Laura Ingalls Wilder Program

Come find out about Laura Ingalls Wilder, pioneer and author of the “Little House” books! Glenda Ferguson will present a program for all ages which will take you through the facts and fiction of Laura’s childhood as a pioneer and how Laura the author came to write her books.

Glenda Ferguson, a retired teacher from Paoli, grew up in Chamois, Missouri, and graduated from College of the Ozarks and Indiana University/Bloomington. While teaching fourth grade at Mitchell Community Schools, she received a Lilly Teacher Creativity Fellowship for her project “A Little House Journey,” traveling across the Midwest to all the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family lived. She documented her travels with a daily journal, photographs and postcards, which will be included in her display. During her presentation, Glenda will show photos of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum sites, including those in Wisconsin, Kansas, Minnesota and Missouri.

The audience can participate in an impromptu “Pioneer Girl” reader’s theater. Laura Ingalls Wilder published her “Little House” books between 1932 and 1943, which told about her and the rest of the Ingalls family living as pioneers in unsettled territories. When Laura married Almanzo Wilder, they bought land in southern Missouri. She stayed on the property for the rest of her life, living by the same principles she wrote and talked about: “The real things haven’t changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures; and have courage when things go wrong.”