I often say that I’ve been to all of the Little House sites multiple times. However, that isn’t quite true. The fact is, there are many Little House related sites that I haven’t visited and probably never will. They are scattered all over the country — New York, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Washington, Iowa, Michigan, and California, to name a few.
Some sites consist of a cemetery where a Little House character or close Ingalls/Wilder relative is buried. Others are signified by historical markers or feature a building or piece of property that fits somehow into the Little House story. If I tried to tell you about them all, I’d be sure to leave some out.
These sites may not be significant enough to merit traveling to or even fitting into your vacation, but they are varied enough geographically that you may live near enough to one to take a local road trip.
I recently came across the blog “At Home with the Farmer’s Wife” and greatly enjoyed Suzanne Kathro’s story about her personal Wilder-related road trip to Elgin, Illinois, where Charles Ingalls (Pa) lived as a teenager. The cemetery pictured in Suzanne’s post is .8 miles north of McDonald Road on Corron Road in Elgin, and Suzanne informed me that the owners of the home actually allow school field trips to the property.
This article from the Chicago area’s Daily Herald published last fall contains some interior shots of the cemetery, including the grave of little Eliza Ann Ingalls (the daughter of “Grandpa’s” brother James, and therefore Pa’s first cousin), as well as further information about the Ingalls’ time in Kane County. However, two points in the article require clarification.
First, the article implies that Wilder researchers have been largely oblivious to the Kane County connection until now. Not true. Donald Zochert devoted three pages of his 1976 biography, Laura: The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, to the Ingalls’ time in Illinois; his book has been one of the most well-known and widely-read Laura Ingalls Wilder biographies for over thirty years. Additionally, Louisiana historian John Bass of the Ingalls-Wilder-Lane Historic Alliance has been working for years towards placement of a historical marker at this location denoting its Little House connection.
The article also states that Charles Ingalls lived in Kane County for ten years. This may be true; Ms. Schmitz may have access to primary source information that I am unaware of. But the best information I have at this time indicates that Landsford Ingalls (Pa’s father, the “Grandpa” of Little House in the Big Woods) settled in Kane County around 1848 (when Pa would have been about 12 years old). Landsford purchased 80 acres in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, in 1854, so it is likely that the family would have moved about this time, having spent only six, not ten, years in Illinois. I will gladly amend this statement if provided with research that indicates otherwise.
Although the connections in your neighborhood may be tenuous at best, it doesn’t hurt to do a bit of searching to see what kind of Little House adventure you might have right in your own backyard! And if you do visit one of these lesser-known sites, please tell us about it. We’d love to share in your experience, and we’ll begin adding these places to our A-Z until we eventually have them all.
I live in Omaha, NE, and whenever I pass by the old territorial capitol building I remember Almanzo telling Laura and her folks about it on Christmas Eve (These Happy Golden Years).
At the time of the story (1884), the state capital had already been moved to Lincoln (1867). The state donated the territorial capitol building to the city of Omaha in 1869, for educational purposes. The city tore that building down in 1870 and built a four-story building completed in 1872. So what Almanzo actually saw was Omaha’s first (and very impressive) public high school. My sister graduated from that high school. The old building Almanzo would have seen is now encased within a larger building and creates the school’s central courtyard.
Whenever I drive past it, I think Almanzo and Royal Wilder probably drove down this exact same road. And that’s my Little House connection.
That is a nice connection Joyce.
My Little House connection is the Coosa River crossing on US Highway 280 in Childersburg, Alabama. Peter Ingalls, Joseph Quiner Carpenter and Perley Day Wilder traveled on the Coosa on their journey from Wisconsin to Florida in 1890.
I pass over the Coosa quite frequently on my way to Birmingham.
Joyce and Cheryl — thanks for sharing your connections — and in two states not even mentioned in the list, no less.
I told you I’d leave some out if I tried to name them all!! Very interesting!
Joyce, I’m from Omaha also, and vividly remember the first time I read that passage about Central High School. It made me so happy to know Almanzo was here!