Next Stop on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Route: Spring Valley, Minnesota (2024)
13Sep20184 Comments
by Betty Huffmanin Life Style Adjustments, Minnesota, Retirement, RV-ing, Traveling, UncategorizedTags: Almanzo Wilder, James and Angeline Wilder family, Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, Life Stages, Minnesota, Retirement, RV Travels, Spring Valley Cemetery, Spring Valley Methodist Church Museum, Spring Valley Minnesota, Travel, Traveling, Wilder Family Barn
As a child, the Ingalls family moved around a lot for various reasons. Here is a list of places and dates (years only) where the Ingalls lived. This list also includes the places Laura and her husband, Almanzo, lived.
1867: Pepin, Wisconsin
1869: Independence, Kansas
1871: Pepin, Wisconsin
1874: Walnut Grove, Minnesota
1876: Burr Oak, Iowa
1877: Walnut Grove, Minnesota
1879: DeSmet, South Dakota (in 1881 Laura’s sister, Mary, moves to Vinton, Iowa, to attend the school for the blind located there)
1885: Laura marries Almanzo Wilder in DeSmet, South Dakota
1890-1891: Laura, Almanzo, and daughter, Rose, move to Spring Valley, Minnesota, then to Westville, Florida, because of Almanzo’s health
1892: Laura and family move back to DeSmet, South Dakota
1894: Laura and family move to Mansfield, Missouri (1949: Almanzo dies; 1957: Laura dies. Both are buried in Mansfield, Missouri.)
We did not visit the places where Laura lived in chronological order. I decided to just blog about the places we visited in the order in which we visited them. So, our next visit was to Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Spring Valley, Minnesota, is where Laura Ingalls’s husband, Almanzo Wilder, spent the last part of his childhood. Almanzo was born in Burke, New York, on February 13, 1857. His parents (James and Angeline Wilder) and family moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota, in 1870 when he was thirteen years old to establish a farm. Spring Valley’s historical significance mostly centers around the Wilder family, however, as you can see from the chronological list of places where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived (above), she and Almanzo did live there for a short time.
The Wilder family attended Spring Valley Methodist Church. As early as 1858, the church began raising money toward a building while they met regularly in an upstairs hall in town. Construction on the church finally started in 1876 when the lot on West Courtland Street was purchased. James Wilder was among the early contributors. His pledge of $50 was one of the largest amounts.
Church records show that pastors or presiding elders baptized and performed marriage rites for Almanzo’s two sisters (Eliza Jane Wilder and Laura Ann Wilder). Records also show that Almanzo and Laura (Ingalls) Wilder attended there in 1890 and 1891.
The church’s Victorian-Gothic architecture showcases 21 stained glass windows (Italian stained glass, circa 1715) and beautiful wooden arches and moldings. The church is now a museum which offers guided tours for a nominal fee.
The floor which was the sanctuary is filled with a vast array of church memorabilia from the late 1800s and early 1900s. It also has several board displays with information pertaining to the Wilder family and when Laura and Almanzo lived in Spring Valley. The tour guides are VERY knowledgeable and the tour was fascinating.
You can see just a FEW of the boards with information about the Wilder family on them. Our guide took us around all the boards and told us all about the Wilder family and Laura and Almanzo.
The basem*nt level of the church contains a multitude of varied displays the town’s history. It is by FAR one of the best displays of late 1800s through mid 1900s relics we have ever seen. Some of the things we saw were: an 1874 fire truck wagon, an old chicken incubator that heats with kerosene, a “summer” oven and stove that also heats with kerosene, an old fire extinguisher in the shape of a very large light bulb filled with a chemical to put out a kitchen fire, an old electric permanent wave machine, an astonishing collection of old cameras, and I could go on and on!!
I will just let these pictures do the rest of the “talking,” and you can see for yourself.
A picture of the Wilder boys (L. to R.: Perley, Royal, and Almanzo) taken in 1891. There were a lot more pictures of the Wilder family in the museum, but this place really didn’t want you taking pictures of the pictures (unless one of your party was standing next to the picture). I guess they just want you to come by and tour the museum yourself some day.
The Wilder’s barn and farm property. The barn is scheduled to be torn down soon (what a shame!) because the present-day owners cannot get insurance for it.
After we left the church, we drove around the town. There were some interesting old buildings in the historic downtown area. There were also some beautiful old homes.
We drove out to the Spring Valley Cemetery where we were told some of the Wilders were buried. We found Almanzo’s brother, Royal’s, grave site, but didn’t find any of the others. Most of the original headstones were difficult to read from age and some kind of fungus or moss-type stuff growing on them. It looked as though Royal’s gravestone had been replaced.
After that, we headed home to the RV.
We will be taking another trip on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Route soon.
Spring Valley is a town where Almanzo Wilder's family lived for many years. It's also where Laura, Almanzo, and their young daughter Grace lived while they were recovering from some really hard times described in The First Four Years.
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." Pa Ingalls sat down with his fiddle and sang this tune one evening at his family's home on the outskirts of Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Laura Ingalls lived 1.5 miles north of Walnut Grove along the banks of Plum Creek from 1874 to 1876. Charles and Caroline Ingalls settled on the property in May 1874, declaring their intent to homestead it.
In 1995, Minnesota and surrounding states designated U.S. Route 14 as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, to mark the family's path. On a map, it seems like a simple journey — almost a straight shot from Pepin, Wis. to De Smet, S.D.: 300 miles and change. But the highway markers only tell a piece of the story.
Author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived on Plum Creek near Walnut Grove in the 1870's. Eight buildings make up the Museum grounds telling the history of the Ingalls Family and other pioneers to Walnut Grove. Life sized Dugout is a great hands-on exhibit.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder House is a historic house museum at 3060 Highway A in Mansfield, Missouri. Also known as Rocky Ridge Farm, it was the home of author Laura Ingalls Wilder from 1896 until her death in 1957. The author of the Little House on the Prairie series, Wilder began writing the series while living there.
Independence, Kansas, is the location where the Ingalls family settled on the Osage Diminished Reserve from 1869 to 1870, and was at the center of the plot of the book, Little House on the Prairie. Within a year of settling, the government required the family to vacate, and they never returned.
In addition, the ranch's extensive grounds allowed for the construction of several iconic sets, including the Ingalls family home and the town's church. Today, the ranch is open to visitors, who can explore the filming locations and learn more about the history of the Little House on the Prairie TV show.
Wilder was founded in 1885. It was named for Amherst Holcomb Wilder, a railroad official. Wilder was incorporated as a city in 1899. A post office was established in Wilder in 1886, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1991.
Plum Creek is a 35.4-mile-long (57.0 km) stream near the city of Walnut Grove, Minnesota. It passes to the northwest of the town, flowing northeasterly to the Cottonwood River, with its waters then flowing to the Minnesota River and eventually the Mississippi River.
They moved there from Wisconsin when Ingalls was about seven years old, after briefly living with the family of her uncle, Peter Ingalls, first in Wisconsin and then on rented land near Lake City, Minnesota.
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls in Wisconsin in 1867. While she was growing up, her family moved several times before settling on 160 acres of homesteading land in South Dakota. Besides Wisconsin, They also lived in Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota before becoming homesteaders.
De Smet Cemetery is a cemetery located southwest of the town of De Smet in Kingsbury County, South Dakota, United States. Numerous family members from the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books are buried there.
After promising his wife, Caroline, that the family would finally settle in one place, it was in 1879 that Ingalls decided to stay in De Smet, Dakota Territory following their move from Minnesota. The first winter after arriving in De Smet, the family lived in what was known as the surveyor's house.
The Historic Farmhouse. As visitors make their trek to the historic Rocky Ridge Farm, the first sight they'll see is Laura's and Almanzo's beloved farmhouse. It remains as it was in 1957 and stands as an official project of the Save America's Treasures National Trust for Historical Preservation.
Wilder settled on his homestead with the intent of planting acres of seed wheat which he had cultivated the previous summer on rented shares in Marshall, Minnesota. It was in De Smet that he first met Laura Ingalls.
Introduction: My name is Velia Krajcik, I am a handsome, clean, lucky, gleaming, magnificent, proud, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
