Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie Born, Prairie Raised

Laura Ingalls was born in Pepin, Wisconsin, on February 7, 1867, the second of four children born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. Often uprooted in her young years to fulfill her father’s frontier dream, she was no stranger to tragedy and heartbreak. One year, her family’s very existence was threatened as several blizzards stranded them with little food and no firewood for five months. At 15, Laura received her teaching certificate and taught in a one-room schoolhouse. During this time, she met Almanzo Wilder. When Laura turned 18, the couple married, began life on their farm, welcomed their daughter, Rose. Over the years, disaster and hardship plagued the family, but they survived, rebuilt their lives, and prospered, and when Laura turned her many journal entries into articles for a local newspaper, she found herself on a new journey—as a writer. With the help of Rose, herself a reporter, Laura published her first novel, Little House in the Big Woods, at the age of 65. Laura Ingalls Wilder died in 1957 at age 90. For more about Laura Ingalls, click here.