Page 28 - MFM Jan Feb 2024

The Little House On The Prairie

Brother Chuck Clampitt
Etana Lodge 333, Mt. Etna, Indiana

The well-known television show Little were required to contribute in one way or
House on the Prairie was aired on another. For the girls, time was still found
television from 1974 to 1983 and traced for school, play, and the simple pleasures
the Ingalls family as pioneers on the plains of growing up on the Great Plains. Simple
of Minnesota in the 1870’s. The episodes family activities included church socials,
were narrated by Laura, the daughter of dances, community work parties like barn
Charles and Caroline Ingalls, along with raising or husking bees, as well as buggy
her sisters Mary and Carrie. What isn’t and sleigh rides. Charles and Caroline
generally known is that most of the stories Ingalls also found time for something else
actually took place and that the author – Masonry. Charles was a Mason and both
was actually Laura Ingalls Wilder. were members of the Eastern Star.

As a background, Charles Ingalls was Laura Ingalls Wilder
born in Cuba, New York in 1836 the son of Lansford By the time Laura was almost 16 she taught at
and Laura Ingalls. Like many people of that era, area one room schools and in 1885, at the age of
Lansford apparently had a wanderlust that drew him 18, married Almanzo Wilder, a farmer 10 years
westward. Cheap and better-quality farm ground her senior. The following year their daughter Rose
could be purchased from the Federal Government was born. The first four years of their marriage
for as little as a $1.25 an acre was always a lure to was very difficult as they experienced drought and
move west. Other driving forces were the desire infestations of locust and grasshoppers that wiped
to improve oneself, a sense of adventure, or out their crops, the death of an infant son, a fire
encouragement from family and friends who were that destroyed their home, and both contracting
moving west. Charles married Caroline Quiner in diphtheria. Finally in 1889 they gave up farming and
1860 in Illinois. Through the years the Ingalls moved moved to Minnesota to live with Almanzo’s parents
a number of times first to Wisconsin and then to before moving to Florida because of his on-going
Kansas, back to Wisconsin, southern Minnesota, health issues.
Iowa, back to Minnesota, and eventually to De
Smet, South Dakota. “For his entire life, Ingalls had Like her parents, Laura and Almanzo, continued to
a strong case of wanderlust.” He is quoted by his move, but finally settled in the Ozark Mountains
daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in her Little House of southwestern Missouri in 1894 on a farm they
series of books as saying: “My wandering foot gets dubbed “Rocky Ridge”. This really wasn’t farming
to itching” (Wikipedia-Charles Ingalls). Finally soft- country but their intention was to plant orchards,
spoken Caroline Ingalls put her foot down saying raise chickens, and sell off timber to meet their
that the move to South Dakota would be their last. It financial needs. The Wilder’s financial situation was
was there that they would spend the time from 1879 much like what Laura had experienced growing up.
until Charles death in 1903.
Rose Wilder was always an intelligent, head strong,
Laura Ingalls was born in Wisconsin in 1867 and and precocious girl. At 17 she left home to become
her life and experiences wouldn’t have been much a telegraph operator in Kansas City and later would
different than other children of that era growing be promoted as the manager of the Western Union
up on the edge of the American frontier. At various office in Mount Vernon, Indiana. Like her parents
times the family lived in sod houses, dugouts, and and grandparents, Rose was never one to stay in one
small primitive houses called “shanties”. While her place very long. In 1908 she moved to San Francisco
father was trying to eke out a living as a farmer where she would marry. Over the next several years,
and carpenter, Laura, her mother and sisters were she and her husband lived in several different parts
all busy with household chores, gardening, and of the country trying to support themselves by
tending livestock. Money for the Ingalls family, like promoting various financial schemes. It was during
other pioneering families of the time, was always this time that Rose began writing newspaper and
in short supply and all the members of the family magazine articles to supplement their income.

Montana Freemason Page 28 Jan/Feb 2024 Volume 100 No.1