Road Trip to Springfield Missouri: Why On Earth Did We Go, Anyway?

Quite a few people raised eyebrows in inquiry when I said my mom, my dog and I were headed off on a road trip with the destination being a small town in Missouri! Actually, our REAL destination was to an even smaller town about 45 miles east of Springfield; Mansfield. Especially since this meant a total of four days of FULL driving (roughly 500 miles each day); all of this for one day in a dinky little town?

But, in actuality, it was a Mecca, of sorts, for a person such as me; who’d grown up reading books written by a certain Laura Ingalls Wilder, “The Little House Books”, as they are fondly known. The books, semi-autobiographical in nature, tell the tale of Laura’s childhood, teenaged years, young adulthood and her first four years of marriage. Her family, comprised of her Pa, her Ma and her sisters Mary and Carrie, were one of the original pioneer families, traveling from the big woods of Wisconsin (near a town called Peppin) to Kansas, Minnesota, and, eventually, settling in a very tiny town in South Dakota called De Smet (this was before SD was a state; the area was known as “The Dakota Territory”). I have since found out that the Ingalls’s actually somewhat ping-ponged back and forth from WI to KS, back to WI, to MN, on to IA (which is never written about in Laura’s books), back to MN and finally to SD; I suppose this would have been too confusing for young readers to follow.

Carrie, Mary and Laura Ingalls

Laura’s books are full of interesting tales of adventure, plus, simple normal things like not getting along with your older sister and being naughty and always looking forward to Christmas. The theme of the importance of family and friends figure prominently, as do ones of working hard, being honest, studying to better oneself, and, a lesson her father taught her be his sheer determination in the face of a hell of a lot of

adversity; never, ever give up.

Ma, Carrie, Laura, Grace (Standing); Pa and Mary (Sitting) ~ 1894

Laura had to remember these lessons into her married life. The first four years of her marriage to Almanzo Wilder (whom she called Manly; he called her Bessie (this is another factoid not really mentioned in her books)) were full of trials.

Laura and Almanzo Shortly After Their Marriage ~ 1885

Their stint at farming was not overly successful. They both became seriously ill with diphtheria; Manly was in essence semi-paralyzed as a result (this mostly because he went back to work far too soon). Their infant son died unexpectedly two weeks after his birth (he remained nameless and is buried somewhere near De Smet); leaving them with just one child, a highly intelligent but extremely precocious and trouble-prone daughter named Rose (who figured prominently, it is believed, in encouraging her mother to write her books; some say she was actually the one who wrote them (this I don’t believe)). Rose did turn out to be an accomplished journalist and author in her own right; in fact, she was the oldest journalist sent to cover the Viet Nam war in 1968.

Rose Wilder Lane As An Adult

The straw that broke their particular camel’s back was when their small farmhouse burnt to the ground (courtesy of a kitchen fire started by Rose). They all survived the fire but with only a few meager possessions to their name (some of which are on display in the museum at Mansfield).

Due primarily to these catastrophes but also to Manly’s poor health, the Wilder’s decided to move South. They tried living in Florida (somewhere in the Panhandle) for roughly a year but that was a complete disaster (Laura found the people there “distasteful” and the humidity wrecked havoc on her). They moved back to De Smet and lived with Laura’s parents for another year before deciding to move to “The Land of the Big Red Apple”, Missouri.

They left De Smet for good in the summer of 1894 along with daughter Rose and another family also headed to that general area. In Laura’s traveling lap desk (which Manly had made for her), they tucked away a $100 bill; their life savings; what they hopefully intended to use as a down payment on a suitable farm property in Missouri, assuming that they could find one to their taste.

It took them about six weeks to travel (by hack) to the area they eventually made their home for the rest of their lives; a small but promising town in the Ozarks of Missouri called Mansfield. It was here that Laura eventually wrote her books (8 in total; the last one in the series, “The First Four Years”, was published after her death and was based on a diary they found in her possession at the time of her death which she apparently kept during the early years of her marriage to Almanzo).

They built the farmhouse one room at a time as they could afford to do so. By the time it was done, it was quite the show piece in the neighborhood. For folks that had started their time in Mansfield in relative poverty, they’d really gone far; this success due to the productivity of their farm (apple orchards, other fruit bearing trees, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and crops) came well before Laura’s achievements as a world-renown author.

Laura and Almanzo At Rocky Ridge Farm 1940

Before she wrote her books, she did, however, write for the local newspaper; highly entertaining little articles full of helpful hints and advice. This book, now available entitled “Little House in the Ozarks”, reminds me of a compilation of modern-day Blog entries!

The Wilder’s lived on their farm until their respective deaths; Almanzo in 1949 at age 92 and Laura in February 1957 just three days past her 90th b-day. For a woman who’d lived such a life of adventure and import, she died peacefully in her sleep in her farmhouse in Mansfield. The curators of the houses and museum on the property informed us that, as much as possible, everything in the house is as it was the night Laura died, down to and including the calendar hanging in the kitchen turned to February 1957.

Laura In Her Sixties

Laura Autographing Her Books For A Group Of Children

So, yes, this WAS a Mecca of sorts for me. A girl who grew up reading these books; and, in fact LEARNED to read on these books. My mom and dad told me that they recall me sitting in a quiet part of our house in San Diego, probably at age 6, reading one of her books out loud; sounding out the words as I went. My dad told Mr. B I used to come to him to ask him what certain words meant. So, in this way, my parents also “read” Laura’s books. It was fitting, then, that my mom came along with me on this special trip.

Mrs. B

Coming Soon: We Depart On Our Adventure!