Laura Ingalls Wilder Died in a House She No Longer Owned. This Is Where Everything Went. | 1948–2001
Laura Ingalls Wilder died in a house she no longer owned. She and Almanzo sold Rocky Ridge Farm in 1948 and kept only the right to stay until they died. This is the full accounting of what became of everything the Ingalls family left behind. By 1948 there was almost nobody left to leave anything to. Mary was gone. Grace was gone. Carrie was gone. Charles and Caroline had one grandchild who lived to grow up, and that grandchild had buried her own only baby in 1909. So a woman of 81 signed the farm over to a neighbouring couple for two thousand dollars down and fifty a month, and kept one clause for herself. She could stay until the end. Her will left the income from the Little House books to her daughter Rose for life, and after Rose, to the small branch library in Mansfield that carried her name. Rose died in 1968 and left everything to a man not related to her, or to Laura, or to any Ingalls who ever lived. The library received one payment of $28,011 in 1972, then nothing for twenty seven years. In October 1999 it sued. Dim the lights. There is nothing to do here but listen. If you drift off somewhere in the middle, that is exactly what this is for. IN THIS EPISODE Why Laura sold Rocky Ridge Farm and kept the right to die in it Whether any direct descendants of Charles and Caroline Ingalls are alive today What her will said, and what the Mansfield library actually received Where Pa's fiddle is tonight, and why the story of how it got there does not hold up Why the organ displayed as Mary's was built six years after Mary's was bought Who owns Little House on the Prairie now, and when it stops belonging to anyone CHAPTERS 0:00 The Contract on the Kitchen Table, 1948 2:51 Why the Ingalls Family Line Ended 5:53 Are There Any Living Ingalls Descendants 10:00 Forty Acres for $400: Laura Buys the Farm 10:51 The Rock House Rose Built, and Why They Left 13:26 The Letters From Children She Answered 16:22 What Laura Owned the Day She Died 18:41 Rose Buys the Farmhouse Back for $7,500 23:03 The De Smet House Caroline Bought in 1886 26:08 The Surveyors' House, Sold Seven Times 28:45 Pa's Chest of Drawers and Pa's Gun 30:13 The Wisconsin Cabin Nobody Can Find 31:35 Plum Creek and the Thirteen Dollar Loss 33:36 The Dakota Claim and Pa's Five Cottonwoods 36:27 The Farmer Boy Farm at Malone, New York 40:12 The De Smet Pageant, Fifty Summers On 41:52 Mary Ingalls' Organ and the Wrong One on Show 44:09 The Bread Plate That Survived the 1889 Fire 45:24 The Writing Desk and the Hundred Dollar Bill 46:29 The China Shepherdess Problem 48:58 Grace Ingalls' House, Sold by the Slice 51:08 Carrie Ingalls, Who Kept Everything 52:12 Why Only Pa Had a Headstone Until 1958 54:46 Pa's Fiddle: What the Label Inside Says 58:38 Pioneer Girl and the Lost Manuscripts 1:03:27 The Will That Said "My Friend" 1:06:41 The Copyright Clock That Decided It 1:08:34 One Check for $28,011, Then Silence 1:14:33 The Library Sues, October 1999 1:16:05 The $875,000 They Called a Contribution 1:23:19 Who Owns Laura Ingalls Wilder Today 1:24:54 When the Books Enter the Public Domain 1:28:01 The Graves in Two States 1:30:43 What Was Left THE PRAIRIE HOMESTEAD LIBRARY Three designed volumes and two printable bonuses, made to sit beside these stories. Bring a little of this world home. https://prairiesecrets.com THESE LONG NIGHTS RUN ON COFFEE https://buymeacoffee.com/MaazYT https://ko-fi.com/knightslumber If these quiet histories help you rest, subscribe. And tell me in the comments where you are listening from tonight, and what time it is for you. SOURCES Every claim comes from primary records, contemporary press reporting and museum archives. Where the record is unsettled, the narration says so. Publishers Weekly, Wilder Library Sues for Royalties, 18 Oct 1999: publishersweekly.com/pw/print/19991018/27052-wilder-library-sues-for-royalties.html Associated Press, Library board to benefit from royalty settlement, 10 Apr 2001: deseret.com/2001/4/10/19580053 Laura Ingalls Wilder Home Association fiftieth anniversary history, 2007: lauraingallswilderhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2007-Summer.pdf Wilder family deeds and land contracts, 1894 to 1948: historyinink.com/1328023_Laura_Ingalls_Wilder_real_estate_archive.htm Also drawn from the Seattle Times, 18 Dec 1999, the Wilder Papers at the State Historical Society of Missouri, the Pioneer Girl Project, National Register files, De Smet cemetery records, and Caroline Fraser's Prairie Fires. ABOUT Long, slow, carefully researched history for people who would rather fall asleep to something true. No shouting. No invented dialogue. #LauraIngallsWilder #LittleHouseOnThePrairie #historyforsleep #IngallsFamily #americanhistory #history #documentary #youtube #youtubevideo #boringhistory #darkhistory #truestory #bedtimestories Join this channel to get access to perks: / @officalboringhistory
