Laura Ingalls Wilder
Biography

Laura  Elizabeth Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867, in the big woods of Wisconsin. She was the second daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls.

In 1868, Pa and Ma took baby Laura and her sister Mary from the big woods to Chariton County, Missouri.  They didn't stay in Missouri for long.  Inspired by the Homestead Act of 1868 (which offered 160 acres of land to the settlers who would farm it and live on it for five years), Pa took the family to the prairies. The land Pa chose was about twelve miles from Independence, Kansas, within the boundaries of the Osage Diminished Reserve. There, Pa built a house and stable with the help of a friend, and neighbor, Mr. Edwards.

After building a house and planting crops, the Ingalls were forced to leave because the government had changed its mind, and soldiers were coming to burn the houses and shoot people off of the land. Pa heard this and left his home immediately. This happened just after their third daughter, Carrie, was born. The girls went back to the big woods. Now the girls were able to see more of their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  Laura and Mary went to Barry Corner School and spent lots of time playing with their cousins. Ma was glad to be home, but Pa longed to go west.

They did go back west in 1874. The Ingalls lived in a dugout near Walnut Grove, Minnesota until Pa was able to build a beautiful house of sawed boards. Pa raised a wonderful wheat crop until the grasshoppers attacked!

Laura died on February 10, 1957, at Rocky Ridge Farm at the age of 90. 

There is so much more to Laura's wonderful life! To find more information, you can go to http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura.htmlx

List of Books

Review of Little House on the Prairie

Review of The First Four Years