Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7th, 1867 in Pepin, Wisconsin to Charles Ingalls and Caroline Quiner. Most of her life was recounted in her famous "Little House" books which were adapted into a T.V. show in the 1970's.  She was the second of four children. In 1874, the Ingalls family left Wisconsin for Walnut Grove, Minnesota, where most of the T.V. series takes place. Two years later, the family moved to Burr Oak, Iowa, where her father became part-owner of a hotel. But the hotel business must not have been too lucrative because the family moved back to Walnut Grove a year later. In 1879, Laura's family moved again to the Dakota Territory.

Laura's father built a homestead in De Smet, South Dakota. Both Laura's parents lived there until they died and the house that "Pa" built is still standing and open for tours.  In 1882, at the age of fifteen, Laura received her teaching certificate. This is when she met/courted Almanzo "Manly" Wilder, the man she would spend the rest of her life with.  For the next three years, Laura taught at a small country school several miles from her home in De Smet and boarded with a family who lived nearby. Almanzo began coming to pick Laura up from school every Friday to take her home to her family, and every Sunday he would bring her back to the family she was boarding with while teaching. Thus began Laura and Almanzo's courtship.

Laura and Almanzo were married on August 25, 1885 in a very simple ceremony at the local Reverend's house in De Smet. Laura quit her teaching job to help Almanzo work their farm. The following year, on December 5th, 1886, their daughter Rose was born. In August of 1889, Laura gave birth to a boy that would not survive infancy. 

The Wilders moved to Mansfield, Missouri in 1894, where they built a farm they called Rocky Ridge. Here, Laura would write her famous "Little House" books recounting her life growing up. Here, Laura and Almanzo would both die. Laura wrote her first book, an autobiography titled "Pioneer Girl", some time in the late 1920's but no one would publish the work.  This work has recently been published by the South Dakota State Historical Society. She decided to change the autobiography from a first person point of view to third person and broadened the story to include more of her family and neighbors. She also geared it towards children. In 1932, the first of the "Little House" books was published. Laura was sixty five years old. Seven more "Little House" books would be written and published. Laura passed away at her Rocky Ridge home on February 10, 1957. She was ninety years old. You can also tour this home.

Laura Ingalls Wilder left a great legacy for all of us to share. How many of us read her books as children? How many of us grew up watching the television adaptation of her books? She made the struggles and harsh realities of living in the western frontier of the United States in the late 1800's real to many people, but she also let us share in the love that her family had for each other.

Did you know?
Did you know that Rose Wilder Lane was the last direct descendant of Charles and Caroline. Laura's sisters never had children of their own. Mary never married, Carrie married when she was in her forties and Grace never had children with her husband. Rose married when she was in her twenties but the marriage didn't last long and there were no children produced.

Further reading:
West from Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder to Almanzo - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Pioneer Girl - Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography - William Anderson

http://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Wilder-Laura-Ingalls.html

http://www.discoverlaura.org/index.html

http://www.lauraingallswilderhome.com/

Lydia Bean

Lydia (Russell) Bean was born in 1726 in Rappahanock County, Virginia. She was the daughter of Lt. Col. William James Russell and Martha Graydon. In 1741, Lydia married William Bean, a friend and traveling companion of Daniel Boone. Lydia and William had 10 children. They moved from Virginia in 1769 to what would later become the state of Tennessee. Their first born son Russell was born the same year and is reported to be the first white person born in Tennessee.

Lydia was captured in July 1776 by hostile Cherokee Indians prior to an attack on the Wataugu settlement. The Watauga settlement was located south of the Holston River, on the Watauga and Nolichucky Rivers in the colony of North Carolina, now Tennessee.  She was intercepted as she made her way from her home on Boone’s Creek to Sycamore Shoals. She was sent to the Overhill Towns, a Cherokee village, and was sentenced to execution. She was actually being tied to a stake when Nancy Ward, Beloved Mother of the Cherokee, exercised her right as a woman of the tribe (the women usually decided the fate of captives) to spare Lydia from death. She took the injured Mrs. Bean into her own home to nurse her back to health. In return Lydia taught Nancy and the other women of their tribe many new and useful ways of the white man, and it is said that Lydia was the one who introduced cows into Cherokee society by giving some of her own cattle to Nancy Ward.

Several members of the Bean family were killed by hostile Indians, including a brother and one of her daughters. Lydia herself lived to be 62 years of age and she died on June 18, 1788 in Grainger County, Tennessee.


The introduction of European ways into Nancy Ward's tribe by Lydia Bean helped to effectively change the gender dynamics of Cherokee society. The men began to take the place of women as farmers while the women were expected to do common white women's chores such as making clothes and making butter and cheese.

                       Historical Marker at the location of Bean's Station, a stopping point for travelers

                                          Historical Marker for the Bean family cabin





Further research:
Bean Family Genealogy

Bean Station

Annals of Tennessee - J.G.M Ramsey