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L aura Elizabeth
Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, in a little log house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Laura's childhood was spent traveling
west by covered wagon, to Indian Territory in Kansas, to Grasshopper Country in Minnesota, and then to Dakota Territory, where
she met and married Almanzo Wilder.
Laura's daughter Rose grew up listening to her mother's stories of those pioneer days. She
urged her mother to write them down so that other children could enjoy them, as well. So in the 1930s and 40s, Laura recorded
her memories of those days of long ago in a children's series known as the "Little House"® books.
Although Laura died on February 10, 1957, at her home in the Ozarks of Missouri, she and
her family will live forever in the hearts of her readers.
Martha Morse, the first of the Little House girls, grew up to be Laura's great-grandmother.
A spunky and rebellious redhead, Martha was the daughter of wealthy landowners in the Scottish Highlands. She learned needlework,
as did all proper young ladies of her time, but she much preferred exploring the rolling hills around her home with Duncan,
her brother and best friend.
As a young woman, Martha fell in love with a blacksmith's son named Lewis Tucker. First Lewis
and then Martha made the long and dangerous sea voyage to the United States -- a country, Martha marveled, that was about
the same age as she was, having won its war for independence in 1783, the year after she was born. Martha and Lewis began
their new life near Boston, Massachusetts, becoming the first of Laura's ancestors to pioneer America
Charlotte was just three years old when the War of 1812 began. War news
filled the Tucker home, and Charlotte learned first hand how sea battles and the British blockade of Boston Harbor could affect
her life and the lives of her friends and neighbors. As a young woman, Charlotte married Henry Newton Quiner from Connecticut,
and their quest for adventure led them to become pioneers. Charlotte was the first girl in her family to travel west, living
in Ohio and Indiana before settling in the frontier town of Brookfield, Wisconsin.
Caroline Lake Quiner was born on December 12, 1839, to Henry and Charlotte Quiner, in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Her father died when she was five years old, and her mother married Frederick Holbrook five years
later. At the age of 16, Ma began teaching school. On February 1, 1860, she married Charles Ingalls; they had five children.
Laura's "Ma" was a gentle, but hard-working, woman who struggled to raise her four daughters as ladies in the wild west.
Her many skills included hat-making, gardening, cooking, sewing, and being able to make do with what she had.
Ma died in De Smet on April 20, 1924. Today, some of Ma's belongings mentioned in
Laura's books, such as her strawberry pin and sewing machine, are on display at Mansfield, Missouri.
Girls of The Past
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