[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement:
Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor
of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users'
privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your
privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket
to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we
also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.
Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
[ Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message ]
Date Posted: 18:55:45 06/11/03 Wed
Author: Ann
Subject: The LH at DeSmet
What ever happened with Pa's claim in DeSmet? Did they lose it because they didn't "own up" (or whatever that term was) in 5 years? Did they sell it because they just weren't earning a living there and stayed in town permenantly? When did they sell (or lose) it?
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Replies:
[>
Re: The LH at DeSmet -- Ellie, 14:29:26 06/12/03 Thu
I have just read "Becoming Laura Ingalls Wilder". It doesn't say why (but I imagine that Pa's crops suffered in much the same way as Laura's and Almanzo's did during that time), but Pa and Ma quit farming and moved to town just before Christmas 1887. Thereafter he earned money by carpentering and doing odd jobs. He was a jp, town clerk, deputy sheriff, street commissioner and school board member (maybe not all at the same time!) They remained in the house in third street until they died.
Pa would have proved his claim a couple of years before they moved, so I imagine he sold it at some time, but probably not for very much money.
[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]
[>
Re: The LH at DeSmet -- Lili, 21:01:04 06/12/03 Thu
I read that it became to hard for Pa, physically that is, to maintain such a farm. Thats just what I read somewhere. No idea if it's true or not.
[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]
[>
Re: The LH at DeSmet -- Ann, 11:59:37 06/13/03 Fri
Thanks, Lili and Ellie. I wonder who bought it and if they were successful at all. I think now it is just prairie again, so I guess no one made a lasting success of it or someone would be farming there. Or maybe it is still vacant because it has been preserved?
[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]
[> [>
Ingalls Homestead -- long! -- nancy, 12:49:25 06/13/03 Fri
Pa proved up on his homestead in 1886. Although the family moved to town in 1887, Pa kept the homestead and farmed it until 1892, when he sold it for $1,200. Homestead law only said that they had to live there 6 months per year until final proof, which is why it was perfectly okay to have another place in town to live during the winter.
The land was farmed until 5 or so years ago, mostly in hay. It's now "Ingalls Homestead - Laura's Living Prairie," a wonderful site!! See www.ingallshomestead.com. If you saw the Travel Channel show about LH filmed last summer, Dean Butler was driving a wagon on the homestead. The owner of the homestead farms only a small portion now (the amount of land Pa said he originally plowed), which is planted in corn, oats, and wheat - using horses. There is a replica shanty on the spot Laura wrote the house stood -- NOT on the hill in the corner, but on a low rise to the east of it. The land is also being replanted with native grasses. There are horses, cows, kittens in the hayloft. Kids go wild there, since it's the total opposite of the "don't touch" Surveyor's house and Third Street house in town.
Oh, just go look at the homestead website (g), or at www.dakotagirl.com. There are some great pictures there.
Sorry to be such a lurker. The homestead is my favorite LH site, so I had to crawl out from under my rock to speak up!!
--nancy
[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]
[> [> [>
Thank you, Nancy! -- Ann, 16:30:27 06/13/03 Fri
I went to the site, and it was great! I want to go there in person some day! For some reason, maybe a book that is out of date, I thought there was nothing much there, but the reproduction of house, and the school, and the people in costume and everything--wow!
[ Post a Reply to This Message ]
[ Edit | View ]
