You just never know when you’re going to stumble upon new Laura information — but I certainly didn’t expect  it at church.

Sunday morning, I sat in the family pew as usual, listening to the sermon. The pastor began to speak about the power of prayer, and then launched into a story.

“John Maxwell, in his book Partners in Prayer,” he began, “writes about the summer of 1876 when grasshoppers nearly destroyed the crops in Minnesota.” I sat right up and listened intently, feeling the gaze of my mother as she turned and gave me the same “can you believe this?” expression that must have been mirrored on my own face.

He went on to tell a story I’d never heard before. I’ve never really studied the grasshopper plague at all before; it seems to be a rather well-known story from what I’ve found since so perhaps some of you already know what I’m about to tell. He related that in the spring of 1877, following the devastation of their wheat crops the previous summer, the farmers were in great fear over all of the eggs laid in the ground, and what the grasshoppers were going to do to their crops again this year. So the governor of Minnesota, John Pillsbury, declared April 26, 1877, to be a day of prayer. He asked that everyone close their stores and dedicate this day to praying that they would be relieved of the scourge of grasshoppers that seemed sure to come. So on the designated day, the people prayed. They prayed and they prayed. And the next day dawned bright and sunny — and hot. And the next couple of days were also unseasonably warm. And the eggs hatched, and grasshoppers were crawling all over the place. Then suddenly on the next day came a deep freeze, killing all the grasshoppers.

This is the story as my pastor shared it in church Sunday morning, his source of course being the aforementioned book. His point was that there is power in prayer; but I must confess, my mind was too busy turning over this new information to hear much else he had to say after that.

My first thought was, “But… but…” Grasshoppers Walking.” What happened to the grasshoppers walking and finally flying up and leaving in a glittering cloud just the way they had come? That’s what Laura said! Who’s right, Laura, or this story?”

My next thought was to reconcile the dates. “April 1877…” thought I.  “Why, the Ingalls family was in Burr Oak by then. The grasshoppers should have already been gone. Weren’t they?”

I did some scouting around when I got home, anxious to find answers to my questions, and found many different versions of the Day of Prayer story. Some say just what my pastor told, the grasshoppers froze. Others also mention the freeze but instead of saying the grasshoppers froze to death, they say the grasshoppers started walking and then flew away in a glittering cloud to get away from the cold, similar to the way Laura describes.

But remember again that we’re not even talking about the same year. Laura also writes of the heat hatching the grasshopper eggs, but doesn’t mention a frost — just that they all suddenly walked off and then flew off in a rising cloud. She says it was a hot July day when this miracle occurred — and it appears she’s referring to the summer of 1876 when you try to merge real life with the book (always a challenge, as you must consider the books are fictional, not autobiographical, and therefore some events were created, altered, or placed at a different time than they actually occurred so you really can’t reliably merge the books with real life. And yet something within us makes us keep trying.)

So my question now is, Did the grasshoppers fly away as Laura described in the summer of 1876, but left their eggs behind first, allowing the event in the spring of 1877 to occur as described in this Day of Prayer story? Or did Laura simply hear the story of how the grasshoppers flew away in 1877 and fit it into her story to tie up the story of the grasshopper invasion?

If I want answers to those questions, I’ll have to do some further research, I know. I did find this page interesting, with the maps showing grasshopper damage by county. (Walnut Grove is in Redwood County.) It answers another question I’ve had but not pursued an answer to until now — when Pa comments on Hanson’s thin wheat crop just after they arrive on Plum Creek, I had wondered if that meant that grasshoppers had already been there the year before, and from these maps, it appears that Redwood County did have grasshopper damage in 1873.

It really reflects poorly on the Hansons, who “traded” (for sake of the story) Pa their land that they knew was worthless without warning him, so that they could escape to greener pastures. Understandable… but selfishly cruel.

Any grasshopper thoughts? Anyone else ever explored the timeline, the damage, the weather conditions, to check Laura’s story? Or has anyone else ever had their Sunday morning church service abruptly interrupted by Laura?

That’s what I call a thought-provoking sermon.