from laura ingalls wilder to cyberbessie

borrowed names

2010-02-07T13:05:00.002-05:00

Borrowed Names: Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters. By Jeannine Atkins, to be released in March. If you haven't done so already, pre-ordering is a great way to celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday! CLICK HERE for a preview.

it's hard to be humble

2010-02-04T23:51:00.001-05:00

The March 2010 issue ofCountry Living ™ magazine mentions Pepin and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods in their "It's Hard to be Humble When You're From Wisconsin" story, a feature in each issue about attractions in a different state. It's not the first time "Little House" has been included. Check it out!

ida and laura would have nothing to do

2010-02-03T22:35:00.004-05:00

[Mr. Owen] told Laura and Ida that their part in the Exhibition would be to recite the whole of American history, from memory... "I'm glad you've got the longer part, anyway," said Ida. "I've only got to remember from John Quincy Adams to Rutherford B. Hayes, but you've got all that about the discoveries and the map and the battles, and the Western Reserve and the Constitution. My! I don't know how you ever can!" -- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Town on the Prairie, Chapter 23, "Schooltime Begins Again"

Had Laura and Ida been in school in North Carolina today instead of 1880s Dakota Territory, Mr. Owen would have had to change their parts in the School Exhibition. North Carolina schools propose to begin the teaching of American history at the high school level (in the eleventh grade) with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877-1881; President Hayes is shown above.

Educators in North Carolina say that by throwing a significant chunk of American history out of the curriculum, students would be able to spend their time in high school focusing on more recent history. After all, a lot has gone on since 1877, and it's not like earlier American history wouldn't have been covered in grammar and middle school. Can it only follow that the next step would be to make sure that no later American history is covered in grammar or middle school?

When you heard the story on the news tonight, did you, too, immediately think of Laura Ingalls and Ida Wright and their recitation of the whole of American history? Did you remember enough American history on your own to realize that Ida's part should have also covered James Garfield and mentioned Chester A. Arthur?

snakeoil is snakeoil, even if the salesman calls himself 'professor'

2010-02-02T13:14:00.003-05:00

"An intellectual is one of the intelligentsia. One of the intelligentsia is one whose head is full of ideas derived from * (repeat X times from asterisk) Plato and on mythilical prehistoric Lycurgus.

"While an intellectual may be mistaken, at a distance, or while in rapid flight, or by an inexperienced intellectual-watcher, for a specimen of the human species, he or she may easily be distinguished by a number of typical characteristics. The intellectual, male or female, is incapable of obtaining food by direct effort and is invariably parasitic. Habitats are foundations, colleges, governments, non-profit organizations.

"Absence of mind may be noted. An intellectual may often be heard twittering, in self-congratulatory tones, 'I'm not absent-minded!' or sounds to that effect. Another frequent note is 'I forgot.' An alert ear will hear these in the intellectual's stream of chattering; no intellectual is ever silent when awake and none has yet been observed sleeping. The eye appears normal but is able to see nothing but print; an intellectual sees nothing before his nose unless it be a book.

"Mr. Walter Lipmann, a typical intellectual, recorded in 1933 the fact that he had learned in college 20 years earlier that there are no more opportunities in America since there is no more free land (Note: Cherokees Run, last large tract of land thrown open to homesteading, 1879. Greatest number of homesteaders in late 1920s; largest number of acres homesteaded in the year 1932. Homestead act repealed, 1933) and added, 'I have seen nothing since then to lead me to modify the view then formed that nothing remains to be done but to divide more equitably the wealth already created.'

"This unusually coherent statement by an intellectual himself verifies the general observation of the intellectuals' inability to see anything but print... The intellectual believes any printed statement.

"Intellectuals never are seen singly; they live, read and speak in compact groups and move in flocks. If one goes to Paris, all go to Paris; if one goes to Taos, all go to Taos. Their unanimity in twittering is striking, and it is observed that frequently, and always simultaneously, the flock changes its twitter. So far as is known, a twitter once discarded is never again repeated...

"An eagerness to be in print is also characteristic, presumably derived from the peculiar structure of the eye; hence the common name of the species, often heard in the vulgate as apply to a single specimen, 'publicity hound.'"

-Rose Wilder Lane, 1949

the great american buffer zone

2010-02-01T16:56:00.010-05:00

In Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy, Almanzo Wilder questions a conversation between his father and Mr. Paddock at the 4th of July celebration, during which Father says, "It was axes and plows that made this country." Father Wilder later explains:

"We fought for Independence, son," Father said. "But all the land our forefathers had was a little strip of country, here between the mountains and the ocean. All the way from here west was Indian country, and Spanish and French country. It was farmers that took all that country and made it America...

"...the Spaniards were soldiers, and high-and-mighty gentlemen that only wanted gold. And the French were fur-traders, wanting to make quick money. And England was busy fighting wars. But we were farmers, son; we wanted land. It was farmers that went over the mountains, and cleared the land, and settled it, and farmed it, and hung onto their farms.

"This country goes three thousand miles west, now. It goes 'way out beyond Kansas, and beyond the Great American Desert, over mountains bigger than these mountains, and down to the Pacific Ocean. It's the biggest country in the world, and it was farmers who took all that country and made it America, son. Don't you ever forget that." --Farmer Boy, Chapter 16, "Independence Day"

I've read this exchange hundreds of times, and this reading, what made me stop and think was the phrase: Great American Desert. This is the only "Little House" book that includes it. It's not in the Farmer Boy manuscript; in fact, Almanzo's only thought about Independence in the manuscript is that he didn't remember seeing either the lion that got its tail twisted or the eagle that screamed. He liked the drums and he liked the fifes, but that was about it. And I'm guessing that a lot of readers plow straight through Father Wilder's speech (added, I suspect, by Rose Wilder Lane) without giving it much thought.

Pop quiz: On the map shown, locate the boundaries of the Great American Desert at the time of Farmer Boy (circa 1866, if that makes a difference).

General George Armstrong Custer writes about the Great American Desert in his My Life on the Plains (published in 1876):

There was a time that every schoolboy, supposed to possess the rudiments of a knowledge of the geography of the United States, could give the boundaries and a general description of the Great American Desert.

As to the boundary the knowledge seemed to be quite explicit: on the north bounded by the Upper Missouri, on the east by the Lower Missouri and Mississippi, on the south by Texas, and on the west by the Rocky Mountains. The boundaries on the northwest and south remained undisturbed, while on the east civilization, propelled and directed by Yankee enterprise, adopted the motto, "Westward the star of empire makes its way." Countless throngs of emigrants crossed the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, selecting homes in the rich and fertile territories lying beyond. Each year this tide of emigration, strentghened and increased by the flow from foreign shores, advanced toward the setting sun, slowly but surely narrowing the preconceived limits of the Great American Desert, and correspondingly enlarging the limits of civilization.

At last the geographical myth was dispelled. It was gradually discerned that the Great Americcan Desert did not exist, that it had no abiding place, but that within its supposed limits, and instead of what had been regarded as a sterile and unfruitful tract of land, incapable of sustaining either man or beast, there existed the fairest and richest portion of the national domain, blessed with a climate pure, bracing, and healthful, while its undeveloped soil rivalled if it did not surpass the most productive portions of the Eastern, Middle, or Southern States.

Discarding the name Great American Desert, this immense tract of country, with its eastern boundary moved back by civilization to a distance of nearly three hundred miles west of the Missouri river, is now known as The Plains...

The Great American Desert first appeared as the Great Desert on an 1820 map by Stephen Long (1784-1864), American engineer, explorer, and inventor. You can see Long's map HERE.

After several mapping expeditions through land acquired as the Louisiana Purchase, Long declared that a large portion of it was unfit for habitation and was only useful as a "buffer" between the eastern (wooded) part of the country and the lands held by the Spanish, British, and Russians. It was also where hostile Indians lived, tribes Long had run into a time or two during his own exploration. In 1820, Long wrote that the Great Plains region:

"...is almost wholly unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by a people depending upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fertile land considerably extensive are occasionally met with, yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the country. This region, however, may prove of infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is calculated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension of our population westward, and secure us against the machinations or incursions of an enemy."

Long's label kept settlers from the area for a while, but his misconceptions about the area were soon noted. After all, Long came from New Hampshire, and his idea of what "desirable" land looked like was based on his home state. Note that Father Wilder's definition of the Great American Desert is slightly broader than Custer's.

Westward the star of empire made its way...

can we keep it, pa?

2010-01-29T23:11:00.003-05:00

A rare bird was spotted at nearby West Point Lake (Georgia) this week, just a mile or so from where I live. Usually a bird of the Arctic and Canada's maritime provinces, this Ivory Gull is the first ever in Georgia and the first sighting in the south in over a decade. Hundreds of people have flocked to see it.

Suspected to be an adventurous teen (in bird years), the gull delights camera-snapping bird-watchers simply by hanging around in plain sight, flying overhead and then settling on the water. Today comes word that the bird is lethargic and appears to have a broken wing, and everybody wonders what is to be done more than they wonder how and when the injury happened. Some people wonder what the bird eats, and if it is able to find proper food at the lake.

Should the gull be captured? Should it be rehabilitated, relocated, and released?

It's a story straight out of The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder (see Chapter 5, "After the Storm"). Charles Ingalls finds an unusual bird - described as looking like a little auk (possibly a dovekie) - on a solitary romp around Silver Lake. Pa doesn't have the internet, a cell phone, or a newspaper to spread the word about his find, and nobody is around to flock to the lake to take pictures, so he puts the bird in his pocket and takes it home as a novelty to show his family. There's a debate about what to do because the bird won't eat, and finally Pa and the girls return the bird to the lake and release it.

The West Point Lake bird story is still unfolding.

"which do you like best, aunt lotty?"

2010-01-26T23:12:00.002-05:00

In Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 10, "Summertime"), Laura's and Mary's "Aunt Lotty" comes to visit. Where Lotty comes from is not said, but Charlotte Holbrook never lived in Pepin County, Wisconsin, but grew up in Jefferson County, over 200 miles away. If she was visiting her half-siblings in Pepin and Pierce Counties, how did she get there? Were her parents visiting as well?

Ma's father, Henry Quiner, died in 1845; Ma's mother married Frederick Holbrook four years later. Charlotte Elizabeth Holbrook was their only child together, born in January 1854. In the published Little House in the Big Woods, Laura doesn't tell us how old Lotty is when she visits, but in the manuscript, she is said to be "twelve years old."

Lotty was twelve the year before Laura was born.

Did an older Lotty actually visit the family prior to her marriage in 1874 and the Ingallses move to Minnesota? Was her visit a convenient plot device, a timely weighing in on the Great Hair Color debate that was still unsettled when Laura herself was twelve? Did Lotty know about the publication of Big Woods, and did any of her children or grandchildren get in touch with Laura about the story?

William Anderson's Laura's Album (HarperCollins, 1998) includes a photograph of Lotty as a young girl. The photograph above is of Lotty, taken many decades later.

wiggy

2010-01-25T23:00:00.002-05:00

I will confess that once upon a time in Paris, urged thereto by awfully urgent friends, I did try dying--dyeing--my hair. It came out quite green. I didn't mean just with a greenish cast, like most dyed hair that doesn't have a Turkish-red cast, but a really beautiful and vivid green. Not jade, either; much more nearly a grass-green. I spent one nightmare week leaping from beauty specialist to specialist in Paris, and spending money like a drunken sailor, and in the end my hair--after periods of bright reddish-green, and purple-green, and yellow-green, and then again just plain green-- was a black blacker than any black you ever saw, with a copperish-green tint in the high lights. So I shaved it off, and wore a postiche, which is to say, wig, until my hair grew out again... I told everyone... a lovely tale about how I was lighting the gas stove, and it exploded and removed my hair; and you... are absolutely the only living mortals--save Troub and some scores of Parisian beauty experts--who have ever known the ghastly truth. I never wanted to dye my hair, in the first place, but you know what wax I am, and besides how I like to try any new thing just once. Hair is an awful nuisance, anyhow; like teeth. Every time I read one of these predictions by a "scientist" that in a few hundred years mankind will be toothless and bald, I wish I believed in reincarnation. -Rose Wilder Lane, 1930

virginia kirkus

2010-01-24T22:38:00.002-05:00

"Unique," said the shade of Mr. Noah Webster, "is being without a like or equal." Miss Virginia Kirkus of New York is just like that. Her job is her own invention, and is patented in all languages, including the Scandinavian. She picks out best sellers, both fiction and nonfiction, long before authors, publishers and booksellers know the books are going to be even moderate sellers." - David Hazen

It was Kirkus who knew the "Little House" books were going to be hits.

Laura Ingalls Wilder researcher John Bass phoned me tonight to ask if I had photos of Virginia Kirkus and/or Marion Fiery. Here's one of Kirus from the 1940s. Hanging up the phone to post it.

and the oscar goes to...

2010-01-22T23:04:00.005-05:00

White Shadows in the South Seas isn't the easiest of Rose Wilder Lane's books to read. Ghost-written by Lane for Frederick O'Brien, White Shadows was published by The Century Company in 1919. It records "one happy year spent among the simple, friendly cannibals of Atuona valley, on the island of Hiva-oa in the Marquesas." When the "friendly" natives wanted to go on the warpath, they grew their hair long on one side, and when it was long enough, the man-eating began. It's nice to finally know what Kate Gosselin's former hairstyle was all about.

Rose Wilder Lane's relationship with Frederick O'Brien was a rocky one. In 1924, she sued him in New York supreme court, charging that O'Brien owed her $14,300 for collaboration on the book.

In 1928, MGM released a movie very loosely based on White Shadows in the South Seas. In the movie, alcoholic Dr. Matthew Lloyd (played by Monte Blue) sails to an island untouched by "white shadows," where he falls in love with a native girl, Fayaway (Raquel Torres). When white men invade the island with their seductive trinkets, the doctor is killed trying to stop the invasion, and his lover mourns at graveside.

Filmed in Tahiti, White Shadows in the South Seas was originally conceived as a documentary, but a change in directors turned the prodution into a drama. As MGM's first sound picture, the mostly silent 88-minute movie had awkward talkie sequences that were added later in the studio. In 1929, Clyde De Vinna won the Oscar in cinematography for his work on White Shadows in the South Seas.

You can see the opening credits for the movie HERE. The entire movie is available on DVD. An interesting bit of trivia is that this movie was the first one in which the audience actually heard the MGM lion roaring!

noteworthy

2010-01-21T21:05:00.004-05:00

A set of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books (yellow paperbacks) were priced a quarter each at the library sale last week. I snatched them up to use the Garth Williams illustrations in craft projects - when making greeting cards, bookmarks, collages, scrapbook pages, blank journal covers, and other fun things.

As Caroline Ingalls would say, it was providential that later that day, I spied flattened glass "marble" magnets in packs of six, dirt cheap. These had pictures of fruits and vegetables under the glass, but a short soak in a pot of boiling water separated the magnets from the paper and the paper from the glass with no prying or scraping. While it's no trouble to take apart purchased magnets and re-purpose them (or recycle some already hanging on your refrigerator, perhaps), you can also buy various sizes of flat florist marbles and magnets at most craft stores. Although they come in colors, clear ones work best. You'll also need some good glue that works on glass.

There are excellent online tutorials for making marble magnets; notmartha is one a lot of people mention. Here's another one from ehow.

I had two sizes of glass marbles, 3/4 inch and 1 inch, so that's the sizes I made. You'd be amazed at how many cute, round little drawings are scattered throughout the "Little House" books: pails, wagon wheels, snowflakes, flowers, lanterns... Since the glass marble slightly magnifies the image beneath it, it's a good idea to look at the images through the glass before cutting to see if it's the effect you want. For example, there's a really cute drawing of Jack all curled up and sleeping (see the Table of Contents page in On the Banks of Plum Creek), but it was a little big for the glass marbles I have; I'll save it until I get some bigger ones.

If you don't have a spare "Little House" book to sacrifice, use postcards, photographs, or little pictures from old "Little House" calendars. What about site brochures, bookmarks, or ticket stubs? The possiblities are endless.

I used a circle template to draw a circle on the image where I wanted to cut, but you could also use a circle punch. Others, I just held up the page with the magnet pressed on the image and cut around that. Glue the image to the magnet, then the magnet to the glass dome, and let dry thoroughly before using. Voila!

[LATER] Yes, you can scan/copy/print illustrations from your LH books. But it's not legal. And no, any text on the "back" of a page you cut out and use won't show through because the magnet is dark and it masks the contrast.

check it out

2010-01-20T18:37:00.006-05:00

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society website has changed its layout and design; check out their new look! One interesting new feature is a video of "friends of the Ingalls family," with nice-and-clear period photographs you'll remember seeing if you've visited De Smet or subscribe to the Laura Ingalls Wilder LORE, but might not be familiar with otherwise. As this video looks to be the first in a series, keep an eye out for updates and additions.

Heads up, though. The photograph identified as "Mary Power Sanford and husband Edward [sic]" is not Mary Power Sanford and husband Edwin. It's Ernest and Minnie Green. And Ven Owen, Laura's teacher from These Happy Golden Years, is identified as Mr. Owens.

One of the photos in the video is of the De Smet City Park. As another photograph of text written on the back of this photo indicates, the park was built on railroad land lying between the depot and 1st Street, just east of Main (Calumet). Robert Boast was instrumental in the design and upkeep of both this park and the Kingsbury County Courthouse grounds. Mr. Boast was also known for the beautiful flowers and trees he planted on his own homestead northeast of town. The photo above is another view of a portion of the park. Today, the Hazel L. Meyer Public Library and the Railroad Apartments occupy the original park lands, while the road shown in the photo is now a narrow drive leading to the Depot Museum.

The photo blurb was written by Nathaniel "Nate" George Stimson, younger brother of Henry Alvin "Al" Stimson (early relief agent in De Smet). Both Nate and Al were sons of Henry Young Stimson, early depot agent in De Smet. Nate was born in Canistota, Dakota Territory, only months after Laura, Rose, and Almanzo Wilder left De Smet for Missouri in 1894. In 1905, H.Y. Stimson was assigned to De Smet as Agent.

After graduating from De Smet High School in 1912, Nate Stimson went to work for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, taking over the position as night agent that his brother vacated in order to take a like position in Florida. Nate was De Smet agent until 1932, then worked at several other stations until returning to De Smet in 1948. Nate Stimson retired in 1969 when the depot was closed for good; the last passenger train had stopped in De Smet in 1961. Stimson died in De Smet in 1988.

the other musical

2010-01-14T19:51:00.004-05:00

ArtsPower's musical based on the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder has been a hit with audiences since 1995. Written and directed by Greg Gunning with music by Richard DeRosa, Laura Ingalls Wilder is presented by one of America's largest touring companies. Since 1985, ArtsPower has created 25 musicals and dramas, many of which are based on popular children's books.

For more information and to find Laura Ingalls Wilder or other performances near you, see the ArtsPower website. Here you can download a press release, Handbill, guides for theaters and schools; you can also listen to music from the show.

lawrence welk was here

2010-01-13T17:44:00.007-05:00

Wanted! Everybody to follow the crowd to the Red Front Store of Harthorn and Son in De Smet, where you can find everything in the way of dry goods, boots and shoes, hats and caps, clothing, groceries, provisions, crockery, flour, and feed of all kinds. Don't fail to call and see them, and inspect their stock. -De Smet Leader, January 27, 1883

The next time you're in De Smet and standing in front of Ward's Store - Couse Opera House during the time of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" books - take a look at the building to the north, same side of Calumet. The north half of that building is where Harthorn's Store used to be. It was where the Old Indian came and warned about the "seven times seven" long winter; it's one of the places Pa sat around swapping stories during that Hard Winter, and it's the store that had only plain dull grey suspenders left to sell that Christmas.

The brick building standing there was not Harthorn & Son's "Red Front" Store, so called because of its bright red paint. Although Mr. Harthorn owned two lots - same width as the Couse property to the south and the Exchange Hotel to the north - the original store stood only on the north lot, a one-story wooden building with a front room and a back room. When a second building was added to the south for storage (the townspeople had learned from the Hard Winter), that part soon became the general store proper and the earlier building was converted to a meat market.

Both the general store and meat market were torn down in the 1890s to make way for a "Lodge Room" which soon was called what it really was, a pool hall and saloon. The building still sports its original 1904 brick facade upstairs, but the downstairs entrances and glazing have changed many times over the years. Around WWI, the building was added on to and doubled in depth, occupying almost all of both lots from street to alley. A dance hall was added upstairs, used as a movie theater and for live shows. Lawrence Welk's band once performed there.

Just how long was the store of Harthorn & Son located on Lot 11, Block 1? Laura introduces Mr. Harthorn (Edelbert) and his son Frank in By the Shores of Silver Lake as "the two Mr. Harthorns" who board with the Ingalls family in the Surveyors' House while the town is being built.

The Harthorns had been in Dakota Territory since shortly after Frank was born. Edelbert and at least two of his brothers had already been in the general merchandise business for over a decade along the Missouri River from Vermillion to Sioux City, Iowa. One can't help but speculate that Mr. Harthorn had heard of the settlements along the railroad and knew that homesteaders would be needing supplies.

Frank Harthorn was sixteen when he moved to De Smet, and he was an equal partner in the business early on. When Frank married Mabel Burd in October 1883, he had just opened his own store at Lake Preston, where the couple settled. Frank sold his De Smet interests in December 1883, but purchased them back the following year. At the time of the sleighing parties in These Happy Golden Years (historically the winter of 1883-1884, not the previous year as the series implies), Frank and Mabel were living in a home on Second Street, and they had a homestead in Clark County.

In the early 1900s, the Harthorns left De Smet. Edelbert moved to Oregon. Frank purchased the "5 & 10 cent Variety Store" in Livingston, Montana; he and Mabel later moved to Washington State.

oldie but goodie

2010-01-12T23:15:00.003-05:00

My first trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder home in Mansfield, Missouri, with the "Prodigy Computer Club" made pages 1 and 2 of the Mansfield Mirror back in 1993. I'm not sure if all the other ladies want their names out there, but tough luck about the photo. I'm seated at right in front. Wow. I think I still have that watch and it's almost back in style again!

That was the trip Neta Seal let me fondle Laura's blue willow-ware dishes and she read us an original poem Laura wrote in one of her "Little House on the Prairie" books (that set is in the archives of the Rocky Ridge museum now). And Neta told us how to make Almanzo's favorite "swiss steak," a recipe that was later included in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Country Cookbook.

If you want to read the whole article and see the photo of some of us with Neta Seal, CLICK HERE.

illustrator and painter of the pioneer west

2010-01-11T17:11:00.009-05:00

News has before called attention to the bright prospects of a Kingsbury County boy who is a long way up the ladder of fame, and hose start is due entirely to his own exertions and his inherited ability in the line he chose. We refer to Harvey T. Dunn, son of Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Dunn who formerly lived on a farm south of Manchester. When attending country school Harvey took up drawing, and many hours that the teacher thought ought to be devoted to study were "wasted" with a pencil and pad drawing sketches. Harvey was not yet twenty when he went to Chicago to attend a drawing school and so rapidly did he advance in his studies that he more than paid his own way by selling the product of his pencil. The noted Howard Pyle of Wilmington, Dela., offered a scholarship to each of five schools of the country and young Dunn was successful in winning this from his school. He took a thorough course in the school and now at the age of 23 he is at work and not only making a name for himself but earning "all kinds of money." Harvey is engaged in illustrating for papers and magazines, one of which is the Saturday Evening Post. The illustrations in "Where Life is Marked Down" in the June 2 Post and also "Getting that Home" in the issue of July 7, are his and are characteristic of a boy who has seen the west and come in contact with laboring people and the frontiersman. Besides his short story contracts the young man has been engaged to illustrate two novels. Harvey is a nephew of Mrs. C.S.G. Fuller and Nate Dow. -- De Smet Leader, September 14, 1906

Nate Dow was Laura Ingalls Wilder's brother-in-law; he had married Grace Ingalls in 1901. A definitive biography of Harvey Dunn will be released this June: Walt Reed's Harvey Dunn: Illustrator and Painter of the Pioneer West (Flesk Publications). Any news about Harvey Dunn is newsworthy in Kingsbury County, South Dakota, where he was born. Harvey Dunn's parents, Bersha and Thomas Dunn, had arrived on the second train into De Smet after the Hard Winter of 1880-1881. Thomas had filed on the claim shortly after the October blizzard but wisely went back home to Wisconsin for the winter.

The Dunns homestead the SE 17-110-57, south of Manchester and just west of the Bouchie school district. Nate Dow homesteaded the quarter section to the north. Today, the Dunn homestead is an undisturbed grassland protected by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife easement. There's not a road to the quarter section, which keeps the land even more undisturbed.

The South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings collects, preserves, and exhibits visual art to increase access to art and appreciation of art for the people of South Dakota. The Museum houses a permanent collection of Harvey Dunn's work and has teamed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in support of the Harvey Dunn Grassland Preservation Project. Your purchase of a framed copy of Dunn's "The Prairie Trail" will protect one acre of grassland in South Dakota. CLICK HERE to purchase this or other Harvey Dunn prints.

The one-room schoolhouse Harvey Dunn attended as a child has been moved to the grounds of the Depot Museum in De Smet and is open June, July, and August of each year. In recent years, De Smet organized a Harvey Dunn Memorial Society; its purpose is to commemorate the artist and to promote the arts as a new tourism venue in De Smet. This seems to be an association that is supported by contributions rather than memberships at the current time.

In 2009, the Harvey Dunn Memorial Society released a special edition print of Dunn's painting titled "Masters' Homestead," which can be purchased for $100 at The Ingalls Homestead. Of interest to "Little House on the Prairie" fans, the scene was painted and given to De Smet newspaper editor Aubrey Sherwood in the 1940s. It shows the farm of Samuel Masters, father of Genevieve Masters; Gennis was one of the girls who inspired the Nellie Oleson character in the "Little House" books.

If you've seen the photographs taken of the Ingallses' homestead in the 1940s by "Little House" book illustrator Garth Williams, you'll notice that Masters' house is eerily similar in appearance to the one standing on the Ingalls homestead at the same time. That's not Dunn's painting of the Masters' Homestead above; you'll have to buy that one (or the much cheaper notecards containing the same image) to see it for yourself. That's his parents' homestead in Kingsbury County and the sod house he grew up in.

five men, a floor, and a strong sliver of wood

2010-01-08T22:49:00.007-05:00

On this night in 1880, Henry Hinz and four men showed up at the future townsite of De Smet, finding the Boasts and Ingallses cosily living on the shores of Silver Lake. On this night in 1879, Hinz and his friends camped on the floor of the Surveyors' House. Pa was worried that the men would freeze to death if they tried to go farther or sleep outside, so Ma cooked supper for them all, and as soon as they had eaten, Ma sent the girls up to bed, handing Laura a strong sliver of wood to force into the latch so no one could get upstairs. (See Laura Ingalls Wilder's By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 23, "The Spring Rush") Ma was obviously worried about things other than those that worried Pa.

Supposedly Hinz took a look around the townsite the next day, saw the stakes marking the town but not much else, and he decided it would be a grand place to build a saloon, er, store. Except you have to wonder exactly what stakes everyone says he saw and based his decision to move there on? The town of De Smet wasn't platted until over two months later, on March 27. And there was the whole mess about where the actual town was going to be located because of problems with Western Town Lots Company's ownership of various parcels of land.

When young Mr. Hinz returned in February with "the two Mr. Harthorns" (Edelbert Harthorn and his son Frank) in tow, they - and others - simply gave it their best guess as to where to build on the townsite, mainly trying to jump the gun and beat anybody else to the good spots. Hinz wanted the corner lot closest to the future railroad tracks for his building, knowing he would get first shot at the thirsty men arriving on the railroad. He ended up missing it by two lots. That's Hinz's "billiard hall" in the photo above, the little building sandwiched between Royal Wilder's Feed Store location (on the left) and Charles Mead's hotel (on the right; the hotel occupied two lots). At the time this photo was taken, the feed store had been replaced with a different building.

Although Henry Hinz has gone down in history as the man who erected the first building in De Smet, Royal Wilder holds the honor of legally purchasing the first lot sold in the town of De Smet, beating Hinz by two whole weeks. The portion of the after-the-hard-winter site plan at left shows the hotel, saloon, and feed store; you can see how small the feed store was in relation to the other two buildings, and you have to wonder where Royal's barn went. It is said that Hinz's original building was 16x24 feet, but was torn down after a month to make way for a larger one.

Although Henry Hinz officially built a "billiard hall," he went in and out of the liquor business as the town voted the matter of license in and out. Twenty-five years of age when he arrived in De Smet, Henry married in 1889, and he and his wife had eight children. After selling his business, he became a letter carrier and served 25 years of travel by horse and team, then car. He retired only a few years before his death in 1938. Henry Hinz is buried in the De Smet cemetery.

a hard tack to gnaw

2010-01-07T20:50:00.004-05:00

Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions hardtack only once in the original eight "Little House" books. In By the Shores of Silver Lake (Chapter 2, "Growing Up"), Laura washes and irons [clothes] and bakes hardtack for Pa to take with him when he goes to work for the railroad in Dakota.

In the introduction to On the Way Home, Rose Wilder Lane writes that her mother made two dozen hardtacks for the journey from Dakota to Missouri in 1894. "They were large as a plate, flat and hard. Being so hard and dry, they would not spoil as bread would. It was a hard tack to gnaw, but it tasted almost like a cracker." Since hardtack doesn't appear in Laura's manuscript for SSL, one wonders if it was added by Rose. In neither book do read of anyone actually eating it.

Although Laura is said to have made hardtacks "as big as a plate," the traditional size was about three inches square, like a saltine cracker. There are even tin cutters for cutting hardtack, complete with hole-making protrusions. Do you know why there are holes? They're called docking holes and are there to keep pockets of air from forming during baking.

A recipe for hardtack is found in Barbara Walker's The Little House Cookbook (1979), but it couldn't be easier to make and no recipe is really needed. Hardtack is a mixture of flour and water in about a 6:1 ratio, mixed and kneaded until it becomes leathery. The dough is then rolled about a quarter inch thick and cut into pieces. After piercing with a knife point or nail, the pieces are baked in a fairly hot oven until hard and dry and crisp. Once cool, they can be kept for months (in museums, there are pieces of hardtack that date from the Civil War). Walker's recipe calls for salt, which is an often-debated ingredient. Salt attracts moisture, the enemy of baked goods. In the hardtack pictured above, no salt was used. They were baked at 350 degrees for over two hours. The top piece was made with plain unbleached flour and water. The bottom piece was made with flour ground from wheat seeds ("berries") using a flour mill.

Hardtack was a staple in the diet of Civil War soldiers because it was portable and could be eaten when fresh foods weren't available. The G.H. Bent Company in Massachusetts provided hardtack to the Union Army and sells it commercially today.

As Rose suggested, hardtack didn't have to be cooked again; it could simply be "gnawed" plain. However, it was commonly dipped in coffee (or perhaps tea, in Charles Ingalls' case) to soften it, then eaten. Or it could be soaked in water, then fried in the drippings from salt pork.

famous indian fighter?

2010-01-06T21:53:00.003-05:00

What you might have learned about the Ingalls family in 1921. To see the following article as it was printed in the Portland (Oregon) Morning Oregonian, click HERE:

ROSE WILDER LANE, the American writer who is now describing European conditions in a series of striking letters from American Red Cross headquarters in various countries, is herself an example of the pioneer work which American women are doing in Europe today. On her recent trips into the Balkan interior she penetrated into regions where only one foreign woman has ever before visited. She has followed American relief activities into the remotest districts of Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Dalmatia, Italy, Montenegro, Albania and many other countries.

Mrs. Lane belongs to an old Scotch-English family of American pioneers. Her great-grandfather, Samuel Ingalls, wrote a book on his life as a soldier in the revolution. Her grandfather, Charles Phillippe [sic] Ingalls, was a famous scout, hunter, Indian fighter and railroad contractor in old Dakota territory. Her cousin was Senator John J. Ingalls of Kansas, and her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder, is a well-known middle-western writer for farm journals. Her father, A.J. is a farmer in Wright County, Missouri.

Born in Dakota territory in 1888, Mrs. Lane graduated from the Crowley (La.) high school in 1901. She began her career as a writer on the San Francisco Bulletin in 1915. Her newspaper feature serials, widely syndicated, led to magazine work with the Sunset Magazine. She wrote the "Life of Henry Ford" as a Bulletin serial and followed it with "Life and Jack London," which has recently been republished in England, "The Making of Herbert Hoover" and "Diverging Roads," a novel. She was co-author of "White Shadows in the South Seas." Since 1918 she has written for many leading magazines--Century, Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Asia and others.

Mrs. Lane went abroad in May 1920, and her first work was a translation of stories by Sara Bernhardt, recently published. She has a studio apartment in Paris, but has spent most of the past year traveling, doing magazine articles and volunteer work for the American Red Cross.

get it while it's cold

2010-01-05T15:36:00.006-05:00

Every winter, the March 1951 radio play based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter is offered for "free" online somewhere. I've had a blog about copyrights in my mind ever since my website was the site of online rape and pillage last year by some unscrupulous foreign yahoo writing [sic] her "own" Laura Ingalls Wilder website. Sorry folks. If I do the primary research about it and write it or draw it based on that research and upload it to my own website that I pay dearly for, it's mine, and I ought to have a right to say whether you can legally use it or not. And you stand a better chance of me not flinging a lot of expletives at you if you ask first and make sure you have a favorable reply from me second. And no, I really don't think Laura would have wanted everybody to be able to read my words on your site, just because you think she was so nice and all.

But about this The Long Winter radio show. It seems to me that anything produced and broadcast in 1951 is probably still under copyright and neither you nor I should be saving it and uploading and passing it along. As my father was always fond of saying, "Just because other people squat in the middle of the road, that doesn't mean it's okay for you to do it." Maybe I'm wrong and it really is in the public domain. Drop me a line if you know that it is.

I've had a link to the radio show on my The Long Winter book page a while now and I've gotten thanks but no complaints over the years, which still doesn't make it right (see quote above). I see that sites sell CDs of it online, and other sites tell you that it's okay to save it to your own computer. Whatever. I do a lot of left-click saving of books/articles/music/photographs in the name of research. Who am I to talk?

The Long Winter radio show was originally broadcast on March 15, 1951, as part of the Hallmark Playhouse series (on CBS). In order to advertise Hallmark greeting cards and thank listeners for buying lots and lots of them, the company began sponsoring a radio series in 1948 which featured well-known Hollywood stars. In December 1951, it jumped to television (on NBC) as Hallmark Television Playhouse and eventually became Hallmark Hall of Fame. UCLA Library houses scripts from both the radio and televison productions.

It was based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's book by the same name and was hosted by James Hilton, announced by Frank Goss, and directed and produced by Bill Gay. Lyn Murray composed and conducted the music. Axel Grindberg adapted Laura's book. It featured Edward Arnold (Pa), Lurene Tuttle (Ma), Anne Whitfield (Laura), Norma Jean Nilsson (Carrie), Ted Osborne, Lamont Johnson, Sam Edwards, and Parley Baer. Length of program was 29 minutes, 20 seconds. The first pageant in De Smet was a 1955 production based on this radio show, with members of the De Smet High School performing.

Enjoy.

on the twelfth day of christmas

2010-01-05T00:12:00.000-05:00

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

Twelve tallow candles,
Eleven clocks a-striking,
All of ten whole dollars,
Nine sweet potatoes,
An eight horsepower thresher,
Seven furs for trading,
Six "Lone Tree" seedlings,
Five. Little. Cakes.
Four calling cards,
Three (parched) grains of corn,
Two red wool mittens,
And a sleigh ride across the prairie.

on the eleventh day of christmas

2010-01-04T00:11:00.001-05:00

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

Eleven clocks a-striking,
All of ten whole dollars,
Nine sweet potatoes,
An eight horsepower thresher,
Seven furs for trading,
Six "Lone Tree" seedlings,
Five. Little. Cakes.
Four calling cards,
Three (parched) grains of corn,
Two red wool mittens,
And a sleigh ride across the prairie.

on the tenth day of christmas

2010-01-03T00:10:00.000-05:00

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

All of ten whole dollars,
Nine sweet potatoes,
An eight horsepower thresher,
Seven furs for trading,
Six "Lone Tree" seedlings,
Five. Little. Cakes.
Four calling cards,
Three (parched) grains of corn,
Two red wool mittens,
And a sleigh ride across the prairie.

on the ninth day of christmas

2010-01-02T00:09:00.001-05:00

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

Nine sweet potatoes,
An eight horsepower thresher,
Seven furs for trading,
Six "Lone Tree" seedlings,
Five. Little. Cakes.
Four calling cards,
Three (parched) grains of corn,
Two red wool mittens,
And a sleigh ride across the prairie.

on the eighth day of christmas

2010-01-01T00:08:00.000-05:00

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

An eight horsepower thresher,
Seven furs for trading,
Six "Lone Tree" seedlings,
Five. Little. Cakes.
Four calling cards,
Three (parched) grains of corn,
Two red wool mittens,
And a sleigh ride across the prairie.