Life and Times of Laura

I have the wonderful book, "The World of Little House" by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson.  In the back, it has a wonderful calendar of events that happened in Laura's time. It goes from the 1860's through to her death in 1957.  Depending on the time I have here at work, I brought the book with me, I want to make a list of each era and everyone can see what this wonderful woman lived through and the changes she witnessed.  The first time I went through the book and saw the changes Laura lived through, I was so amazed and thought I would share it with you.........I hope you enjoy.  

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1870

Laura is three years old.

Caroline Celestia (Carrie) Ingalls is born on August 3, in Montgomery County, Kansas.

Congress passes the 15th Amendment, granting the right to vote regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

1871

The Ingalls family moves back to Pepin, Wisconsin.

Laura attends school for the first time.

The Wonders of the Animal World (Pa's "Big Green Animal Book") by G. Hartwig is published.

Montgomery Ward opens the first catalogue house.

P.T. Barnum opens his circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth," in New York.

1873

Congress passes the Timber Culture Act. granting 160 acres of timberland to any U.S. citizen who cares for 40 acres for five years.

1874

The Ingalls family moves to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

Tom Quiner, Ma's brother, joins the first party of prospectors in the Black Hills of western South Dakota.

The first American zoo is established in Philadelphia.

1875

Charles Frederic (Freddie) Ingalls is born in Walnut Grove, on November 1.

The Wilder family moves from Malone, New York to Spring Valley, Minnesota; Almanzo is eighteen years old.

1876

Baby Freddie Ingalls dies on August 27.

The Ingalls family moves to Burr Oak, Iowa, to help run the Burr Oak House.

The first U.S. patent for the telephhone is granted to Alexander Graham Bell.

The Sioux Indians, led by chiefs, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, defeat General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Grasshoppers are declared "Public Enemy #1" in Minnesota, and the government offers children up to fifty cents for every bushel of dead grasshoppers collected.

1877

Grace Pearl Ingalls is born on May 23, in Burr Oak, Iowa.

The Ingalls family returns to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.

Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

1878

Laura wins a reference Bible for reciting 104 Golden Texts and Central Truths perfectly.

W.A. Burpee begins selling seeds by catalogue.

1879

Mary falls ill and slowly loses her sight.

The Ingalls family moves to Dakota Territory and helps settle the twon of De Smet.

Almanzo, his brother Royal and their sister, Eliza Jane file homestead claims for land near De Smet.

NEXT UP......1880-1889  

1880

Laura is thirteen years old.

The Ingallses move into their new homestead, but return to town after an early blizzard hits, and the long winter begins.

Pa becomes Justice of the Peace in De Smet.

Five Little Peppers and How They Grow by Margaret Sidney is published.

Helen Keller is born.

1881

Mary, Carrie and Laura have their first photograph taken.

Ma and Pa take Mary to the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa.

Eliza Jane Wilder begins teaching at the De Smet school.

President James A. Garfield is assassinated by Charles Guiteau.

Billy the Kid is killed by Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

Clara Birton founds the American National Red Cross.

1882

Laura receives her teacher's certificate and begins teaching at the Bouchie School (called Brewster School in These Happy Golden Year's).

1883

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody organizes the first Wild West show.

Standard time is established.  The railroads demarcate the four time zones.

1884

Laura and Almanzo become engaged.

Almanzo and Royal leave De Smet for the New Orleans Exposition.

Oil is discovered in Independence, Kansas; eventually there will be twenty-three oil wells on the land that once surrounded the little house on the prairie.

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is published.

The first sky-scraper, the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, opens.

1885

Laura and Almanzo are married on August 25 in De Smet.

David Swazey, Carrie's future husband, suggests the name Mount Rushmore for the now-famous mountain in the Black Hills.

The Washington Monument is dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1886

Rose Wilder is born on December 5 in De Smet, Dakota Territory.

The Statue of Liberty is unveiled in New York harbor.

Coca-Cola appears on the market in Atlanta, Georgia, and is advertised as a remedy for fatigue.

1887

Pa and Ma, Mary, Carrie and Grace move into their new home in town.

1888

Laura and Almanzo are stricken with diphtheria.

1889

Laura and Almanzo's son is born and dies twelve days later.

Laura and Almanzo's house is destroyed by fire.

Mary graduates from the School for the Blind.

South Dakota becomes a state.


NEXT UP......1890-1899  

1930-1939

1930

Laura is sixty-three years old.

1931

Laura and Almanzo drive to De Smet and then to the Black Hills of South Dakota to visit Grace and Carrie.

The Empire State Building is completed.

1932

Little House in the Big Woods, illustrated by Helen Sewell, is published by Harper Brothers.

Rose Wilder Lane's Let the Hurricane Roar is published by Harper Brothers.

Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic nonstop.

1933

Farmer Boy is published.

In an emergency session that lasts one hundred days, Congress passes legislation to aid farmers and the unemployed.

1935

Little House on the Prairie is published.

Rose Wilder Lane's Old Home Town is published.

Laura and Almanzo celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary.

The homestead Act is repealed.

1936

Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is published.

1937

On the Banks of Plum Creek is published.

Laura and Almanzo move back into the farmhouse at Rocky Ridge after living nine years in the rock house.

Laura and Almanzo travel to Detroit, where Laura speaks at a book fair.

1938

Rose Wilder Lane's Free Land is published.

Laura and Almanzo travel with their friends Silas and Neta Seal to the west coast.

1939

By the Shores of Silver Lake is published.

Laura and Almanzo travel to De Smet to the Old Settlers' Day celebration.

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is published.

Next up 1940-1949

1940-1949

1940

Laura is seventy-three years old.

The Long Winter is published.

Walt Disney's Fantasia opens in movie theaters.

1941

Little Town on the Prairie is published

Grace dies on November 10.

Japanese troops attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Congress declares war against Japan. Germany and Italy declare war against the United States.

The Mount Rushmore National Monument in South Dakota is completed after fourteen years.

1943

These Happy Golden Years is published.

1944

Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected for a fourth time. He is the only president elected to four terms.

1945

Germany surrenders u nconditionally to the Allies, ending the European phase of World War II.

The United States drops the first atomic bomb ever to be used in war on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later, it drops the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Japan surrenders and the Pacific phase of World War II ends.

The United Nations is formed in San Francisco.

E.B. White's Stuart Little, illustrated by Garth Williams, is published.

1946

Carrie dies on June 2.

1947

Garth Williams visits the Wilders at Rocky Ridge in preparation for his new illustrations for the Little House series.

1949

Almanzo dies on October 23, at age 82.

The Detroit Public Library names a branch after Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman is staged on Broadway and wins the Pulitzer Prize.

Next up: 1950-1957

1950-1957

1950

Laura is eighty-three years old.

The Laura Inalls Wilder Room at the Pomona Public Library in Pomona, California, is dedicated.

War with Korea declared.

1951

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Library in Mansfield, Missouri, is dedicated.

1952

E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, illustrated by Garth Williams, is published.

1953

The eight Little House books are reissued with Garth William's illustrations.

War with Korea ends.

Puerto Rico becomes the first United States commonwealth.

1954

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Award is created by the American Library Association.

Dr. Jonas Edward Salk announces development of the first polio vaccine.

In Brown v. the Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court declares racial segregation in the schools to be unconstitutional.

1955

Jim Henson creates Kermit the Frog, the first Muppet.

1957

Laura dies on February 10, three days after her birthday, at age 90.

Helen Moore Sewell dies.

Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas are published.

And so ends a legacy in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Thanks everyone...I absolutely love this book and highly recommend it to you to find and buy it.  Laura went through so much in her 90 years, including living 7 years after Almanzo had died....a lot of people die shortly after their spouse, but she was a strong woman and lived to be 90.  Her house in Mansfield, Missouri is still left the way it was when she died.  She died 3 days after her birthday, and her little dining room table has birthday cards spread out all over it....she had been reading them as they came in...She was SO loved.  

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