ten

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 PM

 
nine

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
eight

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
seven

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
six

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
five

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
four

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
three

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
two

- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
one
I am counting to ten. Bear with me.
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
to the editor:
In yesterday's New York Times, there was a letter to the editor in which the writer said she "often wondered if some X-linked disorder" was responsible for the deaths of three generations of male children, sons of Caroline Ingalls, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Rose Wilder Lane. You can see the letter HERE; you might have to register before reading. The article which prompted Dr. Smith to write can also be found in the NYT archives.

In part, Dr. Smith wrote: [Laura's] only brother, a sickly infant, died at 9 months of age in 1876; her only son died in the month he was born in 1889; her only grandson died soon after birth in 1910. Dr. Smith admitted to me that the only Ingalls / Wilder / Lane research she based her letter on was reading William Anderson's Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography. A juvenile biography at that.

There is nothing to suggest that Freddy Ingalls had been a "sickly infant." Laura's only account of Freddy's death is found in her handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, in which she writes: Little Brother was not well and the Dr. came. I thought that would cure him as it had Ma when the Dr. came to see her. But little Brother got worse instead of better and one awful day he straightened out his little body and was dead.

Freddy's death certificate at the Wabasha County (Iowa) courthouse gives his cause of death as "diarrhora" (spelled diarrhea today). Genetics or bad water?

Less is known about the death of Laura's son: Laura was doing her own work again one day three weeks later when the baby was taken with spasms, and he died so quickly that the doctor was too late. (The First Four Years, "A Year of Grace").

Even less is known about Rose's baby. Rose Wilder Lane wrote about it in only two letters. All she said what that she had had a son, and that he died. As William Holtz wrote in Ghost in the Little House, there is not enough to even know if the child was a live birth, still birth, or miscarriage.

This doesn't rule out an X-chromosome disorder, and Dr. Smith certainly isn't the first person to wonder about the possibility. Yes, Eliza and Caroline Quiner were sisters who married Ingalls brothers, and Eliza Ingalls had three sons. The way these things work, Caroline could have carried and passed along a genetic abnormality that Eliza wasn't born with.

Smith also wrote that the death [sic?] of Rose's child "deprived Charles and Caroline Ingalls of their only great-grandchild." It may have deprived Caroline Ingalls of the joy of having a great-grandchild, but Charles Ingalls had died seven years prior to Rose's marriage, so I honestly don't see how he was deprived, except, of course, genetically.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:24 PM

 
reverend brown roared



Repent ye!
Repent ye while yet there is time,
Time to be my Valentine!


xoxxo
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
too rich for little girls

A friend brought me some cracklings (called cracklins if you were born in the south, like I was). Not the hard-as-rocks skin-laden stuff you sometimes find in the grocery store (and certainly not that fried-protein-matrix-chip-like-snack-food), but the honest-to-goodness by-product of lard rendered in a cast-iron pot over an open fire. You'd think I was trying to use as many hyphenated words as possible in the previous sentence, wouldn't you?

In Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 1, "Little House in the Big Woods"), Ma makes cracklings as part of the butchering process. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote: Cracklings were very good to eat, but Laura and Mary could only have a taste. They were too rich for little girls, Ma said.

Cracklings are easy to make if you don't mind handling lots of pig fat and aren't worried about burning your house down. Don't use your inside stove, though, or your house will smell for months.

To make cracklings, cut pieces of pork fat (the fat around the kidneys is best, or so they say) into bits about two inches wide and four inches long. Rinse and drain. Put over a slow fire in a heavy iron vessel rather thick bottomed. Add a little cold water- a cupful to a gallon of cut up fat, and let cook gently until the lumps of fat color faintly. Increase heat until there is a mild bubbling; keep the bubbling steady, stirring often to make sure no lump of fat sticks to the pot and scorches, until all the lumps are crisp brown cracklings. They should be bright brown, not dark; if dark the lard will be colored slightly, and this will ruin the lard. Strain through a sieve into a clean tin vessel, newly scalded. Put the cracklings into a bag of stout crash, and press hard between two clean boards until no more fat runs from them. (Recipe from Martha McCulloch Williams' Dishes & Beverages of the Old South, 1913.)

Crash is a coarse, light woven fabric of linen or cotton, used for towels and curtains. Most people today would remove the cracklings from the lard with a slotted spoon and place them on layers of paper towels to drain. You want to keep the temperature of the fat at about 350 degrees; if it starts to smoke, you're close to having to call the fire department.

Uh, I actually intended to blog about crackling cornbread, but that can wait until another day. I just hope the cracklings last until then...
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:04 PM

 
"what is this," she wondered?
I've been studying the existing handwritten manuscript for On the Banks of Plum Creek the past few days. Laura called it Wild Plum Creek, and there were two parts: "Part I, On the Right Bank," and "Part II, On the Left Bank."

What I've noticed most is how Laura punctuates conversation.... incorrectly! She makes the same mistakes through the entire manuscript. For example:

Hullo Bright," Pa said to him! And how are you Pete, old fellow," he asked the other as he slapped him gently on the hip?

"Better get back out of the way Laura 'till I see how these cattle act. We've got to take them to the creek to water." Pete and Bright led nicely and soon they had drunk their fill and were back in the stable.

"Pa!" Laura asked as they went back to the dugout house? Pa! Did Pet and Patty truly want to go back west?"

"Yes Laura! Don’t worry about them," Pa exclaimed!

It's a little painful to read after a while.

The thing is, Laura has no trouble with punctuating conversation in the manuscripts for Little House in the Big Woods, Farmer Boy, or Little House on the Prairie, which came before this one. And you'd think that even if the earlier book manuscripts are later versions while the Plum Creek draft is an early version, Laura surely would have learned how to punctuate conversation while writing or copying examples so many times in the previous manuscripts, right?

Btw, Big Woods seems to be a "close to perfect" manuscript while Farmer Boy is quite different, but fairly polished. Little House on the Prairie is a nightmare! Jumbled pages and sentences that trail off to nothingness, and crossed-out words and phrases galore! (There's also a cute story about a dancing rabbit that Laura tried and tried to include in LHP but Rose must have had her way about that one...) I have nothing to base this on other than gut feelings, but it seems to me that Laura tried to write LHP after BW and just... couldn't... so she started FB because she could use pretty much the same formula used in BW.

The later manuscripts handle conversation punctuation correctly, in case you wondered. Why in the world is Plum Creek the odd man out?

And I have a grammar announcement of my own to make. After pondering plurals for decades, I finally broke down and looked something up in a grammar text, because spelling isn't the only stupid thing about words, you know. Punctuation is weird too (just think about the use of its and it's). From now on, I'll know what I'm doing when writing the plural of numbers or letters, words used as words, and acronyms: they require an apostrophe... if you wish!

In the 1880's/1800s (Chicago Manual of Style says no apostrophe), Laura taught school.
Did you make three A's and two B's?
You used too many and's/ands in that sentence.
How many C.D.'s do you own?

"You'll never learn any younger!" exclaimed Pa.

[UPDATE] And of course, grammar is like spelling because there are always exceptions to the rule and rules that aren't rules but are really just choices. Grammar is hard. But you've got to admit that there's something weird about Laura's crazy punctiation in the Plum Creek manuscript when it doesn't happen in the other manuscripts!
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:50 PM

 
horace holcomb died, too

A blogging friend recently asked me to check their facts in a Cap Garland blog. (I haven't left a comment yet, Mary; I will!) The De Smet newspaper archive doesn't include papers during the time Cap's death was surely reported, so there are fewer details about his death than one would expect.

Apparently Cap ran the "separator" part of a threshing machine rig for a man named Walter Holcomb. Mr. Holcomb was the engineer (not Cap). Mr. Holcomb found that he needed to be away from home for a few days, so his brother - a stranger in the county who was there on his wedding trip, having married the week before - offered to take his place on the rig. The steam engine wasn't in good repair and the safety valve was most likely out of commission at the time, but Mr. Holcomb was familiar with the machine and managed to keep it running.

In his absence, it was decided that Cap was more familiar with the machine than Mr. Holcomb's brother, Horace, so Cap would take the position as engineer, and Mr. Holcomb's brother would operate the separator.

A setting of grain was threshed at the E.E. Reeves farm and the rig was moved a mile and had just turned toward a setting of grain on the August Larson place (in the south part of 21-112-56, in the extreme northeast corner of Kingsbury County), when both ends of the boiler blew out. A team and wagon and men were standing 100 yards from the threshing rig when it exploded, and the front end of the boiler buried itself in the ground just in front of the team.

Cap Garland was standing just behind the boiler and he was blown over the top of the separator and landed in a field more than thirty feet away. Both legs were broken and he was horribly scalded, as there had been a full boiler of water at the time of the explosion. Cap was alive when picked up, and men hurried to bring his mother to the scene because they knew he wouldn't live long. Cap died a few hours later. It is not known if his mother reached him before his death; it would have been at least a 20-mile trip to bring her to the site from De Smet. Cap was buried in Willow Lake Cemetery in Clark County, South Dakota.

As sad as it was for Cap to have died in this tragic accident, your heart can't help but ache for the wife of Horace Holcomb, who became a widow on her honeymoon.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM

 
my dear aunt
From Martha Carpenter's autograph album, this entry by Laura Ingalls Wilder:

There's beauty all around our path,
If but our watchful eyes,
Can trace it midst familiar things
And in their lowly guise.
Your loving niece, Laura Wilder

- posted by pioneergirl at 10:46 PM

 
don't just celebrate: spread the word!
Today is Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday. Along with all the weasels popped and bread gingered today, remember to go outside your own sphere of family and friends and spread the "Little House" word to someone new!

Buy one or more of the LH books for a classroom teacher, local library, doctor's office, or child-of-a-friend. Share your love of Laura by volunteering to read aloud or do a LIW presentation. Turn some of the LH books to the "front" of the display in the bookstore and alert the staff what today is. Wear your LH sweatshirt and see what happens. Pick your favorite LIW heritage homesite or museum and send them a donation this month.

Use your imagination, child!
- posted by pioneergirl at 2:01 AM

 
commentators on the acts
In Little Town on the Prairie (Chapter 19, "The Whirl of Gaiety"), Pa carried off the honors of the evening with his charade: He played it alone, in his everyday clothes. Walking up the central aisle, he carried two small potatoes before him on the blade of his ax. That was all.

I've always thought that the explanation of Pa's charade ought to be changed in the published version to reflect what is in the manuscript. "It's Commentators on the Ac's," says the book. The manuscript - to me - is much clearer: "It is simple," Pa told them, when all had given up guessing. "It is common-taters on the ax, a-c-t-s."

Maybe Pa did carry off the honors with this charade, but truth of the matter is that Reverend Brown had used the exact same idea years earlier, back in Wisconsin. Reverend Brown used to leave "little charade tableaux" set up for the editor of the local newspaper, who would then describe them in the paper so that all could enjoy the joke. One of the most celebrated was supposedly the time the good Reverend walked into the editor's office, wearing his everyday clothes, carrying two small potatoes before him on the blade of his ax. These he set carefully on the editor's desk, then he turned and walked out the door.

The editor reported that he could hardly beat that stunt of Brown's!

Sound familiar?
- posted by pioneergirl at 12:14 AM

 
top ten things i hate about star trek
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and 'Ensign Gomez' beam down to a planet. Which one isn't coming back?

I actually lovelovelove Star Trek (especially TNG, and I fully supported son Pearce when he dressed like Geordi LaForge for two years, complete with V.I.S.O.R), but this list from several years ago still makes me laugh out loud: http://www.happyfunpundit.com/hfp/archives/000514.html --- Some of the comments are as funny as the list itself. Btw, my name is nansie and I always read Wil Wheaton's blog. And in my jewelry box is a gold personal communication device that I keep fresh batteries in so that it always makes That Noise when you touch it. And let's face it, I'd pay good money to listen to Patrick Stewart reading the phone book.

A-hem.

Can I come up with a list of "top then things I hate about 'Little House'"? I'm not sure I should even try , but it seems like I am always moaning and groaning privately about something going on in the LH world. Recently, there was mention on a LIW group of having a discussion about one of the books about LIW. Okay, it was Zochert.

My reaction? "I'd rather eat broken glass."

Purely stream of consciousness here, I'd say that the things that I don't like about LH and the world around it, are: (1) Garth Williams illustrations sometimes being different from book descriptions, (2) me not being able to track down a couple of elusive LH characters, although I'm || that close, (3) typos in the books never ever being corrected, (4) the fact that the Farmer Boy / Little House on the Prairie order didn't stay as originally published, even though it's back that way now (but for how long?), and (5) Prairie psychos are always going to piss me off; let's face it.

I can't think of any more, but I'm sure there will be a few comments that I agree with. And disagree with. Have at it.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:52 PM

 
the woman behind the man behind the gun

The photograph caught my eye. It was accompanying Laura Ingalls Wilder's "New Day for Women" article in the June 5, 1918, Missouri Ruralist, and showed a group of women, all wearing overalls. Being rather fond of overalls, I read the article, only to find out that it wasn't about new fashion crazes at all. It was about all the jobs women were doing during wartime (that would be World War I), but only the photo caption mentioned the Woman's Land Army in America.

My grandmother served in the Woman's Land Army. She's one of the ladies in the photograph above. Born ten years after Rose Wilder, my grandmother was part of a group that traveled from Georgia to Virginia to pick peaches. Although a lot of the women in the Land Army wore overalls, my grandmother doesn't seem to have been one of them. Here she is washing out some of her clothes in a washtub; she's the one at right. I can't even begin to imagine doing farmwork in a skirt and blouse.

I'm not being asked to pick peaches, go meatless or wheatless, gather scrap metal, or to plant a victory garden. I'm not asked to knit hats or socks or roll bandages. It makes me a little sad to be living in a time when I don't feel like I am being asked to muster my wits and Do Something to help in the war effort (that would be the War in Iraq).
- posted by pioneergirl at 11:05 PM

 
movie rental suggestions
In case you're thinking about renting a movie or two to watch this weekend, why not check out some of the movies Rose Wilder Lane saw from 1931-1935? Sometimes Laura went to the movies with Rose. Almanzo went once.

Grand Hotel
Girl Without a Room
Little Women (1934)
Bright Eyes
Charley Chan in Paris
Mrs. Wiggs
Telegraph Trail
Dinner at Eight
Rango
City Lights
"Abraham Lincoln Picture" 3/31/31
Lives of a Bengal Lancer- LIW
David Copperfield- LIW
Carolina
Trader Horn- LIW, AJW
Riptide
Ruggles of Red Gap- LIW
Jimmy the Gent
The Thin Man
Baby Face
When Ladies Meet
Politics
Private Detective
Registered Nurse- LIW
Baby Take a Bow
Girl From Missouri
Treasure Island- LIW
Dragon Murder Case
My Sin
Susan Lenox
Sob Sister- LIW
Cisco Kid
Heartbreak
Big Gamble
Road to Singapore
Smart Woman
Penrod and Sam
Tugboat Annie
What Every Woman Knows
Judge Priest- LIW
Vinegar Tree
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:39 AM

 
-. --- / -- --- .-. . / .-- . ... - . .-. -. / ..- -. .. --- -. / - . .-.. . --. .-. .- -- ...

After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company's web site, if you click on "Telegrams" in the left-side navigation bar, you're taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative."

The decline of telegram use goes back at least to the 1980s, when long-distance telephone service became cheap enough to offer a viable alternative in many if not most cases. Faxes didn't help. Email could be counted as the final nail in the coffin.

Western Union has not failed. It long ago refocused its main business to make money transfers for consumers and businesses. Revenues are now $3 billion annually. It's now called Western Union Financial Services, Inc. and is a subsidiary of First Data Corp.

The world's first telegram was sent on May 24, 1844 by inventor Samuel Morse. The message, "What hath God wrought," was transmitted from Washington to Baltimore. In a crude way, the telegraph was a precursor to the Internet in that it allowed rapid communication, for the first time, across great distances.

Western Union goes back to 1851 as the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company. In 1856 it became the Western Union Telegraph Company after acquisition of competing telegraph systems. By 1861, during the Civil War, it had created a coast-to-coast network of lines.

Other company highlights: introduced the first stock ticker (1866), introduced money transfers (1871), became one of the original 11 stocks tracked by the Dow Jones Average (1884); introduced the first consumer charge card (1914), began using a transcontinental microwave beam to replace land lines (1964), launched Westar I, the first U.S. dedicated communications satellite (1974).

On Jan. 26, the last day you could send a telegram, First Data announced it would spin Western Union off as an independent, publicly traded company.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:32 PM