from laura ingalls wilder to cyberbessie

come fly with me

2009-06-29T19:41:00.009-04:00

Last week, fellow Laura Ingalls Wilder researcher Rebecca Webb emailed me and shared a fantastic aerial photograph of Charles Ingalls' former preemption claim north of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Of course, it's easy to use googlemaps or bing or terraserver or your map-site-of-choice and view/download satellite photos. Why is this one so exciting?

It's from 1938.

Rebecca's photo came from the John R. Borchert Map Library at the Meredith Wilson Library (University of Minnesota Libraries) in Minneapolis. It's also available at the Farm Service Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture in Redwood Falls and the Rural Development Office in Marshall. I've uploaded a copy of the 1938 photo of the Walnut Grove area - the same as Rebecca's photo, this one is from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources HERE. The Ingalls preemption claim only (dugout and Wonderful House site, NW 18-109-39) is shown above. CLICK HERE to see the quarter section in biggie view with greater detail.

Photographs such as this were taken beginning in 1938 in connection with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and were used to make geological survey maps. The Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO) in Salt Lake City, Utah, is in charge of the photographs for the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS). They are used to track changes in the land over the years, which is exactly what interests "Little House" researchers about them. Redwood County was photographed in 1938, 1955, 1962, 1968, 1974, 1978, 1984, 1996, and annually beginning in 2002.

I am now taking back what I said in my April 28 blog about the location of the tableland. Obviously, I've been obsesing over this for a while now; site photos soon. Because the Plum Creek area is so heavily wooded today, it's hard to known what-was-what back in Laura's day. Although the 1938 photograph was taken fifty years after the Ingallses lived there, the fact that there were a heck of a lot fewer trees seventy years ago makes it easier to see real landmarks and swear you can pick out others.

Remember that the Harold Gordon family moved to the farm in 1947, the same year Garth Williams visited. According to a 1998 article in Laura's Plum Creek Newsletter (Volume 2, Number 2), published by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Williams went to the newspaper office to ask where Charles Ingalls' land was, and nobody knew. But Walter Swoffer, born in Walnut Grove in 1888, remembered playing in a dugout on the Gordon farm as a boy, and the Gordon farm turned out to be the preemption claim site.

Do you see the footbridge? Is that the one Garth Williams photographed? Do you see a ford (or another bridge) across the creek? Paths? Was that the path that went to the barn east of the dugout? Do you see wider bit of the creek that suggests it's the swimming hole? Hmm, is that the big rock? What about THE TABLELAND? That's got to be it in the area covered in trees today; no wonder nobody can see it. And it happens to be right where Laura located it on her map.

Comparing Laura's drawings to current and past photographs, I'm now curious about something else: the site of The Wonderful House. The Gordons have always said that they didn't know for sure where it stood, but suspected that it was located halfway between the current farmhouse (built prior to 1938) and the dugout site because there had been a fenced area with a corncrib in that area. (Is it on the 1938 photo?) An old outbuilding west of the existing barn was torn down in 1991 and found to have been built with square nails, but it showed no evidence of having ever been part of a house.

Laura remembered that The Wonderful House was protected by the creek and a firebreak, which suggests that perhaps it was really located in the vicinity of the parking area today. Or perhaps it across the creek yet again, and located in the area north of the obvious bridge.

Waiting for the photographs that will answer those questions...

one thing leads to another

2009-06-03T20:49:00.003-04:00

...I'm not going to regale you with horror stories about all the terrible texts I encountered while sampling the electronic titles available for children and teens; about the insipid, clumsily illustrated picture books or the promising reminiscence on Laura Ingalls Wilder turned jaw-dropping rant, which concluded that Laura's daughter Rose could never have ghost-written the Little House books because she wasn't moral or happy enough ("Rose was not a Little House person"). It would be too easy, and take too long. - Christine Hepperman, "Reading in the Virtual Forest," The Horn Book Magazine, November 2000

Today, I was pointed to THIS online article with Little House on the Prairie reference (see above), but I couldn't quite place the e-book it referred to.

A little googling and it turns out that the e-book in question is Dan L. White's Laura Ingalls' Friends Remember Her. I'd never bothered to download it (you can also buy a printed copy), because I mistakenly assumed that the e-book was the same as the silver-covered 1992 booklet once sold at the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane Home and Museum in Mansfield, Missouri, titled Laura's Friends Remember, by Dan L. White and Robert F. White.

The original 40-page booklet contained reminiscences by Nava Austin, Erman and Peggy Dennis, Emogene Fuge, Neta Seal, Anna Gutschke, and Carl Hartley. These are included in the 172-page e-book - which is undated but must have been written shortly after William Holtz's Ghost in the Little House was released. There are additional chapters about the Wilders' move to the Ozarks, what made Laura's books so happy, Laura's thoughts on country life, "Did Rose Write Laura's Books?", Laura's thoughts on home and family, and Laura's lonely Little House. It's the authorship chapter that Hepperman found so unsettling.

You can purchase White's e-book for $9 from Ashley Preston Publishing HERE, or read most of the Rose chapter (and others) online for free at googlebooks HERE to see if you're interested. Although White doesn't use footnotes or give any sources for his information, his opinions are interesting (even though I disagree with him about Rose!), and Laura Ingalls' Friends Remember Her does contain written memories about the Wilders that you simply aren't going to find anywhere else.

poor adam; he didn't have these

2009-06-02T23:15:00.004-04:00

If you don't want to wear your heart on your sleeve, why not wear your favorite "Little House on the Prairie" saying or expression on your t-shirt?! The possibilities are endless...

And remember those "days of the week" panties from when you were young? Why not have a "Pioneer Couture" set made with Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, and Rest on Sunday on them?

Don't forget the red catch-stitching!

for the love of.... this guy

2009-06-01T22:35:00.002-04:00

If you've visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, you've no doubt seen the photos, information, and "stuff" belonging to the real Johnny Johnson and donated to the museum by his family. John Halvorson Johnson was born in Norway in 1861 and came to America in 1874, settling first near Tracy, Minnesota. He was the son of Christina and Halvor Johnson.

The Ingalls family lived on their Plum Creek preemption claim (the dugout and "wonderful house" site) from May 1874 until early July 1876 when Charles Ingalls both made final proof and sold the land. Taking the grasshoppers into consideration, the best possible "real-life meets fictional" grazing would have been in the fall of 1874.

Wilder writes that there were twenty-five cattle in the herd, but haven't you ever wondered who all those cattle belonged to? And what their grazing territory was as opposed to what area of the farm was planted in wheat? Note that Wilder never says that they had to herd the cattle across the creek, nor do they have to take Spot across the creek to put her in the barn when they first drive her from the herd.

The only book neighbors were the Nelsons, but the "neighborhood herd" of cattle in the On the Banks of Plum Creek manuscript were said to belong to Mr. Nelson and a Mr. Peterson, who one can guess might have been edited out so as not to make it sound like Swedish Mr. and Mrs. Peterson of Big Woods cookie fame had trailed the Ingallses to Minnesota. There is only brief mention of the herd boy and an "old, spotted cow" that belonged to the Ingallses in Pioneer Girl. There were Plum Creek neighbors on every available quarter section, but fewer than you might imagine since only ever other section was available for homesteading at the time.

Eleck Nelson became a prosperous stock buyer and shipper of cattle, sheep, and hogs, and the herd of cattle most likely belonged to him. Nelson had already been in North Hero Township over four years when the Ingallses arrived. But Johnny Johnson? Where did he live and when might he have worked for Mr. Nelson?

Halvor and Christina Johnson (and Johnny) were living in Redwood Falls at the time of the 1875 Minnesota state census, taken in May. By 1880, they were all living on a farm in Johnsonville Township, about six miles north of the preemption claim site. Johnny married Petra Halverson in 1881, and they moved to Dakota Territory the following year. Were these Johnsons related to Turis Johnson, the un-mentioned closest neighbor to the east?

There's no real proof that this Johnny Johnson was the "Little House" herd boy, but he definitely was a contemporary of Laura's and it's nice that his descendants donated so many interesting items to the Walnut Grove museum. The display is a popular one with tourists, especially those who enjoyed Mitch Vogel's portrayal of Johnny Johnson on television's Little House on the Prairie.

Just remember that Laura's first real crush was Big Jerry.

ingalls family letters go online

2009-05-21T15:26:00.002-04:00

The Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, is putting letters by family members of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder online! See them in color HERE.

I've spent the past week in Madison and its environs, and the Wisconsin Historical Society is definitely a place to linger if you're serious about LIW research. Curious about Charles Ingalls and the Civil War? Plan to spend days with their Civil War collection, and then change your airline reservations so you can stay longer .

stand on the griz print. now smile.

2009-05-12T16:20:00.007-04:00

Rose Wilder Lane wasn't the only child to have problems with her mother. So today, I give you Ginny, who I refrained from posting University of Montana student center "fam cam" shots of for the past four years.

Congratulations, Ginny, for graduating with highest honors!

i poke badgers with sticks

2009-04-29T21:40:00.006-04:00

Over seventy years ago, Laura Ingalls Wilder writes about poking badgers with sticks and it's not the least bit funny. But Eddie Izzard - who is a huge "Little House on the Prairie" fan, btw - flubs a line and pokes badgers with spoons instead of sticks and suddenly it's a freaking byword.

Okay, so I don't really know if Izzard is a LH fan (I know that I'm a huge Eddie Izzard fan), but he does share his birthday with LIW. If you haven't heard the "I poked a badger with a spoon" line, it's from his 1999 Dress to Kill dvd, in reference to Catholicism and original sin.

scramble on up

2009-04-28T23:51:00.002-04:00

Going back from the swimming hole they first climbed up a low bank, then crossed a wide place of almost level land before they came to the higher bank and the prairie. It the center of the flat, low land was what Pa called a table-land of high ground. He said there was a good half acre of ground on the flat top of it.

The tableland was almost perfectly round and looked like an island rising out of the sea of tall grass and rushes. "Must have been made by water washing around it," Pa said. He helped Laura and Mary climb to the top where they ran a little way in the green grass that grew all over it. - On the Banks of Plum Creek manuscript

Pretty much everybody calls the area east of the "high bank" north of the Plum Creek preemption dugout site the tableland. A sign points you in that direction, and it's easily photographed from the dugout site. I don't think that's correct.

There are a couple of existing drawings by Laura Ingalls Wilder (one is shown here), who remembered - and yes, I realize that she's been wrong before - that the tableland was a half acre in size and located south of the swimming hole, which was north of the dugout site. For water to have "flowed around it," the tableland had to have been positioned so that there was a low area to the east of it. In Chapter 14, "Spring Freshet," Wilder writes: The tableland was a round island. All around it water flowed smoothly, coming out of a wide, humping river and running back into it. Where the swimming-pool had been, the tall willows were short willows standing in a lake.

A lot can change in 100+ years, including the course of a creek. One of the biggest changes at some point was that irrigation ditches were dug running due west from the creek, drawing water from what was most likely the swimming hole and thicket of willows. Today, that area is all in trees, but all topo maps for decades clearly have shown two things: a small rise of about a half acre in size near a low marshy area bounded by the creek. The large flat triangular field to the north of the dugout site? Not the tableland.

the great vegetable blood purifier

2009-04-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

One of the manuscript stories that didn't make it into the published On the Banks of Plum Creek is the tale of Ma's liver complaint and the doctor. According to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ma was suddenly and violently ill with terrible pains in her side. She lay in bed, moaning, and Pa heated cloths to put on her side to ease the pain. Pa sent Laura to send Mr. Nelson to wire for the doctor to come from forty miles away, and when he got there, he had a fascinating (to Laura) gold watch and chain (Pa's watch was silver and his watch chain was braided leather), and he told Ma the problem was with her liver, so he left medicine for her to take.

I wonder: was that medicine made out of the roots of blue flags?

The Larger Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) is the "blue flag" of On the Banks of Plum Creek. A perennial blue-purple native iris that grows in shallow water and wet soil, it is found throughout Minnesota. Although only mentioned in passing in the manuscript, Wilder went into great detail describing the blue flags for publication; they were said to have three velvety petals that turned down like a lady's dress over hoops, with three silky petals standing up in the center and curving together. They were new every morning, and the dried tuberous roots had long been used to purify the blood.

In the mid-18th century, a popular patent medicine was Irisin, said to be the most powerful, safe, and reliable remedy known for the healing of man. It acted
directly on the blood, cleansing and purifying the vital current of all the humors and taints of disease, from rheumatism and gout - to diseases of women - to liver and kidney complaints. Click on the Irisin image to open the full newspaper advertisement.

Maybe the doctor dosed Ma with it. At any rate, Ma's skin eventually stopped being so yellow, and she got well. And if she was sick while the blue flags were in bloom, let's hope that Mary and Laura picked some for Ma's bedside.

writing backward

2009-04-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Every morning after Mary and Laura had done the dishes, made their bed and swept the floor, they could go out to play. - On the Banks of Plum Creek, Chapter 3, "Rushes and Flags"

I've been doing more reading than writing (or blogging, sorry!) lately; sometimes that's just the way it goes.

A recent good read was Anne Scott MacLeod's American Childhood: Essays on Children's Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. MacLeod locates and describes shifts in the American concept of childhood as those changes are suggested in children's stories. In part, focus is on the idea of work, and that the nineteenth century child knew work as well as play.

I was thrilled to hear about THIS ARTICLE by MacLeod online. Although her book doesn't include the "Little House" series, the article does mention Laura Ingalls Wilder's writing about work which was so central to Mary's and Laura's daily life.

not just for wizards

2009-04-22T21:33:00.006-04:00

The willow family (Salicaceae) comprises about 435 species of willows and poplars, including aspens and cottonwoods. The willow genus is Salix; the familiar weeping willow tree is Salix babylonica. The majority of species of willows are shrubs. Members of the family usually live in moist habitats and in the floodplains. Willow trees are distinctive, with their slender olive-green to pale yellowish-brown branches hanging or drooping. The crown is usually round, reaching a height of 40 to 50 feet. Leaves are 3-6 inches long and narrow, finely serrated, yellow-green above and milky-green below. The photo at left is of a willow tree on the banks of Plum Creek near the dugout site.

Most willows grow rapidly, reaching flowering age within a few years, but they are short-lived, some lasting only 20 years. Willows are either male or female and will not spread without trees of both sexes present. While willows once grew abundantly along the banks of Plum Creek, there are few large willow trees along Plum Creek on the former Ingalls land today, although there is at least one large grove of willows north of the preemption claim. On 3 July 1936, Wilder wrote daughter Rose: "Willows and plum trees grew thick on the western side making a little grove... The first tree was a big willow. One end of the footbridge was fastened to it."

Ma finds a willow-twig broom in the corner of the dugout, and she uses it to brush the walls, probably to clear away any cobwebs. Time to get out the willow twigs and make a broom Christmas ornament (that's mine, above); on a full-size broom, the twigs wouldn't be so ridiculously out of proportion, of course. The Ingallses use both willow twig and willow bough brooms, according to Laura Ingalls Wilder. CLICK HERE to read an article about "LIW on Homekeeping;" willow brooms are mentioned. It's easy to understand why the boughten broom was such a special present to be used in the wonderful house!

Straw used in the manufacture of brooms is actually a variety of corn species sorghum (Sorghum vulgare or S. bicolor variety technicum), an annual plant that grows a much longer tassel than other varieties of corn. Almost every pioneer town had a broom-maker, usually a man, who would both grow the broom corn and attach it to wooden handles. While you can still find beautiful twig and straw brooms made in the United States by hand, the majority of brooms sold are imported from Mexico or China.

In her handwritten Pioneer Girl manuscript, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that a man in Walnut Grove, John Hurley, grew crops of broom straw and made brooms which he sold in town. At one point, Laura spent two weeks in the country with the family helping out Mr. Hurley's wife, Sadie (a cousin of the Masters family), and one day she was surprised to find Pa there helping Mr. Hurley make brooms. Laura realized that her family must need money if the only work Pa could find was as the broom-maker's helper.

just standing there

2009-04-21T23:00:00.002-04:00

There are no mentions of lemon verbena in the "Little House" books. And there are also no prairie dogs. Just so you know.

Laura Ingalls Wilder does, however, mention gophers. While there might have been true gophers (pocket gophers, which are of the family Geomyidae) on the prairies known to the Ingallses, what appears in Little House on the Prairie and On the Banks of Plum Creek were actually ground squirrels (family Sciuridaes). In the manuscripts for both books, Wilder mentions both picket-pin gophers and striped gophers, yet the generic gopher appears in the published versions. The two are quite different.

In the BPC manuscript, there are no picket pins - the metal rods used to tether a grazing animal in a land with no fences - but there are picket-pin gophers: Laura and Mary ran over the edge of the creek bank and into the dugout door disappearing for all the world like a couple of picket-pin gophers dodging into their holes. (page 35) The picket-pin gopher is Richardson's Ground Squirrel, a burrowing rodent that stands at the entrance of its tunnel and whistles to warn other gophers of danger.

Most of the gophers of the LH books are striped: Mary and Laura were tired of playing. They had tried to catch the little picket pin gophers, but always they dodged down their holes in the ground. Laura cried a little, she wanted one so badly, their striped bodies with their bushy tails and bright eyes were so pretty. (LHP manuscript) The striped gopher is the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel, and yes, they also stand up like picket pins - or pieces of wood.

This striped gopher (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus) is a brownish red ground squirrel with alternating stripes and spots on its back. They are from 6 to 12 inches in length, not including their tail, which is 2 to 5 inches long. They hibernate in the winter and are quite active on warm summer days. The name "gopher" was given by early French settlers to many different burrowing animals (from the French gaufre, meaning to waffle or honeycomb) based on the way they tunnel in the earth. The striped gopher collects seeds and grain and can carry off large amounts in cheek pouches, storing it away in their burrows.

In Little Town on the Prairie, Wilder tells us that the striped gophers had carried away half of Pa's newly-planted cornfield, kernel by kernel. The typical striped gopher can steal a pint of grain per day. With an average of 40 gophers per acre in a light infestation, it's easy to see how Pa's field might have been stripped so easily, especially when you consider that these forty gophers might naturally increase to 100 or more by fall. So while the pesky blackbirds were nibbling corn from above, just think what the gophers were doing below!

six months?

2009-04-15T23:09:00.001-04:00

I've been spending some tangent time recently, collecting articles that mention (but may not be "about") Rose Wilder Lane. The following was written by R.C. Hoiles and is from 1953. What's noteworthy is all the "minimal formal education" references in connection to Lane; I see them repeatedly throughout the 40s and 50s. I gather that Rose promoted the idea herself, but you have to pay attention to semantics. Rose Wilder was on the school roll in Mansfield and Spring Valley. She graduated from high school in Crowley... She was definitely on the school roll in De Smet for years, not months. Whether Rose actually showed up for school is another question entirely, but I can tell you that she indeed had more than six months of schooling in De Smet, and she was rarely tardy.

Few of the younger generation know what the Index Librorum Prohibitorum means. It is a proclamation made years ago by the head of the Catholic church as to what books Catholics were allowed to read and still remain in the church. It covered most all literature. Around the first of the century it was not so inclusive as it was prior to that time. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that: "All books concerned with the religious sciences and with ethics are submitted to preliminary censorship, and in addition to this ecclesiastics have to obtain a personal authorization for all their books and for the acceptance of the editorship of a periodical. The penalty of excommunication ipso facto is only maintained for reading books written by heretics or apostates defense of heresy, or books condemned by name under pain of excommunication by pontifical letters."

As I understand it, Catholics who are doing research work are not permitted to read books that are not permitted to be read by Catholics who had not widely studied religious and ethical subjects.

There is, of course, a certain amount of danger in giving any human being authority to determine what other people may study.

Most Protestants object to the Catholic Index. They, however, do not seem to object to another kind of an index issued by the various states. And that index is that children are obliged to read certain books prescribed by state boards of education. These state boards of education realize that some people object to this, therefore they are very cagey about recommending too many "must" books that children must read. In California we have one book that must be read by every child in the eighth grade or the principal and the superintendent and the members of the board of education can be fined $100 a day and the money that the state returns to the school district can be withheld from that district for not using this "must" textbook.

The state boards of education have a large list of other books that may be used. But no local board of education dare use any textbook that is not in the "index" of the state boards of education. Thus we have a reversed Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The principle, however, is just about the same. The state takes up so much of the time of the youth reading the books that they prescribe that most of them never have any time to read any other books. Thus the State Boards of Education have almost complete ability to indoctrinate children who do not have a natural desire and curiosity about natural laws. These state boards of education are thus molding -- not developing -- the youth to believe in what these state board members think they should believe.

The true liberal of course detests any agent of the state having the right to direct the thought of the children in the state.

Since state education is one of the essentials in promoting socialism and collectivism, we are reaping exactly what we have been sowing in America -- the belief in bigger and bigger and more oppressive government. Those people who have never been indoctrinated by the state regard this index method of education as being the primary tyranny or tyranny naked. As this column has repeatedly reported, Isabel Paterson says that tax supported schools are tyranny naked and Rose Wilder Lane says they are the primary tyranny. Isabel Paterson only went to school two years when she was a little girl and thus was never indoctrinated into the belief of collectivism. Rose Wilder Lane only went to school six months when she was a little girl and thus was never indoctrinated in statism. Those of us who were indoctrinated in State Schools but who have read other books than those in the "index" prescribed by the state boards of education on social, ethical and moral questions are convinced that it is giving any group of men too much power to either set down books that should not be read or books that must be read. They are about the same thing.

It is especially a dangerous policy when done by the state because we are all under the state's control, while if it is done by a religious organization those people who do not believe in it are free to separate themselves from such religious organization. This is not the case when it is done by the state, so the state "index" can do untold harm to the general welfare of the nation.

Truly, we are reaping exactly what we are sowing by state "indexes" of education.

how it all began

2009-04-14T23:45:00.003-04:00

United States Statutes at Large, Treaty between the United States of America and the Great and Little Osage Indians. Concluded, September 29, 1865; Ratification advised, with Amendments, June 26, 1865; Amendments accepted September 21, 1866; Proclaimed January 21, 1867.

ANDREW JOHNSON, President of the United States of America. To all and singular to whom these presents shall come, greetings:

Whereas a Treaty was made and concluded at Canville Trading Post, Osage Nation, in the State of Kansas, on the twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, by and between D.N. Cooley and Elijah Sells, COmmissioners, on the part of the United States, and White Hair, Little Bear, (Me-tso-shin-ca,) and other chiefs of the tribe of Great and Little Osage Indians, on the part of said tribe of Indians, and duly authorized thereto by them, which treaty is in the words and figures following, to wit:--

Articles of treaty and convention, made and concluded at Canville Trading Post, Osage Nation, within the boundary of the State of Kansas, on the twenty-ninth day of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, by and between D. N. Cooley, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the southern superintendency, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the chiefs of the tribe of Great and Little Osage Indians, the said chiefs being duly authorized to negotiate and treat by said tribes.

Article I.
The tribe of the Great and Little Osage Indians, having now more lands than are necessary for their occupation, and all payments from the Government to them under former treaties having ceased, leaving them greatly impoverished, and being desirous of improving their condition by disposing of their surplus lands, do hereby grant and sell to the United States the lands contained within the following boundaries, that is to say: Beginning at the southeast corner of their present reservation, and running thence north with the eastern boundary thereof fifty miles to the northeast corner; thence west with the northern line thirty miles; thence south fifty miles, to the southern boundary of said reservation; and thence east with said southern boundary to the place of beginning: Provided, That the western boundary of said land herein ceded shall not extend further westward than upon a line commencing at a point on the southern boundary of said Osage country one mile east of the place where the Verdigris River crosses the southern boundary of the State of Kansas. And, in consideration of the grant and sale to them of the above-described lands, the United States agree to pay the sum of three hundred thousand dollars, which sum shall be placed to the credit of said tribe of Indians in the Treasury of the United States, and interest thereon at the rate of five per centum per annum shall be paid to said tribes semi-annually, in money, clothing, provisions, or such articles of utility as the Secretary of the Interior may, from time to time, direct. Said lands shall be surveyed and sold, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, on the most advantageous terms, for cash, as public lands are surveyed and sold under existing laws, including any act granting lands to the State of Kansas in aid of the construction of a railroad through said lands; but no preemption claim or homestead settlement shall be recognized: and after re-imbursing the United States the cost of said survey and sale, and the said sum of three hundred thousand dollars placed to the credit of said Indians, the remaining proceeds of sales shall be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the "civilization fund," to be used, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, for the education and civilization of Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States.

Article II.
The said tribe of Indians also hereby cede to the United States a tract of land twenty miles in width from north to south, off the north side of the remainder of their present reservation, and extending its entire length from east to west; which land is to be held in trust for said Indians, and to be surveyed and sold for their benefit under the direction of the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, at a price not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, as other lands are surveyed and sold, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior shall from time to time prescribe. The proceeds of such sales, as they accrue, after deducting all expenses incident to the proper execution of the trust, shall be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of said tribe of Indians; and the interest thereon, at the rate of five per centum per annum, shall be expended annually for building houses, purchasing agricultural implements and stock animals, and for the employment of a physician and mechanics, and for providing such other necessary aid as will enable said Indians to commence agricultural pursuits under favorable circumstances: Provided, That twenty-five per centum of the net proceeds arising from the sale of said trust lands, until said percentage shall amount to the sum of eighty thousand dollars, shall be placed to the credit of the school fund of said Indians; and the interest thereon, at the rate of five per centum per annum, shall be expended semi-annually for the boarding, clothing, and education of the children of said tribe.

Article III.
The Osage Indians, being sensible of the great benefits they have received from the Catholic mission, situate in that portion of their reservation herein granted and sold to the United States, do hereby stipulate that one section of said land, to be selected by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs so as to include the improvements of said mission, shall be granted in fee-simple to John Shoenmaker, in trust, for the use and benefit of the society sustaining said mission, with the privilege to said Shoenmaker, on the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, of selecting and purchasing two sections of land adjoining the section above granted; the said selection to be held in trust for said society, and to be selected in legal subdivisions of surveys, and subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

Article IV.
All loyal persons, being heads of families and citizens of the United States, or members of any tribe at peace with the United States, having made settlements and improvements as provided by the pre-emption laws of the United States, and now residing on the lands provided to be sold by the United States, in trust for said tribe, as well as upon the said lands herein granted and sold to the United States, shall have the privilege, at any time within one year after the ratification of this treaty, of buying a quarter section each, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; such quarter section to be selected according to the legal subdivisions of surveys, and to include, as far as practicable, the improvements of the settler.

Article V.
The Osages being desirous of paying their just debts to James N. Coffey and A. B. Canville, for advances in provisions, clothing, and other necessaries of life, hereby agree that the superintendent of Indian affairs for the southern superintendency and the agent of the tribe shall examine all claims against said tribe, and submit the same to the tribe for approval or disapproval, and report the same to the Secretary of the Interior, with the proofs in each case, for his concurrence or rejection; and the Secretary may issue to the claimants scrip for the claims thus allowed, which shall be receivable as cash in payment for any of the lands sold in trust for said tribe: Provided, The aggregate amount thus allowed by the Secretary of the Interior shall not exceed five thousand dollars.

Article VI.
In consideration of the long and faithful services rendered by Charles Mograin, one of the principal chiefs of the Great Osages, to the people, and in consideration of improvements made and owned by him on the land by this treaty sold to the United States, and in lieu of the provision made in article fourteen for the half-breed Indians, the heirs of the said Charles Mograin, dec[ease]d, may select one section of land, including his improvements, from the north half of said land, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, and upon his approval of such selection it shall be patented to the heirs of the said Mograin, dec[ease]d, in fee-simple.

Article VII.
It is agreed between the parties hereto that the sum of five hundred dollars shall be set apart each year from the moneys of said tribe, and paid by the agent to the chiefs.

Article VIII.
The Osage Indians being anxious that a school should be established in their new home, at their request it is agreed and provided that John Shoenmaker may select one section of land within their diminished reservation, and upon the approval of such selection by the Secretary of the Interior, such section of land shall be set apart to the said Shoenmaker and his successors, upon condition that the same shall be used, improved, and occupied for the support and education of the children of said Indians during the occupancy of said reservation by said tribe: Provided, That said lands shall not be patented, and upon the discontinuance of said school shall revert to said tribe and to the United States as other Indian lands.

Article IX.
It is further agreed that, in consideration of the services of Darius Rogers to the Osage Indians, a patent shall be issued to him for one hundred and sixty acres of land, to include his mill and improvements, on paying one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; and said Rogers shall also have the privilege of purchasing, at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, one quarter section of land adjoining the tract above mentioned, which shall be patented to him in like manner; said lands to be selected subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

Article X.
The Osages acknowledge their dependence on the Government of the United States, and invoke its protection and care; they desire peace, and promise to abstain from war, and commit no depredations on either citizens or Indians; and they further agree to use their best efforts to suppress the introduction and use of ardent spirits in their country.

Article XI.
It is agreed that all roads and highways laid out by the State or General Government shall have right of way through the remaining lands of said Indians, on the same terms as are provided by law, when made through lands of citizens of the United States; and railroad companies, when the lines of their roads necessarily pass through the lands of said Indians, shall have right of way upon the payment of fair compensation therefor.

Article 1XII.
Within six months after the ratification of this treaty the Osage Indians shall remove from the lands sold and ceded in trust, and settle upon their diminished reservation.

Article XIII.
The Osage Indians having no annuities from which it is possible for them to pay any of the expenses of carrying this treaty into effect, it is agreed that the United States shall appropriate twenty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the purpose of defraying the expense of survey and sale of the lands hereby ceded in trust, which amount so expended shall be re-imbursed to the Treasury of the United States from the proceeds of the first sales of said lands.

Article XIV.
The half-breeds of the Osage tribe of Indians, not to exceed twenty-five in number, who have improvements on the north half of the lands sold to the United States, shall have a patent issued to them, in fee-simple, for eighty acres each, to include, as far as practicable, their improvements, said half-breeds to be designated by the chiefs and head-men of the tribe; and the heirs of Joseph Swiss, a half-breed, and a former interpreter of said tribe, shall, in lieu of the above provision, receive a title, in fee-simple, to a half section of land, including his house and improvements, if practicable, and also to a half section of the trust lands; all of said lands to be selected by the parties, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

Article XV.
It is also agreed by the United States that said Osage Indians may unite with any tribe of Indians at peace with the United States, residing in said Indian Territory, and thence afterwards receive an equitable proportion, according to their numbers, of all moneys, annuities, or property payable by the United States to said Indian tribe with which the agreement may be made; and in turn granting to said Indians, in proportion to their numbers, an equitable proportion of all moneys, annuities, and property payable by the United States to said Osages.

Article XVI.
It is also agreed by said contracting parties, that if said Indians should agree to remove from the State of Kansas, and settle on lands to be provided for them by the United States in the Indian Territory on such terms as may be agreed on between the United States and the Indian tribes now residing in said Territory or any of them, then the diminished reservation shall be disposed of by the United States in the same manner and for the same purposes as hereinbefore provided in relation to said trust lands, except that 50 per cent. of the proceeds of the sale of said diminished reserve may be used by the United States in the purchase of lands for a suitable home for said Indians in said Indian Territory.

Article XVII.
Should the Senate reject or amend any of the above articles, such rejection or amendment shall not affect the other provisions of this treaty, but the same shall go into effect when ratified by the Senate and approved by the President.

D. N. Cooley, Com'r of Indian Affairs.

Elijah Sells, Sup't Ind. Aff. South'n Sup'cy, and Commissioner.
Me-tso-shin-ca, (Little Bear.) his x mark, Chief Little Osages.
No-pa-wah-la, his x mark, Second Chief to Little Bear.
Pa-tha-hun-kah, his x mark, Little Chief L. B. Band.
White Hair, his x mark, Principal Chief Osage Nation.
Ta-wah-she-he, his x mark, Chief Big Hill Band.
Beaver, his x mark, Second Chief White Hair's Band.
Clermont, his x mark, Chief Clermont Band.
O-po-ton-koh, his x mark.
Wa-she-pe-she, his x mark, Little Chief W. H. Band.

Witnesses:
Ma-sho-hun-ca, counsellor Little Bear Band, his x mark.
Wa-sha-pa-wa-ta-ne-ca, his x mark.
Wa-du-ha-ka, his x mark.
Shin-ka-wa-ta-ne-kah, his x mark.
She-weh-teh, his x mark.
Gra-ma, his x mark.
Hu-la-wah-sho-sha, his x mark.
Na-ta-ton-ca-wa-ki, his x mark.
Num-pa-wah-cu, his x mark.
Ha-ska-mon-ne, his x mark.

Attest:
G. C. Snow, U. S. Neosho Indian agent.
Milton W. Reynolds, acting clerk.
Theodore C. Wilson, phonographic reporter.
Alexander Beyett, interpreter Osage Nation.
Witnesses, Little Bear's Band:
Ka-wah-ho-tza, his x mark.
O-ke-pa-hola, his x mark.
Me-he-tha, his x mark.

White Hair's band of witnesses:
Shin-ka-wa-sha, councillor of White Hair's, his x mark.
Wa-sha-wa, his x mark.
Ka-he-ka-stza-jeh, his x mark.
Ka-he-ka-wa-shin-pe-she, his x mark.
Saw-pe-ka-la, his x mark.
Wa-tza-shim-ka, his x mark.
Wa-no-pa-she, his x mark.
Shin-be-ka-shi, his x mark.
Ne-koo-le-blo, his x mark.
O-ke-pa-ka-loh, his x mark.
Ke-nu-in-ca, his x mark.
Pa-su-mo-na, his x mark.

We the undersigned, chiefs and headmen of the Clermont and Black Dog Band of the Great Osage nation, in council at Fort Smith, Ark., have had the foregoing treaty read and explained in full by our interpreter, L. P. Chouteau, and fully approve the provisions of said treaty made by our brothers the Osages, and by this signing make it our act and deed.

Clermont, chief of Clermont Band, his x mark.
Palley, second chief of Clermont Band, his x mark.
Hah-ti-in-gah, (Dry Feather,) counsellor, his x mark.
Kah-ha-che-la-ton, brave, his x mark.
Do-tah-cah-she, brave, his x mark.
Black Dog, chief Black Dog Band, his x mark.
William Penn, second chief Black Dog Band, his x mark.
Broke Arm, counsellor, his x mark.
Ne-kah-ke-pon-nah, brave, his x mark.
Ne-kah-gah-hee, brave, his x mark.

Witnesses:
Wah-skon-mon-ney, his x mark.
Wah-kon-che-la, his x mark.
Wah-sha-sha-wah-ti-in-gah, his x mark.
Pah-cha-hun-gah, his x mark.
Long Bow, his x mark.

Wah-she-wah-la, his x mark.
War Eagle, his x mark.
Pon-hon-gle-gah-ton, his x mark.
Sun Down, his x mark.
Ton-won-ge-hi, his x mark.
Wah-cha-o-nau-she, his x mark.

I certify that the foregoing treaty was fully explained by me, and that the above signatures, the first as chiefs and headmen and the others as witness[es,] signed the same as their free act and deed.
L.P. Chouteau, Interpreter.

be a shame to have this go up in smoke

2009-04-13T23:50:00.002-04:00

The above photo is of the first cabin built in Independence in 1869, and it was said by settlers at the time to be typical of those cabins built in Montgomery County.

We've probably been spoiled by Garth Williams' smooth, straight logs or carefully built and roomy replica cabins that we still shudder to think of spending a winter in. Take a look at the "Little House on the Prairie" pilot movie cabin again. It was a lot like the one above!

cat's cradle

2009-04-08T21:53:00.005-04:00

It was so cold, Mary and Laura must stay in the house. They played "Cat's Cradle" with a piece of twine and while the wind blew howling and shrieking among the tall grasses of the High Prairie, they were sheltered and happy. - Little House on the Prairie manuscript

Twine was changed to string for the published version, but 19th century instructions for playing cat's cradle often suggest the use of twine. The name is a corruption of cratch-cradle or manger cradle, in which the Christ Child was laid. A Cratch is a creche (or manger). At the time of Little House on the Prairie, racks used to feed cattle were sometimes called cratches.

Cat's Cradle is one of those games best learned by doing. It is definied as "a childish amusement, played by two persons with a piece of twine joined at the ends, and variously disposed on the fingers and thumbs of both hands of one of the players; then taken off in a different form with both hands by the other, and so transferred alternately from one player to the other." If you can't find a friend to teach you, click HERE to see how it's done.

When I was reseaching Laura and Mary's play games from Little House on the Prairie (Cat's Cradle, Hide the Thimble, and Bean Porridge Hot), I found a game called "The Two Prisoners." Using slip knots so the strings can go over the hands easily, tie strings on the wrists of one player, then tie the end of another string on the wrist of the second child, passing the string through the string of the first child before attaching the other end to the second child's other wrist; oh, just look at the drawing!

Now tell the two children to free themselves without breaking the string or untying it from their wrists. It can be done!

yep, christmas

2009-04-07T23:50:00.002-04:00

The "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus" is one of the best parts of the Little House on the Prairie pilot movie. I don't even mind the addition of mittens or that there's all that non-canon snow (what's not to love about snow?), and you can't help but want to say "Can't stand for no peekin'!" right along with Mr. Edwards.

Too bad they left out the pennies. Do you know how hard it is to find dollhouse pennies? Candy canes and tin cups? No problem. Heart-shaped cakes? No problem.

By the way, that's an actual penny the cakes and candy canes are sitting on.

big blue and juniata

2009-04-06T21:57:00.003-04:00

In the decade before the Civil War, there was a Kansas wagon trail, the Fort Leavenworth to Fort Riley route. The "road" through virgin territory came out from Leavenworth to what was the village of Winchester, to Osawkee village, to Half Dog Creek, and on to Indianola. It went on the Smith's ferry above the Kansas River, where one fork cut off south to the Sante Fe trail and the other ran on to Silver Lake (not that Silver Lake), on to the old Pottawatomie agency, to the Vermillion River, crossing due east of Louisville and up to the Big Blue River. From there it cut off southwest toward Fort Riley.

Juniata was a village on the Big Blue. It was settled in 1853 by Samuel Dyer, and the area reminded him of the Blue Juniata in Pennsylvania -- "The Blue Juniata" of which Caroline Ingalls sings with the fiddle in Little House on the Prairie. Is it possible that the Ingallses knew of Juniata and the Blue River in Kansas?

In a letter to daughter Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls Wilder said that "The Blue Juniata" was a favorite song of Pa's, and that he had written down the lyrics in a hand-made booklet of songs that she found two years after publication of Little House on the Prairie. Wilder wrote that what she remembered Pa singing weren't the lyrics used in LHOP.

Pa's booklet, however, has never been found.

pa goes to haytown... or maybe oswego

2009-04-05T11:16:00.001-04:00

Now the weather was cooler and [Pa] would go to town. He had not gone while the summer was hot, because the heat would be too hard on Pet and Patty. They must pull the wagon twenty miles a day, to get to town in two days. - Little House on the Prairie

"Town" in Little House on the Prairie is always Independence, which was not the four-day trip and forty miles away that Laura Ingalls Wilder writes, but more like ten miles as the crow flies, or not much more than the trip to town had been in Little House in the Big Woods.

At the time the Ingallses were settling in Indian Territory, a lot was going on. Montgomery City had been founded along the Verdigris River, and it was here that the Indian Agency was located. In August 1869, a group of men arrived from Oswego, Kansas, with the goods and plans to locate a town nearby along the bluffs of the Verdigris River. They even brought a town name with them: Independence; it was called "Haytown" because of all the temporary structures built using hay. These men contracted with Chetopa, the Osage Indian chief, to pay him $50 for 25 square miles of land for use as the townsite. In the 1860s, individual settlers - hundreds of them in the area - had agreed to pay about $5 per dwelling to live on Osage land. To sell the townsite for $50 turned out not to be such a good trade for Chetopa. Independence grew, while Montgomery City faded off the map entirely.

On October 1, 1869, Ebenezer Wilson opened the first store in Independence, on what was platted the following year as Pennsylvania Avenue between Laurel and Myrtle. This became the active trade center of town, and the stores that were later built on Main Street to the south had to put signs over their back doors because, for years, traffic approached them from the rear. Erskine's store was 14x24 feet and cost $500 to build. During Little House on the Prairie, F.D. Irwin was in partnership with Mr. Wilson, so if Pa traded here, he dealt with one of these two men. Wilson and Irwin hailed from Pennsylvania, hence the name of the first business street in town.

But did Charles Ingalls always do business in Independence? According to Mr. Wilson, his stock in the early years had to be hauled in from either Fontana (in Miami County, 100 miles to the northeast) or Oswego (in Labette County directly to the east) at up to $2.25 per hundred pounds of goods, a cost which was naturally passed along to the consumer along with the cost of the store building itself. Although Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions such an increased cost of goods due to distance hauled in her De Smet books, it isn't mentioned in Little House on the Prairie. In By the Shores of Silver Lake, Chapter 26, "The Building Boom", Wilder writes that goods cost three and four times what they did in Walnut Grove, 100 miles away.

In Indian Territory, Pa merely goes to town - more than once - and returns with items such as nails, salt pork, glass window panes, calico for dresses, flour, tea, sugar, cornmeal, seeds, seed potatoes, pickles, and even a plow.

Oswego, a major center of trade, just happened to be about forty miles east of the Ingalls cabin location in Section 36 of Rutland Township. Remember that Oswego was where Wilson and Irwin brought their stock from, and, according to newspapers at the time, highly advertised as the place to shop. Would Charles Ingalls have added three days and thirty miles to his own trip "to town" in order to trade in Oswego, where goods were much more reasonably priced? After all, $2.25 added cost per hundred pounds had to mean something to a family whose only visible* means of income at the time was from the furs Pa trapped and traded. Pa had plenty of time, a good team of horses, and a good neighbor to watch over his family while he was gone. It's highly likely that even just the one trip to trade for the plow and summer provisions might have been made to Oswego, not Independence.

The map above is a portion of the Kansas and Nebraska map published in 1870 by A.J. Johnson. The map shows township lines, which were six miles apart. The locations of Independence, Montgomery City, and Oswego have been marked, as has the Ingalls cabin, today's Little House on the Prairie site.

For grins, the Bender family claim site has been marked. In her Detroit Book Fair speech, Laura Ingalls Wilder said that she left the tale of the Benders out of Little House on the Prairie because it wasn't a story suitable for children. The story does appear in one of the typed versions of Pioneer Girl. Even if the Bender murders hadn't been committed a couple of years after the Ingallses were in Kansas, it doesn't seem likely that the area was one Pa ever had need to pass through, unless, of course, he was actually going the 100 miles to trade in Fontana.

* While Wilder writes that Pa believed the area "would be open for (legal) settlement soon," the Osage Diminished Reserve was available beginning in June 1871 for preemption only, or cash purchase at $1.25 per acre. This was money Pa simply didn't have, especially after the buyer of his Pepin farm was unable to send payment. Wilder implies that the land was to be homestead land, or "free land" based on residency requirements and nominal filing fees only.

bite me

2009-04-02T22:48:00.011-04:00

Mrs. Scott said that all the settlers, up and down the creek, had fever 'n' ague. There were not enough well people to take care of the sick, and she had been going from house to house, working night and day... Mrs. Scott said all this sickness came from eating watermelons. She said, "I've said a hundred times, if I have once, that watermelons--" -Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 15, "Fever and Ague"

Statistics show that malaria was a major problem a dozen years after the Ingalls family suffered from it in Indian Territory; "malarious areas" included the entire east coast and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rockies. Although DDT had first been produced in the laboratory in 1874, it wasn't until 1939 (four years after the publication of Little House on the Prairie) that its insecticidal properties were discovered.

In the summer of 1947, the National Malaria Eradication Program began spraying DDT on the interior walls of rural homes and buildings in areas where malaria had been a problem in recent years. By 1949, almost five million homes had been treated, and the country was declared to be free of malaria as a significant health problem.

But while DDT killed everything with six or eight legs, it also proved deadly to animals up the food chain, including songbirds and raptors (this is a good spot to get out your copy of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and read it again). By 1972, DDT was totally banned in the United States. Songbirds resumed their singing, and malaria went back to killing people, especially those in poorer countries.

Although Mrs. Scott and the rest of the squatters in Indian Territory thought "fever'n'ague" was caused by eating watermelons or exposure to the night air, some of the other guesses as to its origin are equally interesting today. An article published in 1872 reports that malaria was caused "by a chemical decomposition of impurities emanating from our own bodies, which circulating in the atmosphere and brought into contact with the blood, produce an abnormal change in the blood by disorganizing the venous and arterial systems." Another theory was that "spores of microscopic plants, living in the atmosphere, being of a greater specific gravity than that of the atmosphere, fall to the cellars and lower portions of buildings and breed in the moist filth there. Exposure to these organisms causes the disease." In these and other proposed causes, one can see that they almost have it. You can almost hear the slapping of mosquitoes while impurities are coming in contact with the blood or people are slogging around in all that moist filth.

Malaria, of course, is caused by a protozoan parasite transmitted by mosquitoes. While "killing the carrier" is what DDT did, mosquitoes were pretty good at figuring it all out and avoided sprayed surfaces or became resistant to DDT altogether. This summer, human malaria vaccine trials will begin in the United States, where paid volunteers allow themselves to be bitten by "parasite-ridden skeeters". Some will have been vaccinated with experimental malaria vaccines that were manufactured inside mosquitoes. Those who show symptoms of the disease will be treated using curative drug therapy.

It's too late to volunteer to have the ultimate Little House experience during this year's trials, so for now, all you can do is tack mosquito bar over the windows, keep your screen door from getting kicked through, and stock up on bitter quinine. Oh, and do clean up that moist filth in the cellar.

oh to be thrown off the land by general sherman!

2009-03-31T23:58:00.004-04:00

Headquarters, Army of the United States
Washington, D.C., August 6, 1870

General: The Secretary of the Interior has given notice that the matter of difficulty between the Osages and the white settlers on their reservation will probably be settled without difficulty, but that it is reported other squatters manifest a purpose to go on south of the Kansas border and take up claims within the Indian Territory next adjoining. He says the boundary line is well known.

The matter was up before the cabinet yesterday, and it was concluded that any trespass or intrusion must be promptly and forcibly met. You had better send a cavalry force down on the line and give notice that you have positive orders to "protect the Indian Territory from unauthorized settlers and squatters," and require the officer in command promptly to remove any such as he may find across the south boundary of Kansas, within the limits of what is known as the Indian Territory.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant,
W.T. Sherman, General

Headquarters Post Southeastern Kansas
Montgomery County, Kansas, August 26, 1870

The Government has determined to remove all settlers and invaders in the Indian Territory, and to execute the treaty with the Cherokees of 1866. By article 27, "all persons not in the military service of the United States, nor citizens of the Cherokee Nation, are prohibited from coming into the same, or remaining on the same."

All such settlers are hereby summoned to quit the limits of the Indian Territory in the shortest possible time, and all immigrants are forbidden to enter the same on penalty of removal by force.

By order:
J.S. Poland
Captain Sixth Infantry, Commanding Post.

edmund mason

2009-03-30T22:30:00.001-04:00

This gentleman is one of the more extensive farmers in Rutland township, where he settled, in 1869, on a portion of section 36. By careful management and close attention to business, he has, since that time, accumulated a large farm property, consisting of seven hundred and ninety acres, which he devotes, largely, to the raising of stock.

Devonshire, England, is the place of birth of Edmund Mason, the year being 1846. He was a son of Thomas and Johanna Mason. These parents passed their lives in the old country, never having removed to America. A brother of our subject, John Mason, came to this country in 1856. Edmund Mason remailed in England until 1867. Four years later, a younger brother, James, came over. These three brothers, with another, Henry, were the only members of the family who left England.

Reared to farm life, Mr. Mason found himself in possession of knowledge which has stood him in good stead in the country to which he emigrated. He came immediately to Montgomery County and settled on the quarter section where he now resides. He was the first settler in this part of the township, and now he is one of the largest land owners in the county. - History of Montgomery County, Kansas, 1903

Edmund Mason has long been believed to be the inspiration for the Little House on the Prairie character, Mr. Edwards. With the exception of various Osage Indians, Mr. Edwards, along with Mr. and Mrs. Scott and Dr. Tan, are the only non-family members in the book. Laura Ingalls Wilder describes Mr. Edwards as being "lean and tall and brown.... He told Laura he was a wildcat from Tennessee," (Chapter 5), but Edmund Mason had only recently arrived from England. Maybe Laura heard Devonshire and remembered Tennessee? It's always possible that Mr. Mason had come to Kansas via Tennessee.

That Laura was confused over the names of other squatters in Indian Territory is obvious. Maybe the Ingalls family talked about their stay there; maybe they didn't. At any rate, it's not like Laura could ask anyone anything while working on Pioneer Girl or her Indian juvenile. Ma, Pa, and Mary were dead. Carrie had been born in Kansas and was an infant when the family left.

Some of the stories connected to Mr. Edwards in Little House on the Prairie are attributed to other characters in Pioneer Girl or in one of the (at least) five complete manuscripts or fragments of LHOP, depending on how you arrange the surviving pages. In Pioneer Girl, it's Mr. Brown who brings the Christmas gifts; Pa goes to check on the Robertsons when he hears a scream in the night, and the doctor is not named. In one (1) of the manuscripts (told from Mary's point of view, not Laura's), both Mr. Thompson and a neighbor man help build the cabin.

In the second version (2), Mr. Thompson helps with the cabin. Mr. Edwards brings the Christmas presents. There are stories about John Turner and Jones, and two bachelors, Tom and Dick.

In the third version (3), Mr. and Mrs. Scott are present, and Mr. Edwards brings the Christmas presents. He also tells the family that there are two bachelors living nearby - John Turner and Jones - and mentions a Mr. Thompson. Pa tells another story about two men named Tom and Dick.

In the fourth version (4), Mr. Edwards helps with the cabin and Mr. and Mrs. Scott are the neighbors. As Mr. Scott helps Pa dig the well, he tells about Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's well, and their being helped by Mr. Stover. Mr. Thompson dies from the gas in the well. Carrie's birth is included, and Mrs. Scott helps during the birth. Mr. Edwards brings the Christmas presents, and there are stories about Sam Turner, Bill Jones, and Mrs. Thompson's house. Pa tells another story about Tom and John.

The fifth version (5) includes Mr. Edwards. Mr. Scott tells of another well-digging in which Edwards and Stover are digging and Mr. Edwards dies. In this version, the Ingalls family doesn't leave Indian Territory because of the possibility that soldiers will come remove them from the land, but because Pa receives a letter from Mr. Johnson, the man who bought the Big Woods cabin, asking Pa to return and take it over.

It's interesting to note that it was a Mr. Johnson who Charles Ingalls bought the Chariton County (Missouri) land from, and who bought it back from him. There are Scotts, Joneses, Thompsons, Turners, brothers and bachelors and men from Tennessee on the 1870 Montgomery County census. And on several censuses over the years, Edmund Mason is listed as... you guessed it: Edward.

"where are the indian camps?"

2009-03-26T00:01:00.005-04:00

In Little House on the Prairie (Chapter 9, "A Fire on the Hearth"), Laura and Mary go to Walnut Creek with Pa when he goes to dig rocks to use in building the fireplace. Laura asks where the Indian camps are located, and while Pa had seen them among the bluffs, he was too busy to show the girls that day.

The closest Indian camp to the Ingallses' squatting place in Section 36 was two miles away, on the other side of Onion Creek. There were a number of other camps dotting the landscape in Montgomery County: two on the Elk River, five along the Verdigris River, one southeast of the cabin on Onion Creek. With the exception of the camp southeast of the cabin on Onion Creek - about ten miles away - all were on the other side of "the water" from the Ingalls cabin. It is highly unlikely that Mary and Laura walked to see this camp, but is it true that they crossed the creek to visit the camp closest to them? If they indeed visited in August, then perhaps the creek was barely a trickle at the time.

In Little House on the Prairie, no distinction is made between the different "camps" or clans/bands of Indians among the bluffs; they were all called Osage Indians by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The different physical divisions of the Osages arose from the flood tradition, or story that during a sudden flood in the early days, the people were forced to flee to safety. Although there was some mixing of the two divisions recognized at the time, due to panic, five distinct physical divisions of the Osage were created. It's too much to go into here (read Louis Burn's Osage Indians Bands and Clans), but it was a village camp of Claremore's band of the Osage who were the closest to the Ingallses.

A tidbit of interest about the Claremore band. The chief was also the head chief of the Osage of the Oaks (Arkansas band). His gentile name was given as Gra moie: Gra moie means "Passing or moving hawk," although sometimes it is given as "Walking Eagle." He was also said to be called "Arrow Going Home," which was pronounced like Clermont in French, but sounded more like Claremore to English speakers, hence the name. Claremore I was an older brother of Chief White Hair. Their sister married the Kansas Chief White Plume and they were the great grandparents of Charles Curtis who was Vice President under Herbert Hoover. (While already a great story, think how much more fun it would be if the Vice President had spelled his name Kurtis!)

The image above shows the Little House on the Prairie cabin site in relation to the Claremore camp site. I've added "Mr. Edwards'" cabin, or the site of Ed Mason's later claim and the stone building foundation pictured in William Anderson's LIW Country. I also added (faint yellow dashes) the "Osage Indian Trail" location from the 1880 map included in Eileen Charbo's A Doctor Fetched By The Family Dog. This trail didn't exist at the time the Ingallses were there; this is actually what was called the "New Osage Trace," and was established in 1871 (after removal) so the Indians could visit and trade at Osage Mission, which is now St. Paul, Kansas.

laura ingalls wilder's life story: the 8-track

2009-03-22T22:30:00.000-04:00

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A photographic story of a life, by Tanya Lee Stone

Laura Ingalls Wilder's life story is the stuff that novels are made of. While her homesteader family moved across the American frontier, young Laura took it all in with a keen eye for scenes and characters, and a frank and friendly disposition that won her friends in every new town. A natural storyteller, Laura later entertained her daughter with tales from her childhood.

Those same stories would develop into the Little House novels, enjoyed by generations of Americans. Her books were fiction... but the true story of Laura's life is just as amazing...

More than 100 photographs show famous figures in living color... Sidebars offer in-depth historical context... A visual timeline tells the story at a glance...

This is such a beautiful book. It's a cute size. There's a photograph or two on every page, and the text weaves around and about. There are little boxes and blurbs to catch your attention. There's just enough color along with the greens and blues and browns suggestive of the prairie. As soon as I received this LIW bio in the mail, I started emailing people and saying they really ought to buy it too. It's laid out so well and it's so pretty, I said.

Then I read it. While there's nothing that the casual Laura Ingalls Wilder fan might pick up on, a something or two still niggles at me from every page. After reading it through a second and a third time, I think I know what bothers me. I simply don't feel like the author was comfortable with her material. Does she even love Laura Ingalls Wilder?

There are plenty of citations and a bibliography; it's paragraph after paragraph that comes from another biography. But the problem is that while a lot of the Stone biography obviously references Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pioneer Girl manuscript, it's not cited or even listed in the bibliography (nor are any of the "Little House" books except for On the Way Home and Little House Traveler). For someone who quoted Pioneer Girl so heavily, did she even read it for herself?

If you've read Zochert's LIW bio (and who hasn't?), you know that he relied heavily on Pioneer Girl for "facts". Well, Stone relies heavily on Zochert, and even heavier on Pamela Smith Hill's Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life. And where Stone credits Smith Hill, Smith Hill might in turn credit Ann Romines, who might have credited William Anderson. Sometimes I think it might be possible to get a stack of LIW bios and follow the "citation circle" in a big old 8-track loop in which everybody quotes everybody else but never has any primary research of their own to report. Isn't it time to stop and figure out "who said it first" and check for holes in our LIW common knowledge?

How do you rate LIW bios, anyway? One corn, two corns, three corns? This one is so pretty, I'd be tempted to give it four corns anyway. Too bad that "four don't go fur."

behind door number one

2009-03-17T23:30:00.001-04:00

With the saw he sawed logs the right length for a door. He sawed shorter lengths for cross-pieces. Then with the ax he split the logs into slabs, and smoothed them nicely. He laid the long slabs together on the ground and placed the shorter slabs across them. Then with the auger he bored holes through the cross-pieces into the long slabs. Into every hole he drove a wooden peg that fitted tightly. That made the door. - Little House on the Prairie, Chapter 8, "Two Stout Doors"

I've been not working on my log cabin dollhouse lately, but tonight I decided to see if I could make a door for it, following Laura Ingalls Wilder's text in Little House on the Prairie. I'm using apple wood for the cabin, so I decided to use it for the door, too. I haven't a clue if apple is good or bad for this sort of thing. I'm no carpenter, but I have plenty of seasoned apple branches, so apple it is. Nothing has split yet, so that's good.

I cheated and used a table saw to saw the "planks" and I used a drill instead of an auger, and I used wood glue and sandpaper. On the door, you can still see blade marks from the saw, but I like them, so they might not get sanded out.

I'm not quite sure how to peg the leather hinges (I'm going to use pieces from an old belt) to the frame, and since there isn't a frame yet, I've got time to ask about that. I didn't realize until I came upstairs that the Garth Williams illustration shows three cross-pieces, so I may add another one tomorrow.