By Fred Noer
Contributor
The historical significance of the name Ingalls in American literature and in the Walworth area was emphasized April 23 during the Historical Society of Walworth and Big Foot Prairie’s annual dinner at Lake Lawn Resort in Delavan.
Although much attention was placed on “Little House on the Prairie” author Laura Ingalls Wilder, the 83 people in the audience also learned about her distant ancestors who were prominent residents of Walworth Township. The information was presented in a two-part program by Jennifer Van Haaften and Susan Ingalls Anderson.
Van Haaften, associate director of Old World Wisconsin near Eagle, was dressed in a costume similar to what Ingalls Wilder would have worn in 1911 when she was 44-years-old and had begun writing articles for The Missouri Ruralist. Van Haaften read excerpts from Ingalls Wilder’s writing that described life in the 1800s when she was growing up.
Van Haaften detailed how members of Ingalls Wilder’s extended family came to Wisconsin from Cuba, N.Y., via Kane County in Illinois. Many members of the family eventually moved to an area near Pepin in northern Wisconsin. Ingalls Wilder was born there in 1867, and her family moved to Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota.
“While Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books often portray a family on the move out west, her family alternately would come back east,” Van Haaften said. “Her books were really all about family and not so much about individuality. Her aunts and uncles are important in her stories and in her real life.
“Family offered ways to get through hard times and be supportive,” Van Haaften said. “Connections were maintained. Even in the mid-1920s Wilder connected with her aunts when she started writing and bringing her stories to life.”
Van Haaften stated she plans to travel to northern Wisconsin and possibly Minnesota to research the Ingalls family for an article in The Wisconsin Magazine of History. The 2017 article will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Ingalls Wilder’s birth.
Anderson, who lives in Afton, Okla., grew up on a farm three miles west of Walworth along Beloit Road. Her parents were Laurence and Evelyn Ingalls, and her grandparents were Frank and Laura Ingalls. Anderson had two brothers, Larry and John, both of whom have died.
Anderson’s great-grandfather, Silas Ingalls, arrived in Walworth County in 1845 and settled on 120-acres he purchased on the south shore of Geneva Lake. His farmhouse and barn were along what is Academy Road presently.
Anderson’s shared ancestry with Ingalls Wilder is through two brothers, the sons of Edmund Ingalls, who was born around 1586 in Skirbeck, Lincolnshire, England, and died in 1648 in Boston, Mass.
One brother was John Ingalls, born in 1624 and died in 1721 in Bristol County in Massachusetts. The other was Robert Ingalls, who was born around 1620 in Skirbeck and died in early January 1698 in Lynn, Mass.
Anderson described many aspects of her life growing up on a farm that was on the west side of the current Big Foot Airfield. She recalled swimming in a pool on the farm during hot summer evenings. She had a jackknife and received a single-shot .22-caliber rifle as an eighth-grade graduation present.
“If I missed the bus after school, I had to walk home,” Anderson said. “Sometimes I missed it on purpose to walk on a warm fall day. Plus, I would miss having to do chores.”
Waiting for her at home, though, was her horse named Ginger.
Anderson’s father became interested in flying and obtained his pilot’s license. He purchased a plane and built a runway on his farm. The runway is part of the current airfield. Her brother John also was a pilot, and her brother Larry was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
“Ethics and civility were part of the culture back then,” Anderson said. “My father often sat me down and told me about them. School principal Wally Westlund gave lectures about having pride in school and community, and my aunt, Mary Burns, was my mentor who shared with me family recipes and traditions and taught me proper etiquette.”
Prior to and following the dinner and program attendees were able to view historical items of the Attic Window and Heirloom Doll Hospital, Walworth, provided by Barbara Peterson; Black Point Estate, Linn Township, provided by David Desimone and Jill Westberg; Old World Wisconsin, provided by Van Haaften; and the Walworth County Genealogical Society, Elkhorn, provided by Deb Ketchum.
