Comments on: Off the Beaten Trail…

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:04:08 +0000

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!

By: Rebecca Brammer

Rebecca Brammer — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:45:53 +0000

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!

By: Cheryl

Cheryl — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:15:01 +0000

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.

By: Joyce

Joyce — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:21:27 +0000

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.