After Sandra referred to Almanzo Wilder as “The Oyster” in her last post, Laura W expressed her curiosity in the comments as to what this was all about. I decided to post the answer rather than reply to Laura as others of you may be curious as well, and it’s an interesting story.
In early 1937, Rose Wilder Lane was collecting information from her father for her book Free Land, which was published in 1938. In a letter dated March 20, 1937, Almanzo wrote Rose the story of how he, his brother Royal, and sister Eliza Jane journeyed from Minnesota to Dakota Territory to file on their homestead claims. In the story he comments, “After we past Sioux Falls about 10 miles, one of the horses took the colic and died…” (spelling preserved)
Laura wrote another letter to Rose the same day filling in some of the details for her that Almanzo had not included in his letter but she thought would be of help to her daughter.
She explained that the horses were fed their noon oats, and then given water a few miles down the road when they came to a house with a pump. They drove on about five miles, and then “the horse was taken sick and died in a few minutes. Driving hard on dry oats, getting too hot and then drinking cold water and swelling ‘em up. Manly has always blamed E.J. because she kept urging him to drive faster.”
Laura later adds, “As for getting Manly to tell what some one said — Have you heard of oyesters. It is long ago. But you can imagine what E.J. would say to make him drive faster.” (spelling preserved)
Thus Sandra’s nickname for Almanzo… the oyster.
So… while we’re here, anyone want to offer up a suggestion as to just what E.J. would say to make him drive faster? 