Why You Need To Visit Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Husbands House?
Once upon a time, many many years ago… We had a simpler life. No cell phones! No Internet! No TV! But it was a hard life. From morning until night, and even in the middle of the night, there was work to do. It was not just the adults that had to work but children as well. The Wilder Homestead is the perfect place to see what an Middle Class Farming Family’s lifestyle was like in upper New York state during the 1840’s.
The Almanzo Wilder Homestead is located at 177 Stacy Road, Malone, NY 12953. It was the boyhood home of Almanzo Wilder who was Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband. Laura Ingalls Wilder is best know for her Little House on the Prairie books series. But visit sooner than later, I understand that her award has been renamed due to her literature being derogatory against Native and African Americans. (See Brief History below for more information.)
The tour of the place was a wonderful step back into history. If you have children, this is a great place to show them what the old days really were like. Just the fact that Almanzo had to walk to school was one thing. But the tour guides list of chores that Almanzo and his sibling had to do. The tour also shows the lack of privacy and toys that children once had.
The house is original and had been lived in even after Almanzo family left. But it was the same house that Almanzo lived in as a boy. Laura Ingalls Wilder would make it famous when she wrote Farmer Boy based on her husband’s memories of his childhood.
The historians that redid and furnished the house to fit what it might have looked like according to the book. They have even found evidence of the fight between Almanzo and his sister. Ask about it when you get to the house if the tour guide forgets to tell you!
The barn was burnt down during Almanzo’s time and was rebuilt but burned down once again. The historians recreated it based on drawings and other information. The Homestead is mostly whole as it was purchased by a relative of Almanzo’s and the Almanzo & Laura Ingalls Wilder Association has developed it into an interactive educational center, museum, and working farm. In addition, they have built a school house on the property that would have been like the one that Almanzo would have gone too.
The tour started in the barns and then went to the house. The gift shop/Museum was great with all the books that you can buy which were written by Laura and about Laura. Plus some great craft ideas from back in the day. They also have a path down to the river which I did not have time to take as the weather looked like it might come in.
The tour starts at several different times so check the web site to ensure that you get their on a timely basis and possible call ahead to make advanced reservations during the busy season. The hours open change during the year and the days that they are open.
Even though she never saw this place, it is were her husband was raised. During that period of history, her husband could have stopped her from publishing. We are very lucky that he was an education and forward thinking male. This homestead help him develop into that man who allowed her to be more than just a wife and mother!
I was so looking forward to visiting the Laura Ingalls Wilder’s homes in the west. It was wonderful to stubble across this one. As due to the extreme heat this summer, I real just had to stay indoors. I was wonderful to find this place on my trip up to New York. I just wish that I had been walking in Laura’s shoe steps!
Brief History
Laura Ingalls Wilder was an American writer who is best know for her Little House on the Prairie series of Children’s Books. These books were published between 1932 and 1943. The books themselves are based on stories from her childhood as a settler and a pioneer. Although the stories are not all completely true, i.e. one of Almonzo’s sisters was not talked about in Farm Boy and Nellie Olsen was several different people not just one. Laura was able to take us to places that we only heard about from history.
Recently, the prestigious Laura Ingalls Wilder Award was renamed over racial insensitivities in her books. The award was for substantial and lasting contributions to children’s literature. Laura’s books have depiction of Native and Africa Americans that don’t fit with today’s standards. Laura has become part of our cancel culture.
I personal don’t understand this but with her books coming off of the list of awarded authors on the Children’s Literature Awards, the historical sites might lose funding and visitors due to this. But to me it would be the same as taking Jane Austin books out of circulation due to the fact that the females are being treated like second class citizens. Both authors are just talking about what they saw and experience in their worlds. Worlds that are very different with belief systems and values that we no longer hold.
But both are teaching very important historical content to the current generation of people who read them. It would be better to add a prehistory chapter to the books to ensure that those that are reading them understand the reasons behind why these authors discuss and talk about persons, situations, and other items that are offensive now vs not at the time the books where written. For example, Laura was negative about Native Americans because during her time it was still living memories of them killing settlers on the prairie.
At the same time, Native Americans should have been at war with the settlers as they were stealing Native Americans land, killing them with blankets full of small pox, killing buffalos which was making Natives starve to death, outright killing them, and so many other bad things. But rewriting history and taking away awards, statues, and other historical facts will not help us. Education is the only thing that will help us move on not taking out history.
We are repeating and being condemned with McCarthyism as we take literature out of circulation, statues down, cancel people out due to their opinions, and rewriting history. Hitler did these things as he took control of Germany, i.e. book burnings, concentration camps for those that opposed him, and rewriting history.
1984 by George Orwell shows how to control people in this manner and what is scary is that the Cancel Culture is doing it here in America. George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, was credited with, “Those who can’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Winston Churchill, British Statesman during World War II, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”