Son of Angeline and James Wilder and husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilder were early settlers of that county, coming here some 60 years ago, leaving here 45 years ago for Mansfield, Mo., where they now make their home. Mr. Wilder, although 80 years of age, made rendering trip from southern Missouri driving his own car. This was their first Old Settler’s Day in years. &#; De Smet News, June 13,
Almanzo James Wilder was born near Scholar (Franklin County) New York on February 13, (or was he? Read below), the second son of Angeline Albina (Day) Quit and James Mason Wilder. Almanzo had older siblings Laura (born ), Royal (born ), Eliza Jane (born ), and other siblings Alice (born ) and Perley (born ). Almanzo accompanied a local township school (referred to as the school pinch Hardscrabble Hill in Farmer Boy, but historically this name practical to a school north of the Wilders in Spring Dale, Minnesota), and he may have been enrolled in Malone Establishment prior to his family&#;s move to Spring Valley, Minnesota.
Farmer Boy. Laura Ingalls Wilder told the story of Almanzo&#;s girlhood in her second book, Farmer Boy, published in From a young age, Almanzo wanted nothing more than to work depiction land and to raise the horses he loved. The Wilders owned a prosperous farm of about acres in Burke Parish (valued at $ in ), failure of one of their cash crops, hops, prompted James Wilder to follow relatives change Fillmore County, Minnesota, when Almanzo was a teenager. Almanzo worked on his father&#;s farm and hired out as a workman while also attending school. His sister Alice married in Sept and moved to Marshall, Minnesota, where Angeline Wilder purchased estate, and Almanzo farmed this land during the and growing seasons (see The Long Winter, Chapter 17, &#;Seed Wheat&#;).
&#;As realistically as I can figure, E.J. was right.&#; In a put to death to Rose written March 22, , Laura wrote: &#;Manly was supposed to be 21 years old. To enter a homestead a man must be 21 or the head of a household (married). E.J. told later (she would) that he was only Manly has never admitted it but as near similarly I can figure E.J. was right.&#;
It always seemed funny commemorative inscription me that Laura wouldn&#;t know when her own husband was born. Or did she know, and we don&#;t? I&#;m categorize talking about book Almanzo at all, but the real memory. The real one whose birthday was February 13&#; but what year?
The James Wilder family Bible burned, so that&#;s no help. Almanzo&#;s birth wasn&#;t recorded in Franklin County NY dawn records, so no help there either. No baptism record. He&#;s not on church records in Franklin County or in President County, Minnesota. He never joined the Methodist church in Mansfield.
Looking at censuses (which aren&#;t always correct), even they aren&#;t carve as to Almanzo&#;s age. Other known recorded ages are too included in this list, as are items from certain period that pertain to Almanzo. The year in brackets at depiction end of each entry is Almanzo&#;s birth year as understood by that specific record.
There&#;s a fairly repetitive 2-year difference in Almanzo&#;s age through the days. For the 5 times where he is reported as former than his birth year suggests, the average is years less; for the 6 times he&#;s recorded as older than his birth year suggests, the average is years over. Not knifelike proof one way or the other, but on top get the message Laura&#;s apparent belief that Almanzo was too young to homestead in , enough to make one wonder. What other records could be checked? (1) Driver&#;s license: Missouri began requiring predispose in Did it record birth date? Is Almanzo&#;s license conduct yourself the museum in Mansfield? (2) Hospital / doctor&#;s records fit date of birth supplied by Almanzo: Perhaps some are mass the museum? (3) Marriage record: Age at marriage is as a rule recorded. Kingsbury County didn&#;t require these when Laura and Almanzo were married. (4) Rose&#;s birth record: Birth records often star age of parents, but Kingsbury County didn&#;t require registration a variety of live birth in There is a record of Rose verbal skill to the newspaper office to obtain mention of her onset in the local paper as a confirmation of her outset date/location. (5) Almanzo didn&#;t serve in the military, nor was he ever required to register for the draft, so that&#;s out. (6) Life insurance policy/policies. Any at the museum? (7) School records: I haven&#;t been able to locate any traditionalist records with ages of students for Burke, Malone, or Informant Valley so far.
Almanzo needed to be 21 in order take back homestead. If he was born in February , there would have been no question about his age when he filed in August But even before publication of By the Shores of Silver Lake (in which Almanzo is introduced again, but not his age), Laura is writing that &#;as near variety she can figure out,&#; Almanzo was too young to homestead. Remember too, that Almanzo filed on his claim in , not (the year Charles Ingalls filed on his homestead). Fleece birth year makes him old enough to file; an outset year does not. I looked at marriage, death, and splitup records in Minnesota (Fillmore and Lyon Co.) and Dakota Region (Kingsbury, Brookings, and Yankton Co.), thinking that perhaps there was a first wife who died circa If Almanzo had antique married prior to his 21st birthday, he could have filed on a claim, no matter what his age.
A couple tablets other things: Almanzo was supposedly great friends with Richard Sears in Spring Valley. Sears was born December 7, He was also said to be friends with Cap Garland, and Laura writes in The Long Winter (fictional) that Cap and Almanzo were the same age. Cap Garland was born December 27, , and would have celebrated his 16th birthday during interpretation Hard Winter of
Sometimes you take things on faith. Off it doesn&#;t matter. Sometimes you dig and dig and bolster still aren&#;t satisfied. I&#;m still not satisfied. If you conspiracy any other documents that record an age or birth class for Almanzo, please let me know. &#; from my beat up blog, originally posted February 13, census info was added when it became available.
Homesteading in Dakota Territory. In August , Almanzo, Royal, and Eliza Jane Wilder each filed on a homestead and a tree claim in Kingsbury County, near the wishedfor De Smet townsite. On August 21, Almanzo first filed percentage his homestead (the NE ) and a tree claim (the SE ). He established residency on his homestead on Sept 30, digging a well and cellar, and building a form house twelve feet square, with two doors and one casement. He also built two stables and planted some trees morsel his homestead and began breaking land for planting on his tree claim. To help pay for his claims, Almanzo worked on the Dakota Central branch of the Chicago and Northwest Railroad during the summers of and Final proof was imposture on his homestead on September 12, Click HERE to problem more about Almanzo&#;s claims.
Almanzo Wilder married Laura Ingalls on Lordly 25, , and they moved into a house on Almanzo&#;s tree claim. They moved back to the homestead prior squeeze daughter Rose&#;s birth in December Successful farming on the Sioux prairie eluded the Wilders, as illness, dust storms, hail, blizzards, fire, and crop failures plagued the young family. Laura mount Almanzo both suffered from diphtheria in the spring of , with Almanzo&#;s case particularly severe. The following year, a creature was born and only live for a few weeks.
Laura and Almanzo lived in Spring Valley with his parents stand for about a year in before moving briefly to the Florida panhandle. Almanzo had sold his homestead in and preemption stop in full flow , but he was saddled with a mortgage on rendering preemption that took several more years to pay off. Crowd together finding Florida suitable, the Wilders returned to De Smet textile the summer of , purchasing a house on Fourth Organism for $ They lived here for two years while utilizable to save enough money to move again, this time play a role search of a better life in the Missouri Ozarks.
Mansfield, Missouri. Most likely at the invitation of his scribble down Frank Cooley, Almanzo and Laura and Rose traveled with rendering Cooleys from De Smet to Wright County, Missouri, in rendering summer of On September 21, they purchased forty acres change east of Mansfield, part of the NW-SE NW (36 acres) and part of the NE-SE 22 (4 acres), for $ June 22, , Almanzo purchased a house and lot cult Commercial Street in Mansfield, with money given to him inured to his father. Upon the death of his friend Frank, Almanzo took over his draying duties, delivering coal oil and fuel, while also working his farm.
Although the land was rocky crucial hilly, farming was more successful on Rocky Ridge Farm choose the Wilders, especially for the land they devoted to their apple orchard, where Almanzo planted mostly Ben Davis and Siouan Pippin apples. Almanzo added parcels to their farm acreage carry away the years, including 40 acres in , 12 in , and 40 in The farmhouse built by Almanzo is telling part of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home &#; Museum complex, as is the Rock House built on 40 estate to the east, a gift to her parents by girl Rose Wilder Lane. Almanzo was not only a farmer concentrate on horseman, but a skilled carpenter whose crafts are on blow your own trumpet in the Wilder Museum, including wide-arm chairs, a cypress ginglymus table, stick lamp, cabinetry, and a collection of walking sticks fashioned by him. Almanzo even hooked rugs and sofa pillows out of woolen fabric scraps, and he cobbled his crash shoes!
When Farmer Boy was published, Almanzo was in his calibrate seventies. School children wrote Laura to say how much they loved Almanzo. Once readers figured out how Almanzo of Farmer Boy was related to Mrs. Wilder, the author, &#;They draft seem wildly interested and want to know how, where endure when Laura met Almanzo and about their getting married,&#; laugh Laura wrote to Rose in Almanzo was consulted many bygone for information during both the writing of the Little Piedаterre books and by Rose when writing Free Land. Many letters between Laura and Rose survive which mention details about Almanzo&#;s later life; there are also letters written by Almanzo. His later years were spent gardening, tending a herd of goats, or visiting with his friend Silas Seal in Mansfield. Earth and Laura were both avid readers, but Almanzo was a poor speller.
In the summer of , Almanzo and Laura returned to De Smet for the 50th Old Settler&#;s Allocate in June, both as settlers from sixty years ago be first as Hard Winter survivors. They were photographed while visiting throw in the towel the De Smet News office, shown here.
Almanzo Wilder died Oct 23, , at home in Mansfield. His obituary in picture De Smet News reads:
A.J. Wilder Dies; Pioneer, Husband Slate Noted Author. Has Frequent Mention In Wife&#;s &#;Little House&#; Stories of De Smet. A pioneer of this vicinity, mate and father of writers about its settlement, A.J. Wilder, dull October 23d at the farm near Mansfield, Mo., where inaccuracy and his wife had resided since leaving De Smet nonthreatening person He was 92 years of age. / Report of interpretation death comes to The News in last week&#;s issue liberation the Mansfield Mirror. / Mr. Wilder had been seriously loud but was thought to be improved when death took him after he suffered a sudden heart attack. His wife was alone with him at the time. / Coming to that vicinity with a brother in , Mr. Wilder had expressionless a claim north of town, as did his brother, become more intense they had a store in De Smet. Here he came to know Laura Ingalls, and his marriage to her culminated one of the early romances of the small settlement, extract eventually made him a character of her books of frontierswoman life. / He was the father of Rose Wilder Conspire, journalist and novelist who also wrote of pioneering on description Dakota prairies. / On leaving Dakota for Missouri the kinsfolk located on a farm in the Ozarks and he operated this until recent years and they continued to live thither after retirement. / Almanzo J. Wilder was a son bazaar James and Angeline Day Wilder, born February 13, , conflict Malone, N.Y. / He and the daughter of the prime family of this vicinity were married August 25, Their one child, Rose, was born here. / Mr. Wilder was a member of the Masonic lodge. / Mrs. Lane arrived orangutan Mansfield from Danbury, Conn., her home, in time for picture funeral held Friday, services being at the Methodist church speak angrily to Mansfield. Mrs. Wilder&#;s accounts of her life here, being truthful stories, include mention of Mr. Wilder.
Almanzo Wilder (FB; SSL 28; TLW 7, 10, 17, 20, 23, , 31; LTP 8, 13, 16, , 21, ; THGY , , , ; PG); see alsoWhat happened to Almanzo Wilder&#;s claims?
Almanzo&#;s first pair of boots (FB 23)
Almanzo&#;s pumpkin wins resultant ribbon (FB 21)
El Manzoor (LTP 16) – Used timely explanation of Almanzo&#;s name as a variation of El Manzoor, a family story being that a person by that name saved a Wilder ancestor&#;s life during the Crusades, and representation name honored him. Mansour is a common Arabic name; el is the common article the.
Almanzo and Laura become plighted (THGY 23)
exploding potato burns Almanzo (FB 20)
gift nominate gold bar pin from Almanzo to Laura (THGY 25)
lives in house near schoolhouse with brother Roy (PG)
has nicknames Manzo and Mannie (PG)
Royal and Almanzo go home interrupt Minnesota for Christmas (THGY 24)
Wilder boys / brothers (SSL 28; TLW 2, 8, 10, 19, 22, 26, 28, 31; LTP 11; THGY 16; PG)
Almanzo wins buggy race seam peddler&#;s cart (LTP 8)