Month: February 2024

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History & Celebrations Today – February 7

Celebrations Today – February 7

Holidays and observances

Celebrations Today – USA: February 7

National Fettuccine Alfredo Day
National Periodic Table Day
National Send a Card to a Friend Day
Safer Internet Day U.S. – Second Tuesday in February
National “”e”” Day
National Ballet Day
National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
International Clash Day
National Rose Day
National Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbor Day

Today in US History: February 7

Laura Ingalls Wilder

On every side now the prairie stretched away empty to a far, clear skyline. The wind never stopped blowing, waving the tall prairie grasses…And all the afternoon, while Pa kept driving onward, he was merrily whistling or singing. The song he sang oftenest was:

Oh, come to this country,
And don’t you feel alarm,
For Uncle Sam is rich enough
To give us all a farm!
Laura Ingalls Wilder,
By the Shores of Silver Lake

Pioneer log cabin
Pioneer Log Cabin,
erected by Justin E. Tilton,
Hand County, Wessington, South Dakota, circa 1910.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazandak Photographs Collections

On February 7, 1867, Laura Elizabeth Ingalls, the author of the beloved semiautobiographical Little House series, was born in Wisconsin, the second daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The basic facts of her life correspond to those related in her books about her family’s experiences on the American frontier during the 1870s and 1880s.

The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hulostrand and F. A. Pazandak Photograph Collections contains many images of families similar to the Ingalls who pioneered the settlement of the Dakota Territory. The image below is reminiscent of Pa Ingalls and his four girls, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and baby Grace. Laura’s three sisters, her parents, “Ma” and “Pa,” their good dog Jack, her school friends in the little town on the prairie, and her courtship and marriage to Almanzo Wilder are all well known to her readers.

A pioneer family
Building for the Future,
[Ole I. Gjevre Family],
Osnabrock, North Dakota, circa 190?.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

“This country’s going to be covered with trees,” Pa said. “Don’t forget that Uncle Sam’s tending to that. There’s a tree claim on every section, and settlers have got to plant ten acres of trees on every tree claim. In four or five years you’ll see trees every way you look.”Laura Ingalls Wilder,
By the Shores of Silver Lake

As they traveled further west by covered wagon and by the newly-laid Great Northern Railroad, the Ingalls family was enlivened by Pa’s sense of fun, his twinkling blue eyes, and his cheerful fiddle music while they were steadied by Ma’s gentle counsel, ladylike ways, and her provision of simple comforts.

Mr. Edwards rose up on one elbow, then he sat up, then he jumped up and he danced. He danced like a jumping-jack in the moonlight, while Pa’s fiddle kept on rollicking…Pa didn’t stop playing. He played…“Arkansas Traveler” [and] “Irish Washerwoman”…Pa and Mr. Edwards and Laura sang with all their might.

“Git out of the way for old Dan Tucker!
He’s too late to get his supper!”Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Little House on the Prairie

Pa and Ma always managed to create a happy, secure wherever they lived–whether in the little log cabin in the woods near Lake Pepin, Wisconsin, on the prairie near the Verdigris River in Indian Territory, the sod dugout by Plum Creek in Minnesota, the surveyor’s house on Silver Lake, the homestead shanty on the claim, or in Pa’s house in the brand-new town of De Smet in Dakota Territory.

Blizzard, Milton, North Dakota
Digging Out After the Big Blizzard,
Milton, North Dakota, 1893.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

The family endured many hardships. In Minnesota their farm was devastated by a plague of grasshoppers. Like many other pioneer families, the Ingalls experienced the tragic death of a young child, Laura’s only brother. They survived the hard winters of frequent heavy blizzards in the Dakota Territory, including a storm which snowed-in freight trains and cut off De Smet’s food supply. Almanzo Wilder and Cap Garland braved the heavy snows to bring back a supply of wheat for the town.

Buggy Ride
Thanks for the Buggy Ride We Had a Wonderful Time,
Emma and Milda Erickson, Fairdale, North Dakota, 190?.
The Northern Great Plains, 1880-1920: Photographs from the Fred Hultstrand and F. A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

After several years of regular education, Laura became a schoolteacher. During her first winter teaching, Almanzo Wilder began calling for Laura to take her home each weekend so that she could be with her family, and he could spend time in her company. Almanzo’s and Laura’s sedate and happy courtship took place, for the most part, in a sleigh or a buggy behind his beautiful matched horses, Lady and Prince.

Almanzo’s and Laura’s sedate and happy courtship took place, for the most part, in a sleigh or a buggy behind his beautiful matched horses, Lady and Prince. Laura’s longtime rival, Nellie Oleson, wished that she could occupy Laura’s place in the buggy, but Almanzo preferred Laura.

Almanzo’s mother’s threat to come out West to arrange a big church wedding prompted the young couple to marry in haste in a simple manner. Following their wedding, that same evening, they moved into the little house on the tree claim that Almanzo had built for Laura.

After several difficult years, marked by illness, the death of an infant, and the loss of their home to fire and their crops to drought, the Wilders migrated to a new home near Mansfield, Missouri. At Rocky Ridge Farm, they were able to live comfortably and to raise their one surviving child.

In 1930, with the encouragement and editorial assistance of her daughter, journalist Rose Wilder Lane, Laura Ingalls Wilder began writing down her memories of her earlier life on the American frontier. She had previously written columns about farmers’ interests for the Missouri Ruralist, and a few articles for McCall’s and Country Gentleman. Wilder published her first book, Little House in the Big Woods, at the age of sixty-five. It received immediate popular and critical acclaim, and she followed that first book with a succession of novels about the days of long ago.

When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, “What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?”
“They are the days of a long time ago, Laura,” Pa said. “Go to sleep, now.”
But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods,…
She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.
Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Little House in the Big Woods

Learn more about pioneer life in American Memory:

For a special birthday treat, Pa played “Pop Goes the Weasel” for her.
He sat with Laura and Mary close against his knees while he played. “Now watch,” he said. “Watch, and maybe you can see the weasel pop out this time”…Laura and Mary bent close, watching, for they knew now was the time.
“Pop! (said Pa’s finger on the string)
Goes the weasel! (sang the fiddle, plain as plain.)”
But Laura and Mary hadn’t seen Pa’s finger make the string pop.
“Oh, please, please, do it again!” they begged him.
Laura Ingalls Wilder,
Little House in the Big Woods

“Pop Goes the Weasel”
Henry Reed, fiddler
June 18, 1966
Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection

Listen to this recording (Real Audio Format)

Listen to this recording ( MP3 Format)

Today in History – February 7-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia