Laura Ingalls Wilder

Hello, my name is Laura Ingalls Wilder. My story begins on February 7th, 1867, when I was born in a little log cabin in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Life was an adventure from the very start. I lived with my adventurous Pa, my kind Ma, and my sisters, Mary and Carrie. Our home was small and cozy, surrounded by a huge forest filled with animals. In the evenings, the woods could seem dark and scary, but inside our cabin, everything felt safe. The best part of the day was when Pa would take out his fiddle. Its cheerful music filled our little house with so much joy and made us all want to dance.

Our family was always looking for a new adventure, and Pa had a restless spirit. Around 1869, he decided we should leave the Big Woods and travel west in a covered wagon. We journeyed for many days across the wide-open prairies of Kansas, which was then known as Indian Territory. Pa built us a new log house on the beautiful, empty land. We had to leave that home, so we traveled again and settled in Minnesota. There, we lived in a dugout, which was a home dug right into the bank of Plum Creek. Life on the prairie brought many challenges. In the mid-1870s, a huge swarm of grasshoppers came and ate all of our crops. It felt like a dark cloud covering the sun, and it left us with very little food.

Life on the prairie could be very hard, and in 1879, our family faced our saddest time yet. My older sister, Mary, became very sick with scarlet fever. The illness was terrible, and when she got better, we realized it had taken her sight. Mary was blind. It was a difficult time for all of us, and my heart ached for her. I made a promise to myself and to her that I would become her 'eyes.' I described everything I saw—the color of the sunset, the shape of the clouds, and the flowers on the prairie—so she could see the world through my words. This experience made me determined to help my family however I could. That same year, in 1879, we moved once more, this time to the Dakota Territory, where we settled near the new town of De Smet.

One of the most difficult times I ever lived through was 'The Long Winter' of 1880-1881. Snowstorm after snowstorm buried our town under feet of snow for months. The trains couldn't get through, and we nearly ran out of food and the fuel we needed to keep our small home warm. Surviving that winter made me even more determined to get an education. I dreamed of becoming a schoolteacher so I could earn money for my family. Most of all, I wanted to help pay for Mary to go to a special college for the blind. I studied very hard, and in 1882, I proudly earned my teaching certificate. I was only 15 years old when I began teaching at my first country school.

While I was teaching, I met a young farmer named Almanzo Wilder who would come to pick me up from my school in his sleigh. We fell in love, and on August 25th, 1885, we were married. We started our own life together on a farm, and in 1886, our daughter, Rose, was born. Our early years were full of struggles, from bad weather that ruined our crops to sickness. We decided to make one last big move to find our forever home. In 1894, we traveled to the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and bought a piece of land. We named it Rocky Ridge Farm, and it was there that we finally put down roots and built the life we had always wanted.

For many years, my life was filled with the hard work of a farmer's wife, but I never lost my love for writing. Starting around 1911, I began writing articles for a farm newspaper, sharing my knowledge about country life. Years later, when I was in my sixties, my daughter Rose saw how much I loved telling stories about my childhood. She encouraged me to write them all down in a book so that other children could know what it was like to be a pioneer. I took her advice, and in 1932, my very first book, 'Little House in the Big Woods,' was published. I was so happy to learn that children loved reading my stories, so I kept on writing.

I spent the rest of my years at our beloved Rocky Ridge Farm, writing and answering letters from children who read my books. I lived to be 90 years old. Even though my life as a pioneer girl happened a long time ago, my stories live on. Through my 'Little House' books, children all over the world can still travel back in time with me. They can ride in a covered wagon, listen to Pa's fiddle in a cozy log cabin, and understand the courage and love that built a life on the American frontier.