the "Little House" books themselves, have watched the "Little House on the Prairie" television series or made-for-television miniseries, have read one or more biographies of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or have done actual historical research on pioneering or homesteading. They may have little interest in or knowledge about Laura Ingalls Wilder herself.

It wouldn't be that big of a deal if we were talking about what one tourist attraction decided to call itself, and why. But because there are multiple "Little House" books and multiple "Little House" sites, what one site does affects the others, whether they are working together under one mission statement or see themselves as separate entities.

There is an Ingalls Homestead in Minnesota and an Ingalls Homestead in South Dakota; there's a Wilder Homestead in New York and a Wilder Homestead in South Dakota. One Ingalls Homestead was a homestead. One Wilder Homestead was a homestead. There's a "Little House on the Prairie" site in Kansas, but any television show fan will tell you that "Little House on the Prairie" was set in Minnesota. Where was the Blind School again? Did Mary marry? Who was Albert? Is it Al-MAN-zo or Al-MON-zo?

There are truths to uphold and honor in all areas of the Laura Ingalls Wilder legacy -- including the "Little House" books, the television show, and in the Ingalls and Wilder events in history. All are important. All deserve to be respected and reported accurately in context. Sometimes "what happened" is the same in all three cases. Sometimes it is vastly different. It is these differences that must be addressed and not confused. It would be one thing if each site presented one fictional version of "Little House" only, but they don't. People in Walnut Grove, for example, tell you about the historical Bedal and Owens families as well as the fictional Beadles and Olesons. Some fictional things are easy to clarify in a historical context. Some take study and effort to get right.

Homesteading is a difficult concept to understand, therefore it should be more thoroughly studied and carefully explained, not glossed over or ignored.

An underlying theme of most of the "Little House" books is, in fact, HOMESTEADING. In Little House on the Prairie, Pa believes that land in Indian Territory will be made available to settlers soon. To many, this implies homesteading. History tells us that this land would have been available for preemption, not homesteading. On the Banks of Plum Creek is the story of trying to get ahead after the disappointments in Indian Territory. History tells us that the men and women who settled the area obtained their land in a number of ways: trade, purchase, preemption, homesteading, or timber culture. While fictional Charles Ingalls traded goods for land, history tells us that the real Charles Ingalls proved up on a preemption claim and filed on both a homestead and tree claim while in Redwood County, Minnesota. By the Shores of Silver Lake is the story of homesteading in Kingsbury County, Dakota Territory, on "free" land which is supposed to make up for the fact that the government denied the Ingallses land in Indian Territory years earlier. The other De Smet "Little House" books: The Long Winter, Little Town on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, and The First Four Years (published after Wilder's death) continue the pioneer story of homesteading and final proof of claims in Dakota Territory, not only by Charles Ingalls, but by children of James Wilder as well as many other fictional characters with historical counterparts. History tells us that Charles Ingalls not only homesteaded but held a tree claim in Kingsbury County for a while, and that Royal, Eliza Jane, and Almanzo Wilder held both homestead and tree claims, and that Almanzo Wilder made final proof on a homestead, yet converted his tree claim to a preemption.

There is no question that the "Little House" books are historical fiction. But they are fictionalized accounts of extremely important events in history, and they are set during the time when the historical significance of three events not only was paramount, but dictated the course of events by both the historical and fictional Ingalls family. The Preemption Act of 1841, the Homestead Act of 1862, and the Timber Culture Act of 1873 are of great importance to the "Little House" story - both fictional and historical - even if Laura Ingalls Wilder chose not to label and define these Acts specifically in her books. It is highly likely that Wilder assumed that homesteading, preemption, and timber culture needed no further explanation by virtue of importance in history.

During the years the Ingalls and Wilder families were buying, selling, mortgaging, farming, settling, homesteading, traveling over, or claiming land, the differences in what they were doing would NOT have been misused or mislabeled. They should not be misused today, if for no other reason that it was during this important period in history that the Ingallses and Wilders lived, one which Laura Ingalls Wilder chose to immortalize in the "Little House" books, the popularity of which is the main reason the heritage homesites were founded.

The Preemption Act, the Homestead Act, and the Timber Culture Act are what led the Ingallses (and some of the Wilders) on their pioneer journeys and found them settled in the same place at the end of their travels.

The word homestead no doubt existed long before the Homestead Act. But from its passage well into the 20th century, a homestead was a legal term which meant one very specific thing to most people. Yes, the word has come to mean other things than its use in connection to the Homestead Act. But don't the "Little House" books concern the Homestead Act, not present-day life?

James Wilder did NOT homestead in New York. He lived on a farm he had purchased outright from a previous owner. Although a preemption was also land purchased with cash, James Wilder also didn't live on a claim. James Wilder NEVER homesteaded, he never lived on a homestead, his land was never a homestead, and it shouldn't be called a homestead today. James Wilder never filed on a claim, he never lived on a claim, his land never was a claim (either in New York or in Minnesota), and it shouldn't be called a claim today, either. There are Wilder homesteads in "Little House" history, however; they were the homestead claims filed on with final proof made by Royal Wilder, Eliza Jane Wilder, and Almanzo Wilder.

Charles Ingalls proved up on a homestead in Kingsbury County. It is rightfully called the Ingalls Homestead. The Gordon farm north of Walnut Grove was never Charles Ingalls' homestead, and it should not be called the Ingalls Homestead. It was Charles Ingalls' preemption claim; if it must be called something, call it what it was, not what it wasn't. Charles Ingalls' homestead claim (which he relinquished prior to final proof) is several miles from the preemption (dugout) site. It is privately owned and not advertised or shown as a tourist attraction, so it has yet to become part of this debate. Suppose the owners decided to put up an "Ingalls Homestead" sign and allow you to visit for a fee. Would that cause confusion, or would it be okay?

The only analogy I can come up with is to pretend, if you will, that the "Little House" museums are Civil War related. Today, they exist in what were formerly Union or Confederate states and perhaps they are located where important battles were fought. So what if the curators and workers in those museums mislabel the Union and Confederate artifacts and confuse Union and Confederate soldiers on occasion? They're all soldiers, right? What does it matter if you confuse who was whom?

It's all just land, right? What does it matter what you call it?
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:44 PM

 
how good an orange tastes
In Little Town on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls attends Ben Woodworth's birthday party, and each guest is served an orange to eat along with their slice of cake. Laura comments that "she had once eaten part of an orange, so she knew how good an orange tastes." (See Chapter 20, "The Birthday Party.")

The trouble is, there had been no previous mention of oranges at all in any "Little House" book, so where had Laura once tasted one?

The answer lies in the manuscript for On the Banks of Plum Creek. Edited out of the church Christmas tree chapter was the fact that "there was a little bag of candy, a bag of popcorn and an orange for each girl and boy."
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:27 AM

 
santa has to have help
In the handwritten manuscript for On the Banks of Plum Creek, Laura Ingalls Wilder tells the "Christmas horses" story a little differently.

Pa asks Laura and Mary if they would be willing to go without any presents if Santa Claus will bring them a team of horses. When Christmas comes and Pa takes them to see the horses, Mary and Laura look at them quietly. Laura points out that Santa Claus couldn't have brought the horses because she has seen Mr. Johnson driving them in the past. Pa is surprised that Laura "would know them," and Ma says "it's time to explain."

Pa says that even with a team of reindeer, Santa Claus couldn't get to every house in one night, and while he exists and leaves presents for very little children, everyone else must help him out by providing presents for each other. Since Pa has said that Santa exists, Laura asks where Santa lives, and at this point Pa needs Ma's help. Ma sends Pa in to his breakfast and tells Laura and Mary that "Santa Claus is the spirit or feeling of Christmas and can come through a closed door or down a chimney or even a stovepipe and be everywhere at once... that people all over the world think kind thoughts on Christmas and show their thoughts by gifts." Both big and little gifts mean the same thing - a loving thought.

From the-north-pole.com: The American version of the Santa Claus figure received its inspiration and its name from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, brought by settlers to New York in the 17th century.

As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as "St. A Claus," but it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. In his History of New York, published in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback (or pack mule in Indian Territory...) each Eve of Saint Nicholas.

This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas," more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas," written by Clement Clarke Moore. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer; Santa Claus's laughs, winks, and nods; and the method by which Saint Nicholas, referred to as an elf, returns up the chimney.

Where Laura and Mary Ingalls first heard the story of Santa Claus and his reindeer is unknown, but this Christmas story (see On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapters 12 and 13, "The Christmas Horses" and "A Merry Christmas") always makes me a little sad, and I'm probably not the only mother who skirted Wilder's explanation of Santa Claus when first reading the book aloud to her own children. In the published version, Laura and Mary are supposedly six and seven years old this first Christmas at Plum Creek, and I always wished they had been allowed to be two "of the very little children" a while longer.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:54 AM

 
ask the gingerbread lady
THE PROBLEM
14 adults. 7 children. 2 babies. 3 maybe adults. 14 chairs. How to divide evenly to sit down for dinner. One table in kitchen for children. One dining room table that seats 6 cozily. Two 4 foot folding tables. I could use Pottery Barn benches for seating at folding tables. Should I serve roast beef for meat course when I only own 5 steak knives? 3 guests are allergic to cats.

THE SOLUTION
Set cozy table for six. Keep back a layer cake and a couple of the best pies. Snag first child through the door and wrap in apron; they will wash dishes. Pin a towel to the next available child; they wipe. Hostess and dish washers eat last. Hostess runs around refilling coffee and tea cups. Make sure one person at table at all times is too young to use a steak knife. Those finished eating can congregate around the fireplace and sing. Babies and young children can fall asleep on Pottery Barn benches. Send cat outside to ki-yi-yi neighborhood dogs.

May I suggest roast pork instead of beef? Steaming barrel of potatoes bursting their jackets only adds to the goodness.
- posted by pioneergirl at 4:07 PM

 
unshelved

Mumpsmaster (who works under her real name in a real library) introduced me to the "Unshelved" comic strip. It is so spot-on, especially to someone (me!) who spends a disproportionate amount of her time in libraries by choice, often in front of a cranky microfilm reader. I read "Unshelved" daily; see the link to your right.

I was sitting at the computer just now, researching the grandson of an obscure "Little House" character, when the Sunday strip was delivered to my in-box. It can be delivered to your inbox, too; see the link to your right. On Sunday, "Unshelved" recommends a book; today's book is Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Way to go, Dewey!!

Or rather, the book recommendation will be Farmer Boy later this afternoon. A short time after the cartoon was posted, it was removed. Turns out that the posted strip was an unfinished version; the lovely colorized and complete cartoon will be online later today, once the artist has finished enjoying himself at some Christmas functions. I'd just like to point out that I liked it in its unfinished state; it was so Dewey-like in its disregard for the Father Wilder sentiments expressed in the strip. I, for one, wouldn't mind if Bill drank way too much at said Christmas function and had to post the original version after all. Later: Click HERE to see the final product.

Someday, Bill Barnes and Gene Ambaum will do a cartoon about microfilm readers. Trust me; microfilm readers are really funny to some of us.
- posted by pioneergirl at 3:12 AM

 
...and she ought to know!
First of all, I would like to say that I do have a bit of a problem with possessives and possessive plurals on occasion. That being said, it has always bothered me that people commonly use "the Ingalls" when context suggests that they don't mean one member of the Ingalls family; they mean the whole family. "The Story of the Ingalls" is one example. That one always makes me think of "the Donald." The booklet isn't the story of Laura, or just one person with the surname Ingalls, so it should be "The Story of the Ingallses" to be grammatically correct.

Note this from The First Four Years:

The holidays were near and something must be done about them. The Boast and the Ingalls families had spent them together whenever they could. Thanksgiving dinner at the Boasts', Christmas dinner at the Ingallses' home. Now with Laura and Manly, there was a new family, and it was agreed to add another gathering to those two holidays. New Year's should be celebrated at the Wilders'.

Both the handwritten manuscript and the published book read the same, except that in the manuscript, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that "New Year's should be celebrated at the new home."

Christmas dinner at the Ingallses' home? Thank you, Laura!
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:29 AM

 
butchering?
Laura Ingalls Wilder writes in The First Four Years that the fall after she and Almanzo were married, "Manly butchered his fat hog and Laura had her first experience making sausage, head cheese, and lard all by herself."

Wilder made a point of mentioning in Little Town on the Prairie that while Carrie could remember butchering, Grace only remembered Dakota Territory, and the only meat she knew "was the salt, white, fat pork that Pa bought sometimes." (See Chapter 4, "The Happy Days.") In Chapter 19 ("The Whirl of Gaiety"), Laura notes specifically "the rich, oily, brown smell of roasted pork, that Laura had not smelled for so long." Of course the "Little House" books are fiction, but readers hadn't been exposed to butchering and fresh pork since Little House in the Big Woods.

So, how did Laura know how to make sausage, head cheese, and lard? In real life, did Charles Ingalls ever raise or purchase hogs for butchering after the family left the Big Woods of Wisconsin? One can only suppose that if newly-married Laura Wilder knew how to make sausage, head cheese, and lard at all, she must have learned to do so by observing and working with her mother in years past.

It's interesting to note that while Almanzo Wilder usually declared one or more "swine" (usally valued at about one dollar each) on his personal property taxes in Kingsbury County, Charles Ingalls seems to never have raised pork while living there.
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:24 AM

 
"i wish i had a mitten for my nose"

In The Long Winter (Chapter 26, "Breathing Spell"), Laura Ingalls Wilder tells of the special joke that Pa and Grace share. When Pa comes home from hauling hay, Grace asks Pa if his nose had frozen.

Of course in this weather Pa's ears and his nose froze so that he had to rub them with snow to thaw them. He pretended to Grace that his nose grew longer every time it froze, and Grace pretended to believe that it did. This was their own special joke.

"Froze it five or six times today," Pa answered her, tenderly feeling his red, swollen nose.

"If spring doesn't come soon, I'm going to have a nose as long as an elephant's. Ears like an elephant's, too." That made Grace laugh.

In the handwritten The Hard Winter manuscript, Laura added a bit to the joke. Pa comments that he "wishes he had a mitten for his nose."

Today is the coldest day so far in my little part of Montana. It's below zero after noon, even though the sun is shining. The perfect day for staying indoors or, if you have to be out in it, wearing your nose mitten. Lo and behold, there are other people that know the benefits of nose mittens. You can read about it HERE.

Last winter I knitted some nose mittens. If you're a knitter and have knitted socks, a nose mitten is no more than toe of a sock knitted as pointy as you like. There are instructions for knitting your own nose mitten (or nosewarmer, as the designer remembers them). I like the tassel on the point.

I actually was going to brave the elements to build a small snowman to model a nose warmer for the blog photo, but our snow is as fine as sand and won't pack into a snowball. So I used the next best thing - the face of a clock!
- posted by pioneergirl at 4:59 PM

 
happy birthday, rose
One year in the early nineties when I went to Mansfield, Missouri, for Rocky Ridge Day, two friends and I set up a ouija board at Friendship House and the two of them summoned Rose Wilder Lane while I watched. I can't remember what they asked and what was answered, but I remember that the board was talkative that night, and it scared me a bit. That was before I really knew anything about Rose.

It turns out that Rose was quite interested in the occult and the summoning of spirits. She apparently held table-rappings from time to time at Rocky Ridge Farmhouse while living there. While persons sat around a table with their hands placed lightly upon it, the spirits were summoned and asked to respond to questions by making tapping noises on the table top or legs. Sometimes the table itself would rise, or the persons seated around it would be pushed backwards by the spirit.

Shortly before Norma Lee Browning Ogg died, she spoke at another Rocky Ridge Day I attended. Mrs. Ogg was a close friend of Rose Wilder Lane's. There had been many activities held on the stage prior to her talk, including musicians and other speakers. But when Mrs. Ogg stood up to talk about Rose, there started being "problems" with the microphone, which was on a stand beside the speaker with a long arm holding the microphone itself. Repeatedly, the microphone fell from its proper position and had to be raised by Mrs. Ogg. She seemed not to pay any attention to it.

But the strangest thing occurred a few minutes later. While Mrs. Ogg was talking about Rose and her spiritual gatherings in the farmhouse in the background, an amplifier or speaker suddenly shot off the back of the platform and fell to the ground behind the tent. Nobody was near it; nobody was touching it. The platform was perfectly level, and it was as if someone simply pushed that box off the stage to get our attention.

I truly believe Rose was visiting her old friend that day.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:29 AM

 
it smells like christmas

I spent some time at the library today between snowstorms. One of the books I checked out was a reprint of Marion Harland's 1871 book, Common Sense in the Household: A Manual of Practical Housewifery.

The only gingerbread recipe I've ever baked was that made famous by Laura Ingalls Wilder. You've all seen it:

1 cup brown sugar blended with 1/2 cup lard or other shortening.
1 cup molasses mixed well with this.
2 teaspoons baking soda in 1 cup boiling water. (Be sure cup is full of water after foam is run off into cake mixture).
Mix all well.

To 3 cups of flour have added one teaspoon each of the following spices: ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves; and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sift all into cake mixture and mix well.

Add lastly 2 well-beaten eggs. The mixture should be quite thin. Bake in a moderate oven for thirty minutes.

Raisins and/or candied fruit may be added and a chocolate frosting adds to the goodness.

In looking through old cookbooks, however, I find recipe after recipe for gingerbread in which the only spice included is ginger. A spiced gingerbread contained the additional spices. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I won't be decorating for Christmas this year, but I baked a lovely pan of gingerbread tonight. So if it doesn't exactly look Christmasy here, it sure smells like it. If you don't want to bake gingerbread, but want the smell, you can always simmer ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice in water on the stove.

The photo above is of a gingerbread log cabin I made a few years ago. I used triple amounts of all spices and made a hole in the back so I could light it from within using a nightlight fixture. I didn't use Laura's recipe for the log cabin; I used one meant for gingerbread houses.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
they're baaaaack

Bedbugs, that is. There are approximately seven species of bedbugs (Cimex spp.) that will feed on humans. Bedbugs are small nocturnal creatures that feast on human blood, then scurry into hiding in order to digest their meal. Many cities are reporting a vast increase in the number of bedbug bite cases in recent months. Why? Most believe it's because of the increase in travel (the little buggers hide in luggage for a free trip to your house) and the decrease in pesticides once used to control them. Bedbugs not only bite and raise ugly, itching welts; at the beginning of the 20th century it was found that bedbugs were the diffusing agent for smallpox!

In 1962, Rose Wilder Lane wrote a letter in which she remembered bedbugs encountered at a hotel in Delphi:

Blow out the light and the onrush of... bedbugs was heard. Before you could scratch a match, the whitewashed ceiling was black - and I mean literally black - with the bugs... While the lamp burns, you order four dishes, set one leg of the bed in each, and fill the dish with kerosene. Over the lower sheet on the bed you spread evenly a layer of Keating's powder: when ready to sleep, you roll yourself deftly in the upper sheet, tucking in its ends to make a neat package of yourself... The final last fold, held open, lets you blow out the light and, quickly, quickly, you roll that and lie on it. All snugly wrapped up, lying in Keating's powder and in wrappings more or less smeared with it, on which the bugs patter down like rain from the ceiling. But I have slept many nights so, and often in the morning found that not even one survivor had penetrated the wrappings.

Pretty disgusting! Keating's Powder, by the way, was widely advertised over one hundred years ago as being "unrivalled in destroying every species of offensive insect, and is perfectly harmless to the smallest animal or bird." The active ingredient in Keating's Powder was pyrethrum, an extract of a species of chrysanthemum native to southeast Asia. Pyrethrins are still used today.

Special thanks to Mumpsmaster, who tracked down the November 4, 1962, bedbug letter from Rose Wilder Lane to Jasper Crane. See The Lady and The Tycoon: The Best of Letters Between Rose Wilder Lane and Jasper Crane, edited by Roger Lea MacBride. Published in 1973 by Claxton Printers, Ltd., Caldwell, Idaho.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM