“Ernest Perry went to Oregon with the rest of the Perrys a few years later and stayed a batchelor for the sweet sake of his ideal of me until a few years ago.”
The above sentence is from the handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, written around 1930. Laura wrote about parties Ernest Perry took her to before Almanzo walked her home from revivals. Then the “what happened” sentence.
I guess it depends on how you define “a few”. Ernest Perry didn’t leave De Smet until the late 1890s, and he went to Idaho, not Oregon. He didn’t go with the rest of the Perrys either, if by “rest of the Perrys” LIW meant her student Clyde’s parents (Melvina and Delos Perry), who moved to Washington, not Oregon, and not until 1903. Ernie was married in 1909, and I consider that more than “a few” years before 1930.
