December 5: Birthday of Rose Wilder Lane (1886)
Prayer Idea
Pray for relationships between mothers and their children.
History Note
Rose Wilder was born to loving parents, Laura and Almanzo Wilder, on December 5, 1886, on their homestead claim near De Smet, South Dakota. Her family lived close to her grandparents, Charles and Caroline Ingalls, and her aunts Mary, Carrie, and Grace. Unfortunately, Rose and her parents experienced several difficult years during her early childhood.
Laura and Almanzo became seriously ill with diphtheria when Rose was a toddler. For her safety, she had to live with Pa and Ma Ingalls for a while. Rose's brother died as an infant. Their family home burned down. Her family moved to Minnesota to live with her paternal grandparents, James and Angeline Wilder; then to Florida to live with extended family; and then back to De Smet, South Dakota. All of this was before Rose turned six.
During the Wilder family's second sojourn in De Smet, Ma Ingalls took care of Rose while Almanzo and Laura were working. Rose also started attending school there. When Rose was eight, she traveled with her parents in a covered wagon for six weeks as they moved from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri.
While Rose and her parents worked on their Rocky Ridge farm and built a house, Rose attended school in Mansfield. Rose felt that the school was not challenging enough, and it only went through tenth grade.
Almanzo's sister Eliza Jane came to visit the Wilders in Mansfield and suggested that Rose come with her to Louisiana to finish high school. Rose lived with Eliza Jane and her son, Wilder, in Louisiana, for about a year. She finished high school at age 17 in 1904 and decided to set out on her own. She got a job as a telegrapher in Kansas City and then in Mount Vernon, Indiana.
Rose moved to San Francisco, California, in 1908. There she met Gillette Lane, who became her husband on March 24, 1909. In November of that year, Rose gave birth to a stillborn son--her only child.
Rose and Gillette moved around a bit before coming back to San Francisco. Gillette struggled to find gainful employment, while Rose started her career as a journalist and author with the San Francisco Bulletin. The Lanes hosted her mother for a visit in 1915. Rose and Gillette drifted apart and divorced in 1918.
The American Red Cross invited Rose to travel to Europe and write about the conditions there after World War I. Rose felt a special connection to the country of Albania. There she met an orphaned boy named Rexh Meta who assisted her as translator and guide. She later helped pay for him to attend Cambridge University. Rose took under her wing several young men during her life, perhaps longing for the son she had lost.
Rose also traveled to the Middle East before ending up back in Mansfield in 1924. With her earnings from writing, she built the Rock House for her parents and lived in their farmhouse. The Great Depression significantly affected her net worth, however.
As Laura was writing the Little House books, Rose made significant contributions to the writing process, editing Laura's drafts and helping the stories flow together. Because of their relationship, Laura welcomed Rose's input and assistance. However, they did not always see eye-to-eye and even butted heads sometimes. For example, Rose suggested leaving out Mary's blindness, but Laura insisted that it was an important part of her family's story.
Rose also turned the experiences of her parents and grandparents into books of her own. She published Let the Hurricane Roar in 1933 and Free Land in 1938.
As a young woman, Rose had supported Eugene Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party, and she found Communism appealing. However, her time in Europe changed her perspective. Having seen the effects of oppression, particularly in the USSR, she became someone who distrusted government power. She opposed Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs and began writing about her evolving political perspective.
Lane moved to Danbury, Connecticut. During World War II, she refused to get a ration card. She raised bees and grew her own food. After the war, she became a key figure in the development of libertarianism, a political philosophy that advocates for individual liberty and a limited role for government.
Women's Day magazine invited Lane to go to Vietnam as a war correspondent in 1965. She was 78 years old. Lane predicted that the South Vietnamese, aided by the United States, would eventually win the fight against the Communists of North Vietnam, but ten more years of conflict ended with the opposite result.
Lane died at her home in Connecticut in 1968. She was 81.
Louis Ludlow, a U.S. representative from Indiana, proposed a Constitutional amendment in 1938 that would require a vote by the American people before Congress could declare war. Rose Wilder Lane attended a Senate committee meeting in 1939 to voice her support for the amendment. Image courtesy the Library of Congress.
Learn More
This video shows images of Rose Wilder Lane throughout her life.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
