Life In The Town
Laura experienced a wide range of life experiences growing up, which inspired her writing later. She said, “I realized I had seen and lived it all – all the successive phases of the frontier, first the frontiersman, then the pioneer, then the farmers and the towns.” The family lived on the city’s outskirts, where they made their best effort to survive and make money.
Laura had to take greater responsibility for her family during this time, as she was taking care of her sister Mary, who, before they came to De Smet, had gone blind. In her books, Ingalls claimed it was caused by scarlet fever. But a 2013 study revealed Mary had gone blind from a brain disease. Dealing with “acts of God” was a fact of life back then, and the family had its share.
