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We stopped in Lebanon, Missouri, since it was as far as we could stand to drive and still close to Mansfield, Missouri. We wanted to swing by Mansfield because that is where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived when she began writing the "Little House" books. Jody and I had read aloud 6 or 8 of these books, several times each, to the girls when they were younger. This house was the setting for some of her later writings. 
This is a shot of the house itself. Not very impressive looking from the exterior; but Almanzo Wilder custom-built this entire home for himself, his wife Laura and their only child, Rose Wilder Lane, a prominent writer also. The kitchen was especially interesting. Laura stood only 4' 11'' tall, so all of the counters were at about my mid-thigh.
Interestingly, after Rose became a success, she wanted to do something for her parents, so she built them a brand new, modernized home about 1/4 mile away. Called "The Rock House", Rose presented the keys to the Wilders on Christmas morning one year. The Wilders lived in the house for only 8 years -- when Rose moved out of the old white clapboard house (above), the Wilders moved back in, saying they liked the ease of the Rock House, but that they were homesick. Since Laura did not really like the Rock House that much, we did not photograph it. It must not have been too bad, though, in the Rock House, because that was where, in her 60s, Laura began writing "Little House in the Big Woods", about Laura's first years in the woods of Wisconsin, when she was 3 and 4 years old. Her publisher refused to believe that anyone could remember anything from when they were only 3, so Laura made herself 5 to satisfy them, and later reconciled the added 2 years by skipping the 2 years that the Ingall's family lived in Iowa, where they were swindled in a bad business deal. And now, without further ado, we continue West... |
