By the Shores of Silver Lake
Encyclopedia
By the Shores of Silver Lake, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
, was first published in 1939 and is the fifth of nine books written in her Little House on the Prairie
series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book begins when Laura is twelve years old and the family moves to what will become De Smet, South Dakota
, from Plum Creek, Minnesota
. In this novel, Laura's age spans from almost thirteen to thirteen. After moving to the Dakota Territory, the family first lives with relatives in a railroad camp, where Pa works as the storekeeper. They spend the winter in the surveyors' house to watch the equipment, and in the spring Pa gets a claim. While he is building a shelter there, the family lives in town in a house Pa built of leftover railroad lumber. As soon as the claim shanty is in place, the family moves into it, although they return to town during the winter until the claim shanty is fully weatherized some five years in the future.
Though Wilder began writing the books as autobiographical recollections, they are considered historical fiction and have won a number of literary awards. By the Shores of Silver Lake was awarded a Newbery Honor
award in 1940 for exceptional children’s literature. The enduring popularity of the Little House books has inspired additional book series encompassing more generations of Wilder’s family as well as a long-running television series in the late 1970s that is still in syndication and available on DVD.
, beginning in 1879. The book also introduces Laura's youngest sister Grace Pearl
. Sadly, in the beginning their beloved dog Jack dies of old age. Laura meets her cousin Lena Waldvogel who becomes her good friend (Lena was the daughter of Laura’s Aunt Docia, who married August Waldvogel). Because her sister Mary is blind due to an illness, Laura also acts as Mary’s eyes and becomes kinder and more mature through this service. When they first move to the railroad camp, the Ingalls stay in a railroad shanty, and the following spring they are able to stake a claim of their own. Also her father gets offered a job in the west by his sister.
The family travels to Dakota Territory by train—this is the children's first train trip and they are excited by the novelty of this new-fangled mode of transportation. In an hour they cover the distance it would take a horse and wagon a day to cover. Upon arrival, they go to the hotel to eat and await Pa.
Winter approaches, and the railroad workers take down the cabins for transport and go back East. Pa had found a piece of land on which he wanted to stake his claim in the spring, and as a result he wishes to remain behind in order to file a claim on the land as soon as the land office opens again in spring. Fortunately, the surveyors, who had planned to stay in their home all winter, are called back East also and ask the Ingalls to remain in their house in exchange for keeping watch over their surveying equipment
. Soon afterward Pa goes to file his claim, but two men want the same piece. Mr. Edwards (an old friend of the Ingalls) holds them back while Mr. Ingalls files his claim.
While Pa is gone, people emigrating west stop at the surveyors' house on their way to their eventual claims. Ma charges money for the service, and in the end has a little over $42. This money is later used to help send Mary to the college for the blind in Iowa. Pa uses leftover lumber from the railroad to build a house in the new town, because the surveyors are returning and will need the house in which the Ingalls have been living. Though Pa has been awarded his own claim, he needs time to build a house on it, so the family stays in the house in town until the claim shanty is finished, and during the harsh winters when it is too cold to remain in an uninsulated shanty.
in 1862. This act divided unsettled land into sections, and heads of households could file a claim for very little money. A section was 1 square miles (2.6 km²), and a claim was ¼ of a section. 36 sections made a township. A section was identified by three numbers, for example NW quarter of Section 18, Township 109, Range 38. By paying $10.00 plus other filing fees, a man could get 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of land for his use if he could live on it for 5 years and not give up to go back east. The Ingalls’ staked one claim near Plum Creek. In the spring of 1880, Charles Ingalls filed a homestead claim south of De Smet for the NE quarter of Section 3, Township 110, Range 56.
A few details in By the Shores of Silver Lake differ from accounts in more autobiographical sources. For example, it seems that Laura never actually visited the railroad grade, but in the book she went to the grade with her father. Laura also wrote the surveyors had food in the house when they moved in and let the Ingalls have it. However, other sources are contradictory and it is unclear whether Pa had to buy the supplies for winter.
At age 18 Laura married Almanzo Wilder
. A year of Almanzo’s childhood in rural New York is memorialized in her second book, Farmer Boy
. Together they homesteaded and raised horses, which Almanzo loved. They had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane
, and lost a son in infancy. Rose grew up to become an author, among other things. Laura wrote over the years in the form of essays and articles for newspapers and magazines, mostly articles related to homesteading. Laura wrote out the manuscript for each of her books by hand, and Rose helped her type and edit them. The well-known illustrations by Garth Williams appeared in the revised editions about 20 years later.
The bodies of Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls, and the unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder
are buried in the De Smet Cemetery. Laura and Almanzo Wilder stayed briefly in Westville, Florida
in the 1890s.
Today, De Smet
, South Dakota
, attracts many fans with its historic sites from the books By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter
, Little Town on the Prairie
, These Happy Golden Years
, and The First Four Years
. From 1879 to 1894 the Ingalls family lived in De Smet and the family homestead, a house in town built by Charles Ingalls, the Brewster School where Laura taught, and the surveyor's home the family lived in between 1879 and 1880 are open to visitors.
In addition to the Little House
books, four series of books expand the Little House series to include five generations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family. The success of the Little House series has produced many related books including two series ("Little House Chapter Books" and "My First Little House Books") that present the original stories in condensed and simplified form for younger readers. Additional series have been written to tell the stories of Laura’s mother, “The Caroline Years,” her grandmother, "The Charlotte Years," her great-grandmother, “The Martha Years,” and her daughter, “The Rose Years.” There are also Little House themed craft, music, and cookbooks.
The Little House on the Prairie television series
was loosely based on the Little House books. A total of 203 episodes were produced and originally aired on NBC from 1974 to 1982. Pa was played by Michael Landon, Ma by Karen Grassle, Laura by Melissa Gilbert, Mary by Melissa Sue Anderson, and Carrie by identical twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. The series remains popular in syndication and has been released on DVD.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder was an American author who wrote the Little House series of books based on her childhood in a pioneer family...
, was first published in 1939 and is the fifth of nine books written in her Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie
Little House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book begins when Laura is twelve years old and the family moves to what will become De Smet, South Dakota
De Smet, South Dakota
-External links:* * * * *...
, from Plum Creek, Minnesota
Plum Creek (Redwood County, Minnesota)
Plum Creek of Redwood County, Minnesota, is a stream in Minnesota, near the city of Walnut Grove. It goes to the northwest from the town. It lends its name to a regional library network.-History:...
. In this novel, Laura's age spans from almost thirteen to thirteen. After moving to the Dakota Territory, the family first lives with relatives in a railroad camp, where Pa works as the storekeeper. They spend the winter in the surveyors' house to watch the equipment, and in the spring Pa gets a claim. While he is building a shelter there, the family lives in town in a house Pa built of leftover railroad lumber. As soon as the claim shanty is in place, the family moves into it, although they return to town during the winter until the claim shanty is fully weatherized some five years in the future.
Though Wilder began writing the books as autobiographical recollections, they are considered historical fiction and have won a number of literary awards. By the Shores of Silver Lake was awarded a Newbery Honor
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
award in 1940 for exceptional children’s literature. The enduring popularity of the Little House books has inspired additional book series encompassing more generations of Wilder’s family as well as a long-running television series in the late 1970s that is still in syndication and available on DVD.
Story
By the Shores of Silver Lake is based on Laura's late childhood spent near De Smet, South DakotaDe Smet, South Dakota
-External links:* * * * *...
, beginning in 1879. The book also introduces Laura's youngest sister Grace Pearl
Grace Ingalls
Grace Pearl Ingalls Dow was the fifth and last child of Caroline and Charles Ingalls. She was the youngest sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for her Little House on the Prairie books.-Biography:...
. Sadly, in the beginning their beloved dog Jack dies of old age. Laura meets her cousin Lena Waldvogel who becomes her good friend (Lena was the daughter of Laura’s Aunt Docia, who married August Waldvogel). Because her sister Mary is blind due to an illness, Laura also acts as Mary’s eyes and becomes kinder and more mature through this service. When they first move to the railroad camp, the Ingalls stay in a railroad shanty, and the following spring they are able to stake a claim of their own. Also her father gets offered a job in the west by his sister.
Moving to Dakota territory
By the Shores of Silver Lake begins when the family is about to leave Plum Creek, shortly after the family has recovered from the scarlet fever which caused Mary to become blind. The family welcomes a visit from Aunt Docia, whom they had not seen for several years. She suggests that Pa and Ma move out west to Dakota Territory, where Pa would work in Uncle Henry’s railroad camp. Ma and Pa agree, because then Pa can look for a homestead while he works. Since Mary is too weak to travel, Pa goes ahead with the wagon and team, and the rest of the family follows later by train. The day Pa leaves, however, their beloved bulldog Jack is found dead, which saddens Laura greatly. (The dog upon whom Jack was based was no longer with the family at that point, but the author inserted his death here to serve as a transition between her childhood and her adolescence.)The family travels to Dakota Territory by train—this is the children's first train trip and they are excited by the novelty of this new-fangled mode of transportation. In an hour they cover the distance it would take a horse and wagon a day to cover. Upon arrival, they go to the hotel to eat and await Pa.
Life in the railroad camp
Pa shows up within the hour, and they leave for the railroad camp. There, Laura meets her cousin Lena, and she and Laura bunk together for the time that the Ingalls family spends with them. Laura and Lena play together when they are done with their chores, which range from collecting laundry cleaned by a neighbor to milking cows; Laura rides Lena's pony, the first time she has ever ridden a horse.Winter approaches, and the railroad workers take down the cabins for transport and go back East. Pa had found a piece of land on which he wanted to stake his claim in the spring, and as a result he wishes to remain behind in order to file a claim on the land as soon as the land office opens again in spring. Fortunately, the surveyors, who had planned to stay in their home all winter, are called back East also and ask the Ingalls to remain in their house in exchange for keeping watch over their surveying equipment
A new claim, a new house
So the family moves, and Laura feels that no one could be as excited as she to be moving into a beautiful house. Winter comes, and one night when Pa is playing the fiddle, Mr. and Mrs. Boast arrive in the middle of a snowstorm; they are migrating West but were caught by the bad weather. They stay past Christmas, and at New Years the Ingalls travel to the Boast’s for dinner. To pass time, Mrs Boast shares her collection of newspapers with Laura and shows the Ingalls family how to make a what-notWhat-not
A what-not is a piece of furniture derived from the French étagère, which was exceedingly popular in England in the first three-quarters of the 19th century. It usually consists of slender uprights or pillars, supporting a series of shelves for holding china, ornaments, trifles, or what not, hence...
. Soon afterward Pa goes to file his claim, but two men want the same piece. Mr. Edwards (an old friend of the Ingalls) holds them back while Mr. Ingalls files his claim.
While Pa is gone, people emigrating west stop at the surveyors' house on their way to their eventual claims. Ma charges money for the service, and in the end has a little over $42. This money is later used to help send Mary to the college for the blind in Iowa. Pa uses leftover lumber from the railroad to build a house in the new town, because the surveyors are returning and will need the house in which the Ingalls have been living. Though Pa has been awarded his own claim, he needs time to build a house on it, so the family stays in the house in town until the claim shanty is finished, and during the harsh winters when it is too cold to remain in an uninsulated shanty.
Historical background
To encourage settlement of the mid-west part of the United States, Congress passed the Homestead ActHomestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
in 1862. This act divided unsettled land into sections, and heads of households could file a claim for very little money. A section was 1 square miles (2.6 km²), and a claim was ¼ of a section. 36 sections made a township. A section was identified by three numbers, for example NW quarter of Section 18, Township 109, Range 38. By paying $10.00 plus other filing fees, a man could get 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of land for his use if he could live on it for 5 years and not give up to go back east. The Ingalls’ staked one claim near Plum Creek. In the spring of 1880, Charles Ingalls filed a homestead claim south of De Smet for the NE quarter of Section 3, Township 110, Range 56.
A few details in By the Shores of Silver Lake differ from accounts in more autobiographical sources. For example, it seems that Laura never actually visited the railroad grade, but in the book she went to the grade with her father. Laura also wrote the surveyors had food in the house when they moved in and let the Ingalls have it. However, other sources are contradictory and it is unclear whether Pa had to buy the supplies for winter.
At age 18 Laura married Almanzo Wilder
Almanzo Wilder
Almanzo James Wilder was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted U.S. writers.- Early life :...
. A year of Almanzo’s childhood in rural New York is memorialized in her second book, Farmer Boy
Farmer Boy
Farmer Boy is a children's historical novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder. First published in 1933, it is the second book in the nine part Little House series, also known as "The Laura Years"...
. Together they homesteaded and raised horses, which Almanzo loved. They had one daughter, Rose Wilder Lane
Rose Wilder Lane
Rose Wilder Lane was an American journalist, travel writer, novelist, and political theorist...
, and lost a son in infancy. Rose grew up to become an author, among other things. Laura wrote over the years in the form of essays and articles for newspapers and magazines, mostly articles related to homesteading. Laura wrote out the manuscript for each of her books by hand, and Rose helped her type and edit them. The well-known illustrations by Garth Williams appeared in the revised editions about 20 years later.
The bodies of Charles, Caroline, Mary, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls, and the unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder
Almanzo Wilder
Almanzo James Wilder was the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder and father of Rose Wilder Lane, both noted U.S. writers.- Early life :...
are buried in the De Smet Cemetery. Laura and Almanzo Wilder stayed briefly in Westville, Florida
Westville, Florida
Westville is a town in Holmes County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 221. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the town had a population of 225.According to Westville town Census 2010 results, the population of the area was...
in the 1890s.
Modern Influence
De Smet, South Dakota
-External links:* * * * *...
, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, attracts many fans with its historic sites from the books By the Shores of Silver Lake, The Long Winter
The Long Winter (novel)
The Long Winter is a Newbery Honor novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder, first published in 1940. The story is set in South Dakota during the severe winter of 1880-1881, when Laura turned fourteen...
, Little Town on the Prairie
Little Town on the Prairie
Little Town on the Prairie, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was first published in 1941 and is the seventh of nine books written in her Little House series, also known as "The Laura Years." The book is set in De Smet, South Dakota...
, These Happy Golden Years
These Happy Golden Years
These Happy Golden Years, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, was published in 1943 and is the eighth of nine books written in her Little House series, also known as The Laura Years. This book is based on Laura's adolescence near De Smet, South Dakota, in the late 19th century, and focuses on Laura's short...
, and The First Four Years
The First Four Years
The First Four Years is a compilation of early songs by the American hardcore punk band Black Flag recorded before Henry Rollins became the band's vocalist in 1981...
. From 1879 to 1894 the Ingalls family lived in De Smet and the family homestead, a house in town built by Charles Ingalls, the Brewster School where Laura taught, and the surveyor's home the family lived in between 1879 and 1880 are open to visitors.
In addition to the Little House
Little House on the Prairie
Little House is a series of children's books by Laura Ingalls Wilder that was published originally between 1932 and 1943, with four additional books published posthumously, in 1962, 1971, 1974 and 2006.-History:...
books, four series of books expand the Little House series to include five generations of Laura Ingalls Wilder's family. The success of the Little House series has produced many related books including two series ("Little House Chapter Books" and "My First Little House Books") that present the original stories in condensed and simplified form for younger readers. Additional series have been written to tell the stories of Laura’s mother, “The Caroline Years,” her grandmother, "The Charlotte Years," her great-grandmother, “The Martha Years,” and her daughter, “The Rose Years.” There are also Little House themed craft, music, and cookbooks.
The Little House on the Prairie television series
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
was loosely based on the Little House books. A total of 203 episodes were produced and originally aired on NBC from 1974 to 1982. Pa was played by Michael Landon, Ma by Karen Grassle, Laura by Melissa Gilbert, Mary by Melissa Sue Anderson, and Carrie by identical twins Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush. The series remains popular in syndication and has been released on DVD.
External links
- Rock Pickle Publishing – a Historic Children’s Book website with reviews, publication history, photos of original covers, etc.
- Fact and fiction of Laura Ingalls Wilder from A to Z
- List of real life individuals from the Little House books