satchel

A little sack or bag. — Webster, 1882

Go to the harness shop for trunks, satchels and traveling bags. A new stock just arrived. Frank Schaub. – The De Smet Leader, February 14, 1885.

     
A satchel is a smaller, soft-sided piece of luggage with carrying handles; it is typically made of leather, as opposed to the carpet-bag, which was made out of carpet pieces or other heavy-duty fabric, or a valise, which usually had hard sides. In By the Shores of Silver Lake, Ma packs two satchels of belongings to carry on the train ride between Walnut Grove to Tracy. The Sewell / Boyle illustration in Chapter 3, “Riding in the Cars” shows Ma and the girls boarding the train while the brakeman holds one of the satchels. The satchel shown here is on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

“Them your satchels, ma’am?”

In These Happy Golden Years, Laura travels to her teaching jobs and to stay with Mrs. McKee and Mattie with her clothes in one of Ma’s satchels, suggesting that it is one of the two the Ingalls women brought to De Smet in 1879. It’s never said where Ma’s satchels came from, as they aren’t mentioned prior to the family leaving Walnut Grove. Although costs would vary by location and quality, period newspapers suggest that an alligator hide satchel might cost as little as fifty cents, while a Morocco leather satchel with shoulder straps sold for $2.50.

In her homestead claim final proof papers, Eliza Jane Wilder mentioned traveling with a satchel. She wrote: “In August 1881, just when it seemed I was most needed at my place [her claim], a message came to me from Mr. Jackson at Valley Springs saying his wife was thrown from a buggy and so seriously injured the doctor had little hope of her recovery, and wished me to come to her at once. At first I thought I could not go but there was a strong attachment between us and when I left her I had promised if ever needed and sent for me I would come if living so I took, in a satchel, what I thought I would need for myself and niece [her sister Laura Howard’s daughter, Angelina] for a few weeks. …Therefore I remained as nurse and friend until February 1882, when I went home.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder doesn’t tell us where or when Ma’s satchels were purchased, but in De Smet, harness maker Frank Schaub advertised “everything in the harness line” as well as “trunks, satchels, and traveling bags.” The trunks Pa purchased in town for Mary to take to college and Laura to take to her home after marrying Almanzo Wilder must have come from The De Smet Harness Shop.

     

satchel (SSL 3-4; THGY 1, 4, 14; PG), see also carpet-bag