Term Paper on Laura Ingalls Wilder
...red wagon to the settlement. Pa soon got a job working on the railroad while in De Smet and earned a good living for his girls back at home. It was also at this time that Mary suffered a stroke and was left blind afterwards. Laura learned to help Mary in every way possible. Once they had been in De Smet for awhile, it was clear that Laura was growing up. She attended school and studied to be a school teacher, herself. She also worked as a seamstress to raise money to pay for Mary’s tuition to the College of the Blind. About a year later, just short of her sixteenth birthday, Laura begins teaching school on the Dakota Prairie. She is often homesick and scared by the infamous Mrs. Bragg and her psychotic tendencies. The cold prairie made Laura miss her family more and more every night, until one day a young man showed up to take Laura back home to her family. This young man would be known as Almanzo James Wilder. Over the next months, Almanzo would make the long trip to the school shanty where Laura taught, to take her back to her family in De Smet. The trip in the blistering cold seems endless, even though, Laura’s family is only 12 miles away. While on the sled trips back home, Laura became quite fond of Almanzo, and likewise, he felt the same about her. Laura never really made it quite obvious to Almanzo that she liked him. He eventually started to court Nellie Owens, but soon ended the relationship after Nellie’s true colors shown through. Shortly after, Laura and Manly (what Laura called Almanzo) began courting. After 3 years of dating, and the cleverness of Manly, Almanzo sized and bought Laura a wedding ring and proposed to her. She told him that she would need time to think about it, and eventually, she accepted. They were married August 25, 1885 by the Reverend E. Brown. Almanzo was nearly ten years Laura’s senior. Their wedding reception was held at Laura’s house. Laura’s mother furnished all the food that was at the reception. The wedding cake she made for Laura was “beautiful, but as dry as sawdust” (These Happy Golden Years). That same evening, Laura and Manly moved into the new house that Almanzo had built for her. Manly also surprised Laura with a full bred shepherd dog that he had just bought. Laura was overjoyed. Laura and Almanzo’s life together did not start out together as well as they had hoped. In fact, the only really good thing that came into their life during this beginning was a baby girl named Rose. Rose was born on December 5th, 1886. After four years of trying to farm without success, everything Laura and Manly had ever worked for went up in smoke, literally. One day while Laura and manly were out in the fields, they noticed smoke from the distance, they hurried back as fast as they could but it was too late, the house had caught on fire and burnt to the ground. Besides the tragedy of the fire, Laura gave birth to a baby boy in August of 1889, he died shortly, thereafter. Laura was now the second of three generations (Rose included), who would lose a baby boy. After all the hardships Laura and Manly had faced, they still had more to come. In 1890, Laura and Almanzo contracted diphtheria. Laura would recover, but Almanzo would be left with partially paralyzed feet. While they were sick, it was Almanzo’s brother, Royal, who nursed them back to health (The First Four Years). A few years later, Laura, Rose, and Manly all packed up and moved to Westville, Florida. The climate greatly helped Almanzo’s legs, but Laura longed to be back in the country. Also, the women of Florida did not like Laura and often referred to her as “some damn Yankee” (Laura Ingalls Wilder: Frontier Girl). After a few months in Florida, the three moved to the Ozarks and bought the down payment for Rocky Ridge Farm. The farm was just outside of Mansfield, Missouri. Laura and Almanzo would make this their home for the rest of their lives. Several years later, the “Happy Golden Years” would come to an end. Almanzo Wilder would die of two fatal heart attacks on October 23, 1949 in his home. Almanzo was 92 at the time of his death. Laura would soon follow, on February 10, 1957, Laura Ingalls Wilder would die of congestive heart failure at her home in Mansfield. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote many articles for magazines such as McCalls, Country Gentlemen, and The Missouri Ruralist (The World of Little House). In order to continue her mother’s talent, Rose Wilder encouraged Laura to write down her memories of pioneer life that she so often spoke of. After Laura finally agreed, she sat down to write what was known as “Pioneer Girl”. The book “Pioneer Girl” was basically the entire “Little House” series all in one. A few years later, HarperCollins Publishers agreed to publish Laura&...