Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder

LAURA ELIZABETH "Bess" INGALLS WILDER (1867 – 1957) = Pioneer, Schoolteacher, Columnist, Author. Best known for her book called "Little House on the Prairie." The semi-fictional television series starring Michael Landon as Pa and Melissa Gilbert as Laura was based on her autobiographical books written for children. Born on February 7, 1867, in Wisconsin, she was the second child of Charles and Caroline Quiner Ingalls.

When Laura was three, the Ingalls moved to Kansas, traveling through Missouri, to the Verdigris River, ten miles from the present-day town of Independence. Pa built a log home there, near an Indian trail. The following year they moved back to Wisconsin. She didn't come back to Kansas until 1894 when she passed through the state on her way south to Mansfield, Missouri. At that time, Mansfield boasted a Methodist and a Presbyterian church, but not a Congregational one like Laura's Pa had helped organize in DeSmet, SD.

Laura married Almonzo James Wilder (1857-1949) or "Manly" as she called him, in 1885 and homesteaded near De Smet, Dakota Territory. They had two children, a daughter named Rose Wilder Lane (1886-1968), who became a famous journalist after she grew up and a boy who lived only a few weeks. Mama Bess and Manly were married 64 years. Manly passed away at the age of 92 and Laura, three days after she turned 90.

Sunday was a day not only to worship God in church, but also a day to visit with friends pioneer farmers might not see all week. Laura's Pa once gave three dollars to a church bell fund and the Wilders were active in the building of a Methodist Church in Spring Valley, MN in 1876. After coming to Missouri, Laura and Almanzo attended Methodist camp meetings.

A Quote by Laura Ingalls Wilder:

"Our ideal home should be made by a man and woman together."

Manly built this first home for Laura in Mansfield, Missouri. Our Tour Guide is standing on the front porch. 

Interesting Genealogical Fact: Laura was a Mayflower descendant on her paternal (father's) side. 

More to Read: (This is a short list of the books written about Laura Ingalls Wilder.)

1. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House in the Ozarks. Ed. By Stephen W. Hines.

Thomas Nelson, 1991.

2.100 Authors Who Shaped World History. By Christine N. Perkins. 1996.

3. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Fairy Poems. Compiled by: Stephen W. Hines.1998.

4. Who Were They Really? The True Stories Behind Famous Characters. By

Susan Beth Pfeffer. 1999.

5. Visiting the Homesites of Laura Ingalls Wilder with Barb Hawkins VHS.

Camelot Studios, 2000.

6. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Storyteller of the Prairie. by Ginger Wadsworth

7. Little House Traveler: Writings from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Journeys

Across America. By Laura Ingalls Wilder. Harper-Collins; 2006.

8. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Farm Journalist. Ed. By Stephen W Hines. 2007.

Missouri Legends: Famous People from the Show-Me State. By John W.

Brown., 2008.

9. The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Author of The Little House on the Prairie. Donald Zochert. 1976.

10. The Ghost in the Little Hill: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane. William Holtz. 1993.

11. Pamela Smith Hill's website on Laura

12. Pepin, Wisconsin website 

13. Walnut Grove, Minnesota website 

14. Burr Oak, Iowa website

15. DeSmet, South Dakota website

16. Missouri Death Certificate: #11919
17. Findagrave # 1625

Writings by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House in the Big Woods (1932);

Farmer Boy (1933); Little House on the Prairie (1935);On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937); By the Shores of the Silver Lake (1939); The Long Winter (1940);Little Town on the Prairie (1941); These Happy Golden Years (1943); and The First Four Years (1971);

poetry such as  "The Sunshine Fairy"

Book by Rose Wilder Lane: Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework. By Rose Wilder Lane. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1963. 

Listen to: 

49th Annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant: The Hard Winter Radio Play  

For more PBS specials, see this list. 

Remember the little girl who played Laura on TV? Her name was Melissa Gilbert. Check this out: www.modernprairie.com

Places to Visit in MO. & KS:

1. Kansas Travel Guide

2. Missouri Travel Guide

3. Rocky Ridge Farm, 3068 Highway A, Mansfield, MO. 65704

4. Laura Ingalls Wilder Library. Mansfield, MO

5. Mansfield, Mo. Cemetery

6. Little House On the Prairie log house replica, US Hwy 75, Independence, Ks. (13 miles SW of Independence).

Our Field Trip:
I finally found the photo I snapped of the replica of the Ingalls cabin the first weekend of October, 1992. My husband, son, and I were on a weekend holiday to Coffeyville, KS. for the 100th Anniversary of the Dalton Raid on the Banks and we veered over to Independence, KS. to see it on the way down.
My great-grandparents owned a café on Main Street and the Farmers Motel in Coffeyville, in 1892 and were "front row" witnesses to the original bank robberies.

Extras For the (Home) Educator:

1. The History Chicks featured article

2. Laura Ingalls Wilder Frontier Girl website

3. Garden of Praise website on Wilder

4. Here is a Sunbonnet Card inspired by Laura.
5. Homeschooling Unit Study and Lapbook Ideas 
6. A printable Laura Ingalls Wilder quote
7. Kansas Trading Card! 
8. Actress YouTube Interviews - 
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Melissa Gilbert)
Nellie Olson (Alison Amgrim) 
9. Vintage Photographs of the Ingalls family & tombstone photograph of Rose Wilder Lane 

10. Coloring Sheets by Cheryl Harness

Citation: "Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 12 July 2018. History Nut of Missouri, USA. 

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney (1901-1966) = Illustrator. Film-maker. Best known for Mickey & Minnie Mouse and Donald & Daisy Duck. Born to Elias and Flora (Call) Disney in Chicago, Illinois, Walt [named for Rev. Walter Parr (1871-1922) and his father] was their fourth of five children. Walt was brought up in a musical (his dad played the fiddle) and Christian home where he was taught the values of right and wrong.
Financially, life was a struggle for the Disney family and after Walt was born, his family moved from Chicago to the rural town of Marceline, Missouri. As a young farm-boy, he developed an interest in drawing animals.
In 1911, they moved to Kansas City. Young Walt and his brother, Roy, help their father deliver newspapers. He attended school at Benton Elementary, under  Principal William Cottingham's leadership. Then it was back to Chicago where Walt began high school in 1917 and in 1918, he joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corp in France and afterwards, returned first to Chicago and then back to Kansas City in 1919.
Disney had various jobs there such as designing stationery letterheads and advertisements, learning how to make cutout film animations and opening his own companies, however, he was not a financial success and left Kansas City in 1923 for Hollywood, California where he promptly created another company called the Disney Brothers Studio. Disney created Oswald the Rabbit (1927) and Mickey Mouse in "Steamboat Willie" (1928) there. Walt was the voice of Mickey for nearly twenty years of the cartoon. He went on to experiment with Technicolor, a new 3-color process in his films and won Academy Awards for "Flowers and Trees" (1932) and "Snow White" (1937).
Walt married Lillian Marie Bounds (1925) and had two girls, Sharon and Diane. Two years after his death, the US Postal Service issued a 6 cent stamp in his honor.

More to Read:
1. State Historical Society of Missouri, "Walt Disney"
2. Walt Disney Family Museum
3. Disney Family 

4. Just Disney

5. Wikipedia "Walt Disney"

6.  Disney Website
7.  Disney/Hallmark License 
8.  "The Purpose of Storyboarding" video

9. FREE Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Pluto Printable Coloring Sheet
10. Movie Trailer - "Walt Before Mickey" 
11. Norman Besheer, Past President of the Native Sons and Daughters of Greater Kansas City.

12.  A Historic Kansas City Church Beloved by Disney Family is Coming Down Stone by Stone. By Anna Spoerre, Kansas City Star. 2021
13. A Disneyland Brick

14. The Musical World of Walt Disney. By David Tietyen. Hal Leonard Publishing Corp,, Milwaukee, WI, 1990. 

15. Findagrave #284

Craft Idea: Create a Passport Journal. Make a passport to resemble a real one or purchase a small blue blank book at the dollar store or purchase one of the official Disney passports. Make or purchase representative Disney stickers. Handmade stickers can be tiny photos of each of the locations you visited pertaining to him or rubber stamped Disney images . When you have visited all the places pertaining to Disney in Missouri or Kansas, you'll have a keepsake of your trip to keep forever. Added bonuses -- try to find a real Disney postage stamp and obtain autographs of tourist guides to add to your Passport. 

Another Idea: Collect Disney postcards and scrapbook them! Or Disney themed shopping bags. 

Places to Visit in MO & KS:

1. Historical Marker Database (Search "Walt Disney") 
2. Walt Disney Museum, 120 W. Santa Fe, Marceline, MO.

3. Walt Disney United States Post Office Building, 120 E. Ritchie Street, Marceline, MO.

4.  Walk Disney's newspaper route - 27th Street to 31st Street and from Prospect Ave to Indiana Ave. Kansas City. (Approximately 600 to 700 customers then.)

5. Disney Homes - 2706 E. 31st Street and 3028 Bellefontaine St., Kansas City (please respect the privacy of the homeowners).
6. Benton Elementary, 31st and Benton Blvd., Kansas City, MO. 

7. Laugh-O-Gram Studio, McConaughey Building,  1127 E. 31st St (31st and Forest Ave), 2nd floor, Kansas City -- takes money to restore the building for a museum
8. Union Railroad Station (Disney rode a train to California), 30 W. Pershing Rd. Kansas City
9. Disney Store, Oak Park Mall, 11447 W. 95th Street, #L1-S52, Overland Park, KS.

10. Walt Disney's grandparents are buried in Mount Hope Cemetery,  Spruce and East 12th St., Ellis, Ellis County, KS.

Disney Community Service Projects:
1.) Hold a Book Drive for Kids in a Homeless Shelter! 

Citation: "Walt Disney." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 23 November 2017. History Nut of Missouri, USA. 

Daniel Lewis LaRue

 Daniel Lewis LaRue (1867-1934) = Farmer. Stonemason. Born to Amos Tiffin Davis "AT" (1830-1900) and Sarah Ann (Stroud) LaRue (1831-1891), Sr. in Madison County, Indiana on August 22. He was their 7th child of eight and he moved to Burr Oak, Rooks Co., Kansas when he was seven with his parents. His siblings names were: Amos, Jr., Elizabeth, Mary, John William, Jacob, Joseph, and Sarah.

Daniel married twice and had a total of thirteen children. In 1890, he married Amanda Jane (Moon) (1870-1891), daughter of Jonathan D. (1846-1916) and Harriett (Wall) Moon. Amanda died the following year giving birth to Earnest Preston (1891-1972). Daniel, then 22, was unable to care for his newborn son and left the little tyke in his sister, Sarah's (1870-1952) care until he was nine. Four years later, Sarah married Amanda's brother, Linton Henry Moon (1871-1950), producing seven children of her own.

Meanwhile, Daniel met Deliah "Della" E. (1879-1943) in Hebron, Nebraska. She was there caring for her sister, Belle, who had married one of Dan's cousins, Marion LaRue and contracted tuberculosis. Dan & Della tied the knot on August 27, 1898 in Stockton, KS. Della was the daughter of James A. (1828-1903) and Hester Ann (Morris) Bailey (1844-1925) of Stanberry, MO. Since Dan was a stonemason, they moved where there was work. Their first five children were born in a different towns every two years. Eventually, when number six came along, they had reached Hill City, KS where they lived a number of years. In 1920, they moved to Topeka, KS where Ernie was residing at the time.

Following a broken neck caused by a drunk driver in a head-on collision, Daniel died in Bell Memorial Hospital, Kansas City. Both he and Della rest in peace together in the Waverly, Kansas cemetery.

More to Read:

1. Ash Rock Church

2. Captain Osborn's Legacy. By Patsy Redden. (Biography of first pastor of Ash Rock Church, Rev. R. S. Osborn).

3. Ash Rock and the Stone Church. by Leo E. Oliva

4. Woodston: The Story of a Kansas Country Town. by Leo. E. Oliva.

Click to Enlarge.

My great-grandfather repaired the walls of this historic stone church house,

Ash Rock Church (org. 1878; stone bldg. built 1883), near Woodston, Rooks County, Ash Rock Twp., KS. in 1900.

Citation: "Daniel Lewis LaRue." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 6 February 2013. History Nut of Missouri, USA. 

Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon

Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon (1857 - 1946) = Congregational Minister. Author. Magazine Editor. Best known for his book titled "In His Steps," published in 1897. Charles, a P.K. (pastor's kid), was born in Wellsville, New York; one of five children, to Reverend Stewart Sheldon who ministered on the South Dakota prairie.

Charles was educated at the Phillips Academy (graduated 1879), Brown University (BA, 1883) and the Andover Theological Seminary (BD, 1886). He began his ministry in Waterbury, Vermont (1886-1888), then accepted a call to the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas, arriving in 1889.

Sheldon wrote "In His Steps" to create interest in the Sunday night services at Central. It was written, out-of-doors, on the porch of the Author's house, in the month of July, 1896. The story, when finished, was read one chapter at a time instead of a sermon, leaving his audience hanging in suspense when he broke off his narrative for the night. Rev. Sheldon then submitted it to the Advance, a denominational weekly paper printed in Chicago, where it was published as a serial, then in paperback book form. Since then, it has become a Christian classic and sparked the W.W.J.D. (What Would Jesus Do?) Christian marketing fervor a few years ago. A sequel to the book called "Jesus Is Here!" was published in 1913.

During the latter part of his life, he was the editor-in-chief for the Christian Herald (1920-1946), then a contributing editor (1925-1946). He wrote some fifty books and hundreds of articles in religious and secular periodicals as well as poems, hymns, and plays.

As a social gospel reformer, he worked for improvement in many areas: religious reform, basic rights of minorities, better living and working conditions, prohibition and world peace.

More to Read:

1. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Edited by: Reid, Linder, Shelly, & Stout. Intervarsity Press, 1990.

2. A Century of Congregationalism in Kansas; 1854 - 1954. By Charles M. Correll. The McCormick-Armstrong Co, Wichita, KS., 1953

3. Webster’s Biographical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA; 1956. 
4. Kansapedia article on Charles Sheldon

5. Findagrave #6532535

Other books written by Charles M. Sheldon: Richard Bruce (1891), The Crucifixion of Philip Strong (1894); Robert Hardy's Seven Days (1899); In His Steps Today (1896; 1921); The Narrow Gate (1902); All the World (1918).  and his autobiography: Charles M Sheldon, His Life Story (1925).

Citation: "Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon." Written by Dolores J. Rush. 13 October 2010. History Nut of Missouri, USA.