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Rev. Royal Gould Wilder

Almanzo’s uncle.

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Laura’s wedding silver

Wm. Rogers’ “Crown” silverplate.

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bastion

A part of a main enclosure which projects toward the exterior.

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“The Singing School”

1869 P. Benson song.

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Joseph Bouchie family

Fictional Brewster family in THGY.

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poultice

Applied to sores to help them heal.

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Charles Philip Ingalls

Father of Laura Ingalls. He lived 1836-1902.

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what-not / whatnot

An étagère for books & ornaments.

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Home Missionary Society

Group organized to raise money to start churches and Sunday schools in the west where there were none.

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parsnip

Pastinaca edulis, a white, spindle-shaped root vegetable.

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Bad Lands

Area eroded by wind & water.

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Quiner graves

Abandoned cemetery off Playhouse Road.

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gingerbread

Chocolate frosting adds to the goodness!

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batten / lath

Thin, narrow board for fastening or joining.

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Laura, the Prairie Girl

1975-76 animated series.

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harvest moon

Full moon nearest autumnal equinox

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Alice Maria Wilder

Older sister and playmate of Almanzo Wilder. She lived 1853-1892.

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Reverend Edwin H. Alden

Walnut Grove Congregational minister and missionary in Dakota.

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Mary & Samuel Ray / Ellen & Amos Leonard

Sisters feuding over a lovely homeplace…and a man.

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squirrel

Rodent mammal of the genus Sciurus.

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“Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-Ay”

1891 Henry J. Sayers song.

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Peter Riley Ingalls family

Uncle Peter & Aunt Eliza.

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swimming hole

Watch out for ankle grabbers!

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bison / “The Bison Track”

Bayard Taylor poem about Bos Americanus, found in Independent Fifth Reader.

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Charlotte Holbrook

Laura’s “Aunt Lotty”

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“Auld Lang Syne”

Now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

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Lansford James Ingalls family

Pa’s brother and Laura’s uncle.

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Robbins children

“froze stark stiff”

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roller towel

Long towel with ends sewn together, hung on a rod.

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“The Polish Boy”

Poem by Ann S. Stephens

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tax

A certainty, as is death.

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poke bonnet / poke-bonnet

the lining matched Laura’s eyes

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Great American Desert

Varying area of North America, believed at times to be uninhabitable by civilized man.

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New England Supper

Fund-raising communal pot-luck meal.

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windrow

Line of hay raked together.

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“Home, Sweet Home”

1823 Payne & Bishop song.

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Pioneer Girl

Laura Ingalls Wilder’s memoir.

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barrel

Round vessel or cask made of wooden staves.

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John H. Carroll

Early De Smet banker.

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whalebone

Baleen used in corsets.

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pasteboard / lambrequin

Paperboard used as base for decorative edging.

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“Buffalo Gals”

1844 Virginia Minstrels song.

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tiger

Noah’s ark toy piece.

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“De Boatmen’s Dance”

Away Down the RIver on the O-hi-o.

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stone fences

Rock wall enclosure.

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dovekie

Arctic aquatic bird, Alle alle.

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Commentators on the Ac’s

Pa’s charade pun.

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“Old Folks at Home”

Way down upon the Swanee River!

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Come Into the Garden, Maud

1855 poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

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spelling / speller

The order of letters in a word. / A book of exercises on the order of letters.

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Silver Lake

Kingsbury County prairie pothole lake.

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Introspections of an Individualist

Norma Lee Browning article about Rose Wilder Lane.

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Little House in the Big Woods – historical perspective

Pepin Twp., Pepin Co. Wisconsin

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surveyor

One who measures land and delineates the same on paper.

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butter

Edible fatty substance made by churning cream.

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last

Mold of a foot, used in making shoes.

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Old English letters

Variety of printing type.

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Have you seen the comet?

Tebbutt’s Great Comet of 1881.

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“Merry, Merry Christmas”

Hymn Number 150 in Pure Gold for Sunday Schools.

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Charles Ingalls: The Civil War Years

Charles Ingalls: the Civil War Years

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Margaret Garland family / Cap Garland

Family living behind the Ingallses in De Smet.

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Wilkin School

April 20 – July 10, 1885.

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blizzard

In 1880-1881, a long, severe, blinding, and bitterly cold snowstorm.

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oranges

Citrus fruit.

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hardtack

Unleavened hard bread made from flour and water.

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“The Treadmill Song”

Oliver Wendell Holmes poem set to music.

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“Coming Through the Rye”

Robert Burns tune.

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ante-over / anti-over / anteover

Game in which a ball is thrown over a structure.

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Docia Ingalls / Hiram Forbes

Sister of Charles Ingalls married to railroad contractor.

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zenith

The point of the heavens directly overhead.

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Little House on the Prairie – the fictional story

The Ingallses in Indian Territory.

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“The Good Old Way”

Hymn 18, Pure Gold for the Sunday School.

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Farmer Boy – historical perspective

1860s Burke / Malone NY.

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nickel

The metal. Or five-cent piece.

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composition

The act of forming a written piece.

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water alcove

Railroad car water for drinking.

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coal / coal hod

Carbonized plant matter mined and used as fuel.

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mustache

Hair above the lip.

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William H. Steadman family

Proprietor of hotel in Burr Oak.

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Charles H. Tinkham

Early undertaker and owner of the first furniture store in De Smet.

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ostrich tips / feathers

Short bobbing feather used for hat decoration.

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udder

Where the milk is before milking.

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yeast / yeast cakes

Bread-leavening organism.

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Spin-offs and Adaptations of the Little House Books

Milking the cash cow.

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“The Sleighing Glee”

Singing school song.

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button lamp

Improvised grease lamp.

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prairie danglers

seventhwinter whimsey’s glass slide pendants!

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bobolink

On Mary Power’s name card.

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“To a Girl”

Poem used to describe Beatrice Sorchan.

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The Advance

Weekly family newspaper of the Congregational church.

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auger

A carpenter’s instrument for boring holes, chiefly in...

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gable

Triangular end of a building under the roof.

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Minnie Johnson

Laura’s schoolmate in De Smet

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dickcissel / dickie-bird

A semi-nomadic finch, Spiza americana.

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wild prairie rose

RWL was their namesake, my dear.

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“Hail Columbia”

1789 Philip Phile march.

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St. Lawrence River

A streak of silver on the horizon.

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crow

Large black bird of genus Corvus.

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hoity-toity snip

Thoughtless, giddy, haughty, flighty, gay, and noisy.

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“The Blue Juniata”

1841 Marion Dix Sullivan song.

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lief

Gladly; willingly; freely.

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Waverly Novels

Sir Walter Scott books.

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muskrat

Their houses predict winter weather.

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“Jesus Holds My Hand”

Hymn #85, Pure Gold for the Sunday Schools

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Peter Pfeiffer family

John May’s son-in-law.

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“yell like a Comanche”

Imitated Indian battle cry.

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jumping jack / jumping-jack

Jointed acrobat toy.

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“Beware!”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem.

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“The Ninety and Nine”

Elizabeth Clephane poem.

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gosh!

that wicked word

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wheelwright

One who makes wheels and carriages.

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Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography

Laura’s handwritten manuscript.

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Henry Hinz

Owner of first saloon in De Smet and boarder at the Ingallses’.

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New Ulm, Minnesota

Town in Brown Co., MN.

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“Rock Me to Sleep”

Elizabeth Allen poem.

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picket rope / pin / line

n. A stake sharpened or pointed, used in fortification and...

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consumption

A wasting disease, pulmonary tuberculosis.

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by jingo!

A corruption of St. Gengoulph.

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zebra

Part of Willie Oleson’s Noah’s Ark toy.

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Millbank

1871 novel by Mary Jane Holmes.

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whiffle-tree / whiffletree

Bar to attach traces to.

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velvet

Silk or blend fabric with short shag surface.

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mercury / thermometer

Used to measure air temperature.

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Dr. Robert Hoyt

Husband of Mattie Masters.

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honey

Bee-made sweetness.

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mosquito bar / netting

Woven cloth bug barrier.

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De Smet during the Little House years

The Ingalls family moved here in 1879.

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Congress

Legislative body of a country.

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copper

Cu

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Amos Whiting family

Superintendent of Schools, De Smet.

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“Am I a Soldier of the Cross”

Isaac Watts hymn.

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Lost, between sunrise and sunset…

Horace Mann quotation from his Writings, published in 1872.

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Daniel Loftus

Early drygoods store owner in De Smet.

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“The Star-Spangled Banner”

Our National Anthem; words by Francis Scott Key.

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Albert Quiner

Laura’s cousin.

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apple pie / dried apple pie

Just like Ma used to make.

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“The Heavens Declare the Glory”

From The Conqueror, page 144.

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Charles Barker

Early De Smet grocer.

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“Wait for the Wagon”

Buckley and Knauff song.

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“The Gum-Tree Canoe”

1847 Steele & Winnemore song.

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Reverend Edward Brown

Minister of the First Congregational Church of De Smet, 1880-1884.

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Lizzie

the child bride

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Poverty Flat

Early De Smet residential area.

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“Bonny Doon”

1792 Robert Burns song.

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Kingsbury County, D.T.

County in eastern South Dakota, organized in 1879.

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worm / angleworm

common soil worm

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wigwam

What Almanzo’s shocked oats looked like.

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Lewis Sasse

De Smet druggist

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A Modern Musketeer

In which Rose becomes a great actress.

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“Polly Wolly Doodle”

Daniel Decatur Emmett song.

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sundogs

Bright spots on either side of the sun.

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Henry J. Stebbins

Railroad contractor who inspired a song.

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muff

A warm covering for receiving the hands.

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checkers

Game played on a board of 64 squares.

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garnet

Deep orange-red gemstone.

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“Darling Nellie Gray”

1856 Benjamin Hamby song.

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Mansfield history

Town in Wright County, Missouri.

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“Oft in the Stilly Night”

Song from Lalla Rookh.

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Jerome Beardsley family

De Smet hotel keeper.

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wintergreen

Aromatic, creeping evergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, having bright red berries.

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Ross family

Neighbors in the Perry District.

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cradle scythe

Blade and handle used to cut oats.

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Little House in the Big Woods – the fictional story

Once upon a time, 60 years ago…

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reindeer

Why didn’t they fly over the creek?

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Santa Claus / Santa Clause

Ho. Ho. Ho.

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Samuel O. Masters / William J. Masters families

Walnut Grove, Burr Oak, and De Smet family known by the Ingallses.

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clinched nail

Bent at a right angle.

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mummy

Put. that. back.

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John Ensign family

Quit crying, Howard.

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galumphing

To move in a clumsy, ponderous, or noisy manner.

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“Jerusalem the Golden”

Hymn from Pure Gold for the Sunday School.

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twilight

Light when the sun is 0-18 degrees below the horizon.

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lone cottonwood / lone tree

The big one between the lakes.

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Hattie Dorchester

Jake Zickrick’s skating partner.

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“Yankee Doodle”

Early song brought to America from Britain.

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Women’s Christian Temperance Union

W.C.T.U.

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freeze drying

sublimation!

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swan

Cygnus Americanus

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mowing machine

Farm implement for cutting hay or grain.

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catechism

Question & answer book of religious doctrine.

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“Sweet By and By”

Pa’s favorite hymn.

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James Kennedy family

Walnut Grove farming family, originally from Canada.

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“Golden Years are Passing By”

1879 Will Thompson song.

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“Tubal Cain”

Charles McKay poem.

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anvil

Iron block to hammer upon.

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alley / alleyway

Narrow passageway, distinct from public street.

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buckwheat pancakes

Seeds of the flowering plant Eriogonum used as a grain.

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auk

Extinct sea bird used to describe dovekie found by Charles Ingalls.

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Stories of the Moorland

1869 book by Lizzie Bates about a young boy growing up in Scotland.

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cupola

Dome-like vault on a public building.

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“Nellie was a Lady”

Pa would play some of the old songs, ‘to go to sleep...

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Jerome Bisby

Resident of Burr Oak, Iowa, during the Ingallses’ stay...

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Big Tracy Cut

“100 feet deep & tapering off for 1/4 mile”

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“Jingle Bells”

1857 James Pierpont song.

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The Long Winter – the fictional story

Winter for seven months!

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South Troy / Zumbro Falls today

Little town along the Zumbro River.

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black bird / blackbird

Name given to various American birds.

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tomahawk

War hatchet used by American Indians.

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lantern

A light meant to be carried.

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Old Military Tract

Franklin Co. NY map reference

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