Prairie Fires

by Caroline Fraser

      9.   The former Congregational Church, which Charles Ingalls and other townsfolk helped to build in De Smet in 1882, is now the De Smet Alliance Church.

    10.   U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2008–2012. Mansfield is number 55 on the list of 100 poorest towns. Figures on median income are included in this study.

    11.   The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association of Mansfield received $200,000 from Community Facilities Loans and Grants, Rural Housing Service, Wright County, Missouri, September 30, 2010, Department of Agriculture: https://projects.propublica.org/recovery/locale/missouri/wright/dept/1200.

    12.   See John C. Hudson, “Agriculture,” Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ag.001.

    13.   As John Wesley Powell predicted, average farm size in the United States has grown, to around 440 acres in 2015, while the number of farms has dropped by half, from more than four million in 1880 to just over two million currently. “Farms and Land in Farms: 2015 Summary,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, February 2016, p. 4; http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/FarmLandIn/FarmLandIn-02-18-2016.pdf. For the total number of farms in the U.S. in 1880, see “Statistics of Agriculture,” in Report on the Productions of Agriculture, Tenth Census, June 1, 1880, p. ix.

    14.   Betsy Blaney, “Parts of Some Plains States Drier Than Dust Bowl,” Santa Fe New Mexican (AP), May 11, 2014, p. C-5. Scientific studies predict “megadrought” due to climate change, which is expected to affect southern California, the American southwest, and the Plains states within the next few decades; see, for example, Benjamin I. Cook, Toby R. Ault, and Jason Smerdon, “Unprecedented 21st Century Drought Risk in American Southwest and Central Plains,” Science Advances, vol. 1, no. 1 (February 12, 2015).

    15.   USDA Economic Research Service, “Farm Household Income (Historical),” https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-household-well-being/farm-household-income-historical/.

    16.   Bren Smith, “Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers,” New York Times, August 9, 2014.

    17.   RWL to Mrs. Davis, February 10, 1966. De Smet Collection.

    18.   LIW to G. E. Mallery, March 12, 1930. De Smet Collection.

  INDEX

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Abbreviations

  Laura Ingalls Wilder: LIW

  Rose Wilder Lane: RWL

  Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer

  Adams, Henry

  Adventure

  African Americans

  “Agrarian Justice” (Paine)

  Agricultural Adjustment Administration

  Agriculture Department (USDA)

  Albania

  Albany Knickerbocker

  Alden, Edwin H.

  Alexander, Margaret

  Alhambra, The (Irving)

  “Ambition” (LIW)

  America First

  American Civil Liberties Union

  American Electoral College, The (MacBride)

  American Federation of Labor

  American Food Journal

  American Historical Association

  American Home Missionary Society

  American Library Association

  American Relief Administration

  American Telephone and Telegraph

  Anderson, Sherwood

  Anderson, William

  Angus and the Ducks (Flack)

  Anthony, Susan B.

  Anti-Capitalist Mentality (von Mises)

  Armenian genocide

  Arngrim, Alison

  “As a Farm Woman Thinks” (LIW)

  Athenian Club

  Atlantic Monthly

  Austen, Jane

  Austin, Nava

  Bambi (Chambers and Wiese)

  Bank of Mansfield

  Bard, Josef

  Barnaby Rudge (Dickens)

  Barry, Anna

  Barton, A.C.

  Baum, L. Frank

  Beatty, Elizabeth

  “Behind the Headlight” (RWL)

  Bell, Alexander Graham

  Bell, Florence

  Bender, Kate

  Bernhardt, Sarah

  Big Jerry (French-Indian man)

  Big Woods. See also Pepin, Wisconsin

  Birth of a Nation, The (film)

  Black, Jack

  Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (West)

  Bloody Benders

  “Blue Bead, The” (RWL)

  Boast, Ella

  Boast, Robert

  Boelter, John

  Boelter, Justina

  bonanza farms

  Boone, Daniel

  Boone, John William “Blind”

  Bouchie, Charles

  Bouchie, Clarence

  Bouchie, Louis

  Bouchie, Martha

  Bouchie, Oliv

  Bouchie, Ruby

  Bouchie, Tommy

  “Bouquet of Wild Flowers, A” (LIW)

  Boylston, Helen “Troub”

  Brandt, Carl

  Brastow, Virginia

  Bride of Lammermoor, The (Scott)

  Brody, Catherine

  Brookings County Press

  Brown, Rev. Edward

  Brown, Helen Gurley

  Brown, Ida

  Brown, James Oliver

  Brown County Historical Society

  Browning, Norma Lee

  Bryan, William Jennings

  Bryant, William Cullen

  Buce, Bertha

  Buce, Caroline

  Burns, Ken

  Burr, Jane

  Burr Oak, Iowa

  Bye, Arlene

  Bye, George T.

  Byron, Lord

  By the Shores of Silver Lake (LIW)

  chronological gap and

  Cakes and Ale (Maugham)

  Caldwell, Erskine

  Call of the Wild, The (London)

  Camp Release

  Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)

  Capote, Truman

  Capp, Al

  Capper, Arthur

  Carnegie, Andrew

  Carpenter, Charles (uncle)

  Carpenter, Joseph Quiner (cousin)

  Carpenter, Julia Gage

  Carpenter, Martha Quiner (aunt)

  Carrier, Martha Ingalls Allen

  Carrigan, Minnie Buce

  Carter, Jimmy

  Case, John

  Cather, Charles

  Cather, Jenny

  Cather, Willa

  Catlin, George

  Catt, Carrie Chapman

  Census Bureau

  Century Farms

  Chamberlain, Neville

  Chaplin, Charlie

  Charlie Chaplin’s Own Story (RWL)

  Cherokee Indians

  Cheyenne Indians

  Chicago

  Great Fire

  World’s Fair

  Chicago & North Western Railway

  Chicago Tribune

  Child, Albert

  Chipley, William D.

  Choctaw Indians

  Christian Science Monitor

  Cindy (RWL)

  Citizens for Goldwater

  Civilian Conservation Corps

  civil rights

  Civil War

  Civil Works Administration

  Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914)

  Clemens, Jane Lampton

  Cleveland, Betsy

  Cleveland, Grover

  Cleveland Plain Dealer

  Cocoanuts, The (film)

  Coday, Blanche

  Cody, Buffalo Bill

  communism

  Confederate Army

  Confidence-Man, The (Melville)

  Congregationalists

  Conqueror, Th
e (songbook)

  conservatism

  “Constantly Increasing Wonders, The” (RWL)

  Cooley, Emma

  Cooley, Frank

  Cooley, George

  Cooley, Paul

  Coolidge, Calvin

  Cooper, James Fenimore

  Cosmopolitan

  Costain, Thomas

  Country Gentleman

  Country Life Commission

  “Courage” (RWL). See Let the Hurricane Roar

  Coxey, Jacob S.

  Coxey, Legal Tender

  Coxey’s Army

  Cradle Will Rock, The (musical)

  Craig, Ella

  Craig, Jeff

  Craig, Noah Jefferson

  Crane, Jasper

  Crazy Horse

  “Credo” (RWL)

  Creek Indians

  Crook, George

  Cushman, Dr.

  Custer, George Armstrong

  Cut Nose

  Dakota Boom

  “Dakota Cyclone, The” (Gage)

  Dakota Farmer

  Dakota Indians

  Dakota Loan & Investment Company

  Dakota Territory. See also De Smet; Silver Lake

  Baum and

  bonanza farms and

  drought and

  exodus of 1890–95

  farming difficulties in

  Homestead Act and

  Indian protests of 1970s

  Ingalls move to

  LIW’s depiction of

  LIW’s property in

  LIW’s visits of 1930s

  Ozark land vs.

  RWL on

  statehood and

  winters and

  women and

  Dakota War of 1862

  Dakota War Whoop (McConkey)

  Dark Laughter (Anderson)

  Darrow, Clarence

  Davis, Adelle

  Davis, John

  Davis, Nannie

  Davis, Oliver B.

  Day, Clarence

  Declaration of Independence

  Delano, Margaret (great-grandmother)

  Dell, Floyd

  DeMille, Cecil B.

  Democratic Party

  depressions. See Great Depression; Panic of 1837; Panic of 1873; Panic of 1893–94

  De Smet, Father Pierre-Jean

  De Smet, South Dakota. See also Silver Lake

  50th anniversary of

  LIW’s visits of 1930s

  LIW visits dying father in

  today

  Williams visits

  winter of 1880–81

  De Smet Cemetery

  De Smet Leader

  De Smet News

  De Smet school

  Detroit Book Fair (1937)

  Detroit Library Commission

  Dickens, Charles

  Discovery of Freedom, The (RWL)

  “Ditty on Poverty, A” (Samuel Ingalls)

  “Diverging Roads” (RWL)

  Dix, Dorothy

  Dixon, Thomas

  “Do It with All Your Might” (LIW)

  “Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers” (Smith)

  Douglass, Frederick

  Dow, Grace Ingalls (sister)

  diary

  Dow, Nate

  Dreiser, Theodore

  Drought Relief Service

  droughts

  Dust Bowl

  Eastern Star

  Eastman, Max

  Edmonds, Walter D.

  “Ed Monroe, Man-Hunter” (RWL)

  Education of Henry Adams, The

  “Eldorado” (Poe)

  elections

  of 1860

  of 1887

  of 1892

  of 1896

  of 1912

  of 1916

  of 1924

  of 1925

  of 1928

  of 1932

  of 1936

  of 1972

  of 1976

  of 1980

  El Niños

  Emancipation Proclamation

  Embargo Act (1809)

  Embroidery Club

  Enbridge pipeline

  Endecott, John

  Erd, Frank

  Ernst, Morris L.

  Evans, Ernestine

  Facts About Florida

  Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)

  Fantastic City, The (Brastow)

  Fargo Times

  Farmer Boy (LIW)

  Farmers Alliance

  Farmers and Merchants Bank

  “Farm Home, The” (LIW)

  Farm Loan Association

  fascism

  Federal Aviation Administration

  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

  Federal Communications Commission

  federal deposit insurance

  Federal Farm Loan Act (1916)

  Federal Reserve Act (1913)

  Federal Surplus Relief Corporation

  Federal Theatre Project (FTP)

  Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)

  Fellman, Anita Clair

  Fern, Fanny (Sara Willis)

  Feuchtwanger, Lion

  Fiery, Marion

  “Fire-Worshippers, The” (Moore)

  First Four Years, The (“First Three Years,” LIW)

  Fite, Gilbert C.

  Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (Sidney)

  Flack, Marjorie

  Florida

  Floweret, The (poetry book)

  Forbes, Docia Ingalls (aunt)

  Forbes, Eugene (cousin)

  Forbes, Hiram

  Forbes, Lena (cousin)

  Ford, Ford Madox

  Ford, Gerald

  Ford, Henry

  “Forgotten Man” (RWL)

  Foster, Stephen

  Fountainhead, The (Rand)

  France

  Franz Ferdinand, Archduke

  Frederick the Great

  Freedom School

  “Free Land” (RWL)

  Freeman, George

  Freemasons. See also Eastern Star

  Free Soil movement

  Friedman, Milton

  Friendly, Ed

  frontier

  closing of

  Frost, Robert

  Fujin Asahi (Japanese journal)

  Fuller, Charleton

  Fuller, Gerald

  Gable, Clark

  Gage, Helen Leslie

  “Garden of Proserpine, The” (Swinburne)

  Garfield, James A.

  Garland, Cap

  Garland, Charlotte

  Garland, Florence

  Garland, Hamlin

  Garland, Harriet

  Garland, Margaret

  Garland, Richard

  Garrett, Garet

  Geiger, Robert

  Gentry, Helen

  German immigrants

  Germany

  Nazi

  Ghost in the Little House, The (Holtz)

  Gibson, Isaac

  Gift Book Program (Japan)

  Gilbert, Melissa

  Gilbert, Stella

  “Give Me Liberty” (RWL)

  Godey’s Lady’s Book

  God of the Machine, The (Paterson)

  Goebbels, Joseph

  Gold Rush

  Goldsmith, Oliver

  gold standard

  Good Housekeeping

  Gordon Party

  Grafly, Charles

  Grafton, Samuel

  “Grandpa’s Fiddle” (RWL)

  Grange Halls

  Grapes of Wrath, The (Steinbeck)

  grasshoppers. See locusts and grasshoppers

  Great Depression

  Great Hinckley Fire (1894)

  Great Plains. See prairie

  Great Sioux Reservation

  Greeley, Horace

  Green Acres (TV show)

  Green Grow the Lilacs (Riggs)

  Green Mountain Boys, The (Thompson)

  Griffith, D.W.

  Griggs, Charlotte

  Gustafson, Gustaf

  Gut
hrie, Woody

  Hader, Berta Hoerner

  Hader, Elmer

  Hansel and Gretel (Haders)

  Harding, Warren G.

  Hard Rope, Chief

  Harper’s Magazine

  Hartley, Jim

  Hartwig, Dr. G.

  Hawthorne, Nathaniel

  Hearst, William Randolph

  Hearst’s International-Cosmopolitan

  Heikes, Lena E.

  Henry Ford’s Own Story (RWL)

  Henry VIII (Shakespeare)

  “Here’s the Farm Loan Plan” (LIW)

  He Was a Man (RWL)

  Hill-Billy (RWL)

  Hirohito, Emperor of Japan

  His Girl Friday (film)

  History of the Conquest of Mexico (Prescott)

  History of the Standard Oil Company (Tarbell)

  Hitler, Adolf

  Hoerner, Berta. See Hader, Berta

  Holbrook, Charlotte “Lottie” (aunt)

  Holbrook, Charlotte Quiner (grandmother)

  Holbrook, Frederick (second husband of Charlotte Quiner)

  Holiday House

  Holtz, William

  Homestead Act (1862)

  Homestead Steel strike

  Hoover, Herbert

  Hoover, J. Edgar

  Horn Book, The

  Hospers, John

  House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

  Howard, Angelina (niece)

  Howard, Laura Wilder (sister-in-law)

  Hoyt, Dr. Robert

  Hugo, Victor

  Huleatt, Thomas

  Hull, Cordell

  hunger

  Hussein, Saddam

  “I, Rose Wilder Lane, Am the Only Truly HAPPY Person” (RWL)

  “If I Could Live My Life Over Again” (RWL)

  Illinois Staats-Zeitung

  “Immoral Woman” (RWL)

  In Cold Blood (Capote)

  “Inconveniences of the Farm Home” (Flournoy)

  Independence, Kansas

  Independence Day

  Independent Fifth Reader

  Indian Removal Act (1830)

  Indians. See also specific tribes

  Indian Territory

  Ingalls, Amanda (daughter of Jedediah)

  Ingalls, Caroline Celestia (sister). See Swanzey, Caroline

  Ingalls, Caroline Lake Quiner (mother)

  births of children

  births of LIW’s children and

  books and

  daughter Mary’s blindness and

  death of

  death of Charles and

  family background of

  health problems of

  homesteading and

  letters to LIW

  Little House TV show and LIW’s depictions of

  LIW’s move to Missouri and

  marriage to Charles Ingalls

  Martha Carpenter on

  Masons and

  religion and

  RWL and

  self-reliance and

  Ingalls, Charles Frederick “Freddy” (brother)

  Ingalls, Charles Phillip (father)

  Almanzo and

  birth and youth of

  births of children and

  Bloody Benders and