Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Guest Post: Farming on the Great Frontier by Lisa Wilson



The books of Laura Ingalls have been entertaining and enchanting young readers for generations, due in part to the adventurous life portrayed on the great frontier. The life they led was not an easy one. It was full of the everyday challenges farmers face today such as generating good crop growth, but on the wild frontier the challenges seemed far greater. Laura documented her early life as part of a pioneer family and her books still educate readers today about the hardships often endured during the 1800s in the Midwest.

On the Ingalls Farm

Laura was one of five children born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The children’s parents worked hard to ensure the family’s survival on the plains. The couple shared chores such as managing and milking the cows and making butter and cheese from the dairy produced. They also planted gardens on the farm, killed hogs and smoked the meat. They made sugar from maple sap and soft leather from the hides of deer. Charles farmed his land, working hard all day he set animal traps and shot wild game. Caroline managed the garden and was in charge of the house and the family’s clothes.

The family endured severe blizzards that ravaged the town and they ran out of food and also wood to heat the house. To make flour they would grind their wheat in a coffee grinder and used hay for heat.

One of the worst challenges was the loss of their crops due to locust plagues that ravaged the plants two years in a row. 1874 was named the Year of the Locust in the West. The insects swarmed over several states including Minnesota, Dakota and Wyoming, and they decimated the Great Plains. The Rocky Mountain locusts ate the crops, the leaves from trees, all the grass, even the wool from the sheep. The locusts thrived on the drought that had already made pioneering farming a nightmare for families. After a hard winter during 1873 to 1874, and the dry summer that followed, farmers were looking to the skies for rain, but the plague of locusts came instead, leaving nothing in their wake.

When Laura grew up and married Almanzo Wilder, they began farming as a young couple and struggled against harsh weather conditions to harvest their crops. Hailstorms destroyed the Wilder’s wheat crop and soon afterwards their barn burnt down with all the grain and hay inside it. The couple then lost their crops to drought, two years in a row, followed by the tragic death of their baby son.

Life on the Prairie for Pioneers

An American Professor of History at Yale University wrote his award winning book, Small Places, Wider WorldsSugar Creek and Settler Colonialism in North America, about life for pioneer farmers in the Midwest during the 1800s. He researched the topic by talking to descendants of the farmers and exploring the history of the area of Sangamon County. The Great Plains were thought of as an ideal place for men but not for women and oxen. The women had to help farm, planting and harvesting the vegetables, picking and spinning cotton to darn the clothes with, cook and keep house, tend to the children and animals and make soap, butter and candles. While the men went on long hunts with friends, the women had little time for companionship with their own friends because they were so busy on the farm.

The diet of pioneer farmers was fairly simple and consisted of wheat, beans, coffee, sugar and game that was hunted and captured. Food was seasonal, as there were no fridges or freezers. Breakfast was likely to have included corn bread, boiled eggs, fried potatoes or hot cakes. Occasionally it might include pork chops or sausages. Potatoes lasted through the year and were served at most mealtimes. Pigs were farmed to raise money and farms often had a smokehouse to preserve the pork.

Back to Basics: Farming Today       
    
Pioneer farming may seem like a world away from the industrial age we live in today, but with processed, pesticide ridden food stocked on supermarket shelves comes an awareness that a healthy, simple diet is better for us. The pioneer farmers ate bread, potatoes and vegetables that were free from chemicals and their meat did not contain the antibiotics commonly found in beef today. The media celebrates new terms for foodies such as 'clean cooking,' which means going back to basics with recipes and using only natural, locally sourced food. It makes sense. The pioneers enjoyed a basic diet with all their food grown on the farm. They did struggle with plagues of locusts and droughts during the summers, but their diet was simple and healthy.


Today, bills are passed in Congress to support America’s small farms as the demand for organic, locally sourced food rises. Organic dairy farming is growing day by day, and for farmers it is proving to be a sensible investment, while consumers are appreciating knowing what exactly goes into their milk and other dairy products. Natural whey has far greater health benefits than processed alternatives, as it does not contain pesticides found in dairy products from cows that do not feed on natural, chemical free land. Organic farmers achieve sustainable farming with good quality soil and natural techniques. The back to basics farming ideals are a return, in many ways, to the techniques used in pioneering farming. We now have the technology to manage farms more efficiently than our ancestors, but with our understanding about how a healthy diet helps our lifestyles we are craving more naturally sourced, preservative-free food, bringing us closer to the pioneer days of farming on the Great Plains.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Guest post: Beyond The Silver Lake: Pioneer Girl Reveals Truth about Mary’s Blindness by Lisa Wilson

There is a line that epitomizes the moment that Mary Ingalls lost her sight in 1879, at the age of 14. It comes from the novel ‘By the Shores ofSilver Lake’. Laura writes:

Mary and Carrie and baby Grace and Ma all had scarlet fever. Far worst of all, the fever had settled in Mary’s eyes and Mary was blind.

Scarlet fever was a serious disease back in the 1800s and as many as 30 percent of children suffering from it died. It was used as a literary device in many novels of the era, with readers able to relate to the fever and how fatal it could be. In Little Women, Beth succumbs to scarlet fever and dies tragically, and the child in the Velveteen Rabbit also contracts it. Mary Ingalls' blindness being caused by the fever seems highly plausible.

Recently, however, newevidence has come to light that scarlet fever may not have been the cause of Mary’s blindness at all. In all likelihood it was viral meningoencephalitis, or ‘brain disease’ as it was known then.

Laura’s Memoir helped Researchers

The popularity of the Little House books remains strong today, with 3 being cited in the School Library Journal’s 2012 list of favorite children’s books, and this is the reason so much interest has been sparked about the revelation behind Mary’s illness.

Scarlet fever, even today, is received with dread, as parents overreact to news that their child has the infection, reports NBCNews. Many parents connect scarlet fever to literary classics such as Little Women or Little House on the Prairie, when in fact today it is likened to strep throat with a rash. In the 1800s, however it was a different matter. Scarlet fever ravaged towns, preying on young children' with a particularly bad epidemic hitting Fredericksburg in 1861, claiming at least a hundred lives, according to a resident. The disease hit a poignant chord with the nation and this is why it has been used as a popular literary device ever since.

Dr Tarini, writing in the journal Pediatrics, has been studying newspapers of the era as well as epidemiological data about blindness to come to her findings with her co-authors. They also found Laura Ingalls’ memoir Pioneer Girl to be incredibly useful when collating their research. Laura wrote a letter to her daughter in 1937 about Mary’s illness, and how a doctor had called it ‘spinal meningitis (sic) some sort of spinal sickness’. In all likelihood, Tarini reflects, the disease was changed before the novel went to print to make it easier for children to understand, as scarlet fever was already known to so many. Tarini believes that the meningoencephalitis affected the optic nerves in Mary’s eyes, causing her vision loss.

The Reality of Pioneer Life

The Little House books have a wholesome appeal for so many and are a beloved part of our culture and history, but pioneer life was far from easy, and this is reflected in Laura Ingalls’ memoir. Themes of alcoholism and violence pervade the Little House books, bringing a real sense of dark reality to the stories.

Alison Gazarek writes about Laura in Bloom magazine. As a young adult, Laura carried a revolver around with her when she spent time in Florida because of the tension there, and she worked in a hotel in Iowa where she witnessed alcoholism and occasional violence. These events had an impact on her writing. Along with scenes of Indians visiting Walnut Grove, crop failures and plagues of grasshoppers, there are tensions between characters, with occasional alcohol abuse being prevalent in certain chapters that is also portrayed in the television series.

Chronic consumption of alcohol was common in the 1800s, with many believing that it was good for the health. Americans would consume alcohol at different points of the day (called ‘eleveners’) instead of coffee or tea, and laborers would stop in the fields for a jug. Whiskey was considered ‘absolutely indispensable to man and boy’ in the 1800s and was seen as being as important as bread. In the 21st Century, addiction is seen as a very serious and destructive illness and sufferers receive the best help available, from withdrawal centers such as those in Idaho, with full support from their families. This is a far cry from the pioneer attitudes of the 1800s, when whiskey was truly believed to be vital to a man’s constitution.


Laura Ingalls’ account of pioneer life is a fascinating reminder of the past, and we can see how the serious themes of a harsh frontier experience seeped into the memorable Little House books.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Books by Daniel D. Peterson for Laura Lovers


Thirty-four poems and photographs describing historical aspects of the small town of Walnut Grove, MN.


ISBN 9781300876359
Published March 29, 2013
Language English
Pages 69
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white 

SRP: $10.00




Booklet one in a series of booklets on important events and people that shaped both the small community of Walnut Grove, Minnesota and southwestern Minnesota. This booklet deals with the great fire of 1903 that destroyed the entire south side of Main Street.

ISBN 9781304006110
Published May 10, 2013
Language English
Pages 35
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white

SRP: $10.00





This is booklet number two in a series of booklets about events and people that shaped Walnut Grove and all of Southwest Minnesota. It is "The Diphtheria Epidemic of 1880."

ISBN 9781304043559
Published May 15, 2013
Language English
Pages 47
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white

SRP: $10.00





This booklet is the history of the issue over the use of alcohol from the early days up until Prohibition in the small town of Walnut Grove. It looks at the temperance organizations, saloons, and those that made and enforced the laws.

ISBN 9781304056665
Published May 20, 2013
Language English
Pages 43
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white 

SRP: $10.00




This is booklet number four in a series of booklets: "The Masters' Hotel: Walnut Grove, Minnesota." This booklet examines the Masters' Hotel and Masters family and its role they played in shaping the small pioneer village of Walnut Grove.

ISBN 9781304058188
Published May 20, 2013
Language English
Pages 60
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white 

SRP: $10.00





"Civil War Veterans: The Early Foundation of Walnut Grove, Minnesota," examines the lives of Civil War and Dakota Conflict veterans Elias Bedal,Charle Loring Webber,Byron Mordant Knight, Frederick Fayette Goff, Jacob Thode Tillisch, Leonard Hathaway Moses, and John Bernard Leo, before, during, and after their service in the military. This is done through letters written during the time and other sources. It also lists all other known veterans to play a part in the growing of Walnut Grove with photos and service information. The booklet also include general information on both the Civil War and the Dakota Conflict of 1862.

ISBN 9781304094391
Published June 1, 2013
Language English
Pages 74
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white

SRP: $10.00





"What Happened to Those People Laura Ingalls Wilder Wrote About About?" is booklet number five in series of booklets on important people and events that shaped Walnut Grove, MN history. It focuses on the people mentioned in her manuscript "Pioneer Girl." 

ISBN 9781304123381
Published June 9, 2013
Language English
Pages 133
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white

SRP: $13.00




A short booklet that examines all aspects of the invasion of the Rocky Mountain Locust in the region and state from the years 1873-1877.

ISBN 9781304134929
Published June 12, 2013
Language English
Pages 32
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white

SRP: $7.00


Previously by this author:





A history of the area that would become Walnut Station, then Walnut Grove from the earliest days to the present. It covers almost every aspect of community life in this small town in Minnesota.


ISBN 9781257948321
Published August 8, 2011
Language English
Pages 603
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black and white 

SRP: $35.00

All these books are available on Lulu®.