CSI: Little House

I recieved The Best of the LORE for Christmas. ( This is a collection of newsletters published by the LIW Memorial Society in De Smet, South Dakota) In it are articles of info on people Laura knew or things she had written. I was reading along and came across something so amazing. This article is entitled: On Writing the Little House Series by: Laura Ingalls Wilder ( These are Laura's words:)


...."Every story in this novel, all the circumstances, each incident are true. All I have told is true but it is not the whole truth. There were some stories I wanted to tell but would not be responsible for putting in a book for children, even though I knew them as a child.
There was the story of the Bender family that belonged in the third volume, the Little House on the Priarie. The Benders lied half way between it and Independence, Kansas. We stopped there, on our way in to the Little House, while Pa watered the horses and brought us all a drink from the well near the door of the house. I saw Kate Bender standing in the doorway. We did not go in because we could not afford to stop at a tavern.
On his trip to Independence to sell his furs, Pa stopped again for water, but did not go in for the same reason as before.
There were Kate Bender and two men, her brothers, in the family and their tavern was the only place for travelers to stop on the road south from Independence. People disappeared on the road. Leaving Independence and going south they were never heard of again. It was thought they were killed by Indians but no bodies were ever found.
Then it ws noticed that the Benders' garden was always freshly plowed but never planted. People wondered. And then a man came from the east looking for his brother, who was missing.
He made up a party in Independence and they followed the road south, but when they came to the Bender place there was no one there. There were signs of hurried departure and they searched the place.
The front room was divided by a calico curtain against which the dining table stood. On the curtain back of the table were stains about as high as the head of a man when seated. Behind the curtain was a trap door in the floor and beside it lay a heavy hammer.
In the cellar underneath was the body of a man whose head had been crushed by the hammer. It appeared that he had been seated at the table back to the curtain and had been struck from behind it. A grave was partly dug in the garden with a shovel close by. The posse searched the garden and dug up human bones and bodies. One body was that of a little girl who had been buried alive with her murdered parents. The garden was truly a graveyard kept plowed so it would show no signs. The night of the day the bodies were found a neighbor rode up to our house and talked earnestly with Pa. Pa took his rifle down from its place over the door and said to Ma "The vigilantes are called out.' Then he saddled a horse and rode away with the neighbor.
It was late the next day when he came back and he never told us where he had been.
For several years there was more or less a hunt for the Benders and reports that they had been seen here or there. At such times Pa always said in a strange tone of finality, "They will never be found." They never were found and later I formed my own conclusions why.
You will agree it is not a fit story for a children's book. But it shows there were other dangers on the frontier besides wild Indians.........


If you all haven't gotten The Best of the LORE you need to....
This is just a sample of things we want to know more about Laura.
Its amazing she could live to tell of her life...sure glad she did!
(This is $19.95)

The story is Eerie. Kind of gave em goosebumps.

Oh my gosh, that sounds like something that goes on now!! Very interesting...

Ewww, gross....but the publication sounds interesting.

It probably goes without saying that people have always been capable of evil things, but we are so connected through the internet, etc., that we hear more about the "bad" stuff going on....

I agree it seems funny to hear of things so twisted happening back then. I guess because home and family were usually so close knit. But when you think about it, it took a long time for mental illnesses to be recognized and understood. I think I understand now better why they kept that rifle close!

Yes. But stadistic shows quite easily that these cases are more common nowadays than back then. They existed, for sure, but they were less usual.

Vanesa.

wow thanks for that... interesting

I love reading criminal books. I got goosebumps, just reading the sample. Where can I, find this book?

Does that mean that Pa killed the Benders so they would never be found?!?!

Gin wrote:

I recieved The Best of the LORE for Christmas. ( This is a collection of newsletters published by the LIW Memorial Society in De Smet, South Dakota) In it are articles of info on people Laura knew or things she had written. I was reading along and came across something so amazing. This article is entitled: On Writing the Little House Series by: Laura Ingalls Wilder ( These are Laura's words:)


...."Every story in this novel, all the circumstances, each incident are true. All I have told is true but it is not the whole truth. There were some stories I wanted to tell but would not be responsible for putting in a book for children, even though I knew them as a child.
There was the story of the Bender family that belonged in the third volume, the Little House on the Priarie. The Benders lied half way between it and Independence, Kansas. We stopped there, on our way in to the Little House, while Pa watered the horses and brought us all a drink from the well near the door of the house. I saw Kate Bender standing in the doorway. We did not go in because we could not afford to stop at a tavern.
On his trip to Independence to sell his furs, Pa stopped again for water, but did not go in for the same reason as before.
There were Kate Bender and two men, her brothers, in the family and their tavern was the only place for travelers to stop on the road south from Independence. People disappeared on the road. Leaving Independence and going south they were never heard of again. It was thought they were killed by Indians but no bodies were ever found.
Then it ws noticed that the Benders' garden was always freshly plowed but never planted. People wondered. And then a man came from the east looking for his brother, who was missing.
He made up a party in Independence and they followed the road south, but when they came to the Bender place there was no one there. There were signs of hurried departure and they searched the place.
The front room was divided by a calico curtain against which the dining table stood. On the curtain back of the table were stains about as high as the head of a man when seated. Behind the curtain was a trap door in the floor and beside it lay a heavy hammer.
In the cellar underneath was the body of a man whose head had been crushed by the hammer. It appeared that he had been seated at the table back to the curtain and had been struck from behind it. A grave was partly dug in the garden with a shovel close by. The posse searched the garden and dug up human bones and bodies. One body was that of a little girl who had been buried alive with her murdered parents. The garden was truly a graveyard kept plowed so it would show no signs. The night of the day the bodies were found a neighbor rode up to our house and talked earnestly with Pa. Pa took his rifle down from its place over the door and said to Ma "The vigilantes are called out.' Then he saddled a horse and rode away with the neighbor.
It was late the next day when he came back and he never told us where he had been.
For several years there was more or less a hunt for the Benders and reports that they had been seen here or there. At such times Pa always said in a strange tone of finality, "They will never be found." They never were found and later I formed my own conclusions why.
You will agree it is not a fit story for a children's book. But it shows there were other dangers on the frontier besides wild Indians.........


If you all haven't gotten The Best of the LORE you need to....
This is just a sample of things we want to know more about Laura.
Its amazing she could live to tell of her life...sure glad she did!
(This is $19.95)

WOW so life wasn't so much as safe in those days...

Here's a Wikipedia article I found. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Bender

I read the Wikipedia article....mostly matches up with how Laura describes things, or at least close enough to know that what Laura reported is at least the way she remembered things or had them told to her. So scary that her family was actually in the same location as those Bender people, even if for a brief time!

Pretty much as long as there have been human beings alive, there have been murders, going all the way back of course to Cain and Abel (for those who believe the Bible), so in some ways we should not be surprised, but I think that these days, with the easy access to information from all over the world, we just hear more about them and hear more constantly about them. (My mom seems addicted to the Casey Anthony trial, for instance.)

It still seems to me like Laura's "conclusions" about what happened to the Benders implies that Pa either was involved in or knew somehow that they had already been killed, perhaps by the group of vigilantes.