Laura Ingalls Wilder -- A Timeline
1836---Charles Phillip Ingalls is born on January 10th in Cuba, New York.
1839---Caroline Lake Quiner is born on December 12th in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
1846---Caroline Quiner’s father dies.
1849---Caroline Quiner’s mother marries Frederick Holbrook.
1850---Eliza Jane Wilder is born.
1857---Almanzo James Wilder is born on February 13th near Malone, New York.
1860---Charles Ingalls marries Caroline Quiner on February 1st in Concord, Wisconsin.
1861---The Civil War begins.
1865---Mary Amelia Ingalls is born on January 10th in Pepin, Wisconsin.
The Civil War ends.
1867---Laura Elizabeth Ingalls is born on February 7th in Pepin, Wisconsin.
1869---The Ingalls family travels from Pepin, Wisconsin to Independence, Kansas.
1870---Caroline Celestia Ingalls is born on August 3rd in Montgomery County, Kansas.
1871---The Ingalls family travels from Independence, Kansas to Pepin, Wisconsin.
1874---The Ingalls family travels from Pepin to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
1875---Charles Frederick Ingalls Jr., better known as Freddie, is born November 1, 1875 in Walnut Grove.
1876---The Ingalls family travels from Walnut Grove, Minnesota to Burr Oak, Iowa. [See also our Iowa page.]
9-month old baby Freddie dies on August 27th.
1877---Grace Pearl Ingalls is born on May 23rd.
Eliza Jane Wilder teaches in the Spring Valley school.
1878---The Ingalls family travels from Burr Oak to Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
1879------The Ingalls family travels to De Smet, South Dakota. Pa goes by covered wagon. Ma and the girls make the trip by train.
Eliza Jane Wilder accompanies Almanzo and Royal to De Smet. They all take claims. She teaches school.
Mary Ingalls becomes severely ill. A stroke causes blindness. As a result, Laura spends many hours reading aloud to Mary and helping her memorize information.
1881---The Dakota Territory pays for
16-year-old Mary Ingalls to attend the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton,
Iowa. She is enrolled on November 23rd. Laura works 12 hours a day to help
provide the necessary tuition for Mary by basting shirts for 25 cents a day.
1882---Just 2 months shy of her 16th birthday, Laura Ingalls begins teaching in
a cold,
drafty, abandoned claim shanty on the Dakota prairie. Some of her 5 students are
older and
taller than their new young teacher who is missing her family 12 miles away in
De Smet.
During her first winter teaching, Almanzo Wilder begins calling for Laura to
take her home each weekend so that she can be with her family and he can spend
time in her company.
1885---After 3 years of courting, Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder are married on August 25th at the home of Reverend E. Brown. Following their wedding on that same evening, they move into the little house on the tree claim that Almanzo had built for Laura.
1886---Rose Wilder is born on December 5th in De Smet. The DeSmet News and Leader says of the birth.
1889---Mary Ingalls graduates at the age of 24 in June. She is one of 8 in her
graduating class which consists of 5 females and 3 males. She
returns to De Smet to live with her parents. Mary and her mother are highly
active in the church, and Mary teaches Sunday School classes.
1890---Royal, Almanzo, Laura, and Rose move in with the Wilder parents in Spring Valley. Royal opens up a variety store.
1891---Laura, Almanzo, and Rose move to Westville, Florida.
1892---Eliza Jane Wilder, at 42, marries Thomas Jefferson Thayer. He has 6 children.
1894---Traveling in a covered wagon, Almanzo, Laura, and Rose move to Wright County, Missouri. They buy Rocky Ridge Farm, which is outside of Mansfield.
Walcott Thayer is born to Eliza and Thomas Thayer.
1895---Laura and Almanzo use lumber and fieldstone from the farm to build a 2-room house.
1899---Thomas Thayer dies, leaving his estate to his daughter Etta.
Rose Wilder stays with Eliza while going to school in Crowley, Louisiana.
1901---Grace Ingalls marries Nathan William Dow at the Ingalls family home on October 16th.
1902---Charles Ingalls dies on June 8th in De Smet. Caroline stays on in De Smet with Mary, who will make fly nets to help supplement the family income.
1904---Eliza Jane marries Maxwell Gordon. They will separate later.
1909---Rose Wilder marries Claire Gillette
Lane in San Francisco, California, on March 24th.
1911---Carrie Ingalls moves to Keystone, South Dakota, to work on the Keystone
Recorder.
1912---Carrie Ingalls marries widower David Swanzey in Keystone. They go to Hot Springs on their honeymoon.
1918---Rose and Claire Lane are divorced.
1924---Caroline Ingalls dies on April 20th in DeSmet. Mary moves in with Grace and her husband.
1925---Royal Wilder dies and is buried in the Spring Valley cemetery.
1928---63-year-old Mary Ingalls dies of pneumonia on October 17th at the home of her sister Carrie. She is buried in the family plot near De Smet.
1930---With the encouragement and editorial assistance of her daughter, Laura Ingalls Wilder begins 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 Magazine and Country Gentleman. Little does Rose know that her mother's writing will become immediately popular and more famous with lasting appeal than her own.
1932---Little House in the Big Woods is published. Laura is 65.
1933---Farmer Boy is published.
1935---Little House on the Prairie is published.
1937---On the Banks of Plum Creek is published.
1939---By the Shores of Silver Lake is published.
1940---The Long Winter is published.
1941---Little Town on the Prairie is published.
Grace Ingalls Dow dies in Manchester, South Dakota, on November 10th.
1943---These Happy Golden Years is published.
1946---Carrie Ingalls Swanzey dies in Rapid City, South Dakota. Laura is the last surviving member of the Ingalls family.
1949---Almanzo has 2 heart attacks and dies on October 23rd.
1957---Laura Ingalls Wilder dies in her sleep on February 10th at Rocky Ridge, just 3 days after she celebrates her 90th birthday.
1962---On the Way Home is published.
1968---Rose Wilder Lane dies in Danbury, Connecticut.
1970s---A popular television series, Little House on the Prairie, is based on Laura’s books.
1971---The First Four Years is published.
1974---West From Home is
published.