Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Disastrous First Year Of Marriage
Pioneer Ledger
47,989 views
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Disastrous First Year of Marriage
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first year of marriage began with a new home, farmland, horses, machinery, and every reason to believe she and Almanzo Wilder were building a secure future. Less than twelve months later, the wheat crop meant to pay their debts was destroyed in minutes, their finances were under pressure, and the couple had to decide whether farm life was still worth the risk.
In this Pioneer Ledger documentary, we follow the real Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder through the first year of their marriage, from their quiet August 25, 1885 wedding near De Smet, Dakota Territory, through the difficult growing season of 1886. It is a part of Laura’s life that readers of the Little House books know mainly through The First Four Years, the unusual manuscript published after her death.
Laura was only eighteen when she married Almanzo. There was no elaborate wedding and no honeymoon. According to Laura’s later account, she married in a practical dark cashmere dress rather than a white bridal gown, and the newlyweds drove directly to the house Almanzo had prepared. The little gray house appeared comfortable and prosperous, but behind the new stove, furniture, land, horses, and farm machinery was a dangerous reality: much of their new life depended on borrowed money and future crops.
For fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years, and Pioneer Girl, this story shows how different real pioneer marriage could be from the security of the beloved books and television series. Laura had watched Charles Ingalls struggle to turn a homestead into a living. Now she faced the same uncertainty.
Almanzo held two 160-acre claims near De Smet, but owning land did not mean having cash. Farming required seed, equipment, animals, labor, and months of work before a family knew whether a crop would survive long enough to sell. Laura later wrote that before their marriage she and Almanzo had reached an agreement: she would give farming three years. If the farm still could not support them, he would find another way to make a living.
Their first winter brought an early warning. Laura remembered a Dakota blizzard so severe that Almanzo nearly missed their house while returning from the barn only a short distance away. Afterward, a rope was stretched between the buildings so they could find their way during another whiteout.
Then came the 1886 wheat crop.
Laura remembered the field as exceptionally promising, worth roughly $3,000. If the harvest succeeded, it could have helped pay down debts. But until the wheat was harvested, threshed, hauled, and sold, everything remained vulnerable to weather.
At the same time, Laura was pregnant with their first child, Rose Wilder Lane. She later described severe sickness during the pregnancy while continuing to manage the household as Almanzo worked the farm. Their family was growing, and much of their future rested on one harvest.
Then a hailstorm rolled across the prairie.
Laura wrote that the wheat had been standing thick and nearly ready for the reaper when hail beat the stalks flat and scattered the ripened grain into the ground. In about twenty minutes, nearly a year of work was gone. The crop that was supposed to turn debt into security disappeared, but the debts remained.
The disaster did not end Laura and Almanzo Wilder’s marriage, and it did not immediately drive them from Dakota Territory. Instead, it pushed them into an even more difficult second year. Laura later wrote that Almanzo mortgaged his homestead, they rented out their more comfortable house, and they moved into a smaller building while preparing to try farming again.
This is not the story of all four difficult years later described in The First Four Years. It is specifically the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first twelve months as Almanzo Wilder’s wife: the wedding, the little gray house, the debt behind their apparent prosperity, the Dakota weather, Laura’s pregnancy, the wheat crop they desperately needed, and the hailstorm that changed everything.
For viewers interested in the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, the true story behind Little House on the Prairie, Almanzo Wilder, Charles Ingalls, De Smet history, Dakota Territory, pioneer homesteading, American frontier history, and the lives behind the Little House books, this episode separates Laura’s later recollections from the historical record while following the story as closely as surviving evidence allows.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Laura Ingalls Wilder’s First Year of Marriage
00:30 The Quiet Wedding
02:01 The Little Gray House
03:40 Three Years to Make It Work
05:23 Everything Riding on Wheat
06:40 A Child on the Way
07:13 The Hailstorm
08:38 One Year Married
After watching a year’s expected income disappear in a single storm, would you have planted again? Tell us in the comments.
#LauraIngallsWilder #LittleHouseOnThePrairie #AlmanzoWilder
7 Comments
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Disastrous First Year Of Marriage
Pioneer Ledger
47,989 views
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Disastrous First Year of Marriage
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first year of marriage began with a new home, farmland, horses, machinery, and every reason to believe she and Almanzo Wilder were building a secure future. Less than twelve months later, the wheat crop meant to pay their debts was destroyed in minutes, their finances were under pressure, and the couple had to decide whether farm life was still worth the risk.
In this Pioneer Ledger documentary, we follow the real Laura Ingalls Wilder and Almanzo Wilder through the first year of their marriage, from their quiet August 25, 1885 wedding near De Smet, Dakota Territory, through the difficult growing season of 1886. It is a part of Laura’s life that readers of the Little House books know mainly through The First Four Years, the unusual manuscript published after her death.
Laura was only eighteen when she married Almanzo. There was no elaborate wedding and no honeymoon. According to Laura’s later account, she married in a practical dark cashmere dress rather than a white bridal gown, and the newlyweds drove directly to the house Almanzo had prepared. The little gray house appeared comfortable and prosperous, but behind the new stove, furniture, land, horses, and farm machinery was a dangerous reality: much of their new life depended on borrowed money and future crops.
For fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie, These Happy Golden Years, The First Four Years, and Pioneer Girl, this story shows how different real pioneer marriage could be from the security of the beloved books and television series. Laura had watched Charles Ingalls struggle to turn a homestead into a living. Now she faced the same uncertainty.
Almanzo held two 160-acre claims near De Smet, but owning land did not mean having cash. Farming required seed, equipment, animals, labor, and months of work before a family knew whether a crop would survive long enough to sell. Laura later wrote that before their marriage she and Almanzo had reached an agreement: she would give farming three years. If the farm still could not support them, he would find another way to make a living.
Their first winter brought an early warning. Laura remembered a Dakota blizzard so severe that Almanzo nearly missed their house while returning from the barn only a short distance away. Afterward, a rope was stretched between the buildings so they could find their way during another whiteout.
Then came the 1886 wheat crop.
Laura remembered the field as exceptionally promising, worth roughly $3,000. If the harvest succeeded, it could have helped pay down debts. But until the wheat was harvested, threshed, hauled, and sold, everything remained vulnerable to weather.
At the same time, Laura was pregnant with their first child, Rose Wilder Lane. She later described severe sickness during the pregnancy while continuing to manage the household as Almanzo worked the farm. Their family was growing, and much of their future rested on one harvest.
Then a hailstorm rolled across the prairie.
Laura wrote that the wheat had been standing thick and nearly ready for the reaper when hail beat the stalks flat and scattered the ripened grain into the ground. In about twenty minutes, nearly a year of work was gone. The crop that was supposed to turn debt into security disappeared, but the debts remained.
The disaster did not end Laura and Almanzo Wilder’s marriage, and it did not immediately drive them from Dakota Territory. Instead, it pushed them into an even more difficult second year. Laura later wrote that Almanzo mortgaged his homestead, they rented out their more comfortable house, and they moved into a smaller building while preparing to try farming again.
This is not the story of all four difficult years later described in The First Four Years. It is specifically the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first twelve months as Almanzo Wilder’s wife: the wedding, the little gray house, the debt behind their apparent prosperity, the Dakota weather, Laura’s pregnancy, the wheat crop they desperately needed, and the hailstorm that changed everything.
For viewers interested in the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, the true story behind Little House on the Prairie, Almanzo Wilder, Charles Ingalls, De Smet history, Dakota Territory, pioneer homesteading, American frontier history, and the lives behind the Little House books, this episode separates Laura’s later recollections from the historical record while following the story as closely as surviving evidence allows.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Laura Ingalls Wilder’s First Year of Marriage
00:30 The Quiet Wedding
02:01 The Little Gray House
03:40 Three Years to Make It Work
05:23 Everything Riding on Wheat
06:40 A Child on the Way
07:13 The Hailstorm
08:38 One Year Married
After watching a year’s expected income disappear in a single storm, would you have planted again? Tell us in the comments.
#LauraIngallsWilder #LittleHouseOnThePrairie #AlmanzoWilder
Along with many others in the area. Then.....Diptheria....crimes almighty.....that is truly a Nasty. NASTY. Disease!!!! It doesn't just form a membrane over the patients airway, it can attack the nervous system too.....it was said Almanzos case of Diptheria was milder than Laura's. Not true at all. It attacked his nervous system causing a polyneuritis. Yes,it can appear stroke like but it isn't. It's caused by a demylination or wasting away of the protective coating on the nerves. Yes one can recover from it a new myelin sheath will form,but never as good as the Original. Hence the limp,hence the lifelong cane. A very complicated treatment for polyneuritis in todays time requires IVIG therapy. INTRAVENOUS immune globulin. Monthly....usually for life. 2nd most expensive medication in the USA. Insurance will not cover it without at least a 1000.00 dollar copayment.....monthly.😢 but such was not available back then.
But despite all this, Almanzo was an incredible man.....He knew how to do EVERYTHING. His list of abilities is too long to mention here. He definitely was an amazing carpenter among his MANY talents.He even knew how to cobble shoes. That's a trade unto itself!!! He lived to 92 years old.....