Most People Don't Know That Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Gravesite Is Found Right Here In Missouri
By Beth Price-Williams|Published December 20, 2023
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Beth Price-Williams
Author
A professional writer for more than two decades, Beth has lived in nearly a dozen states – from Missouri and Virginia to Connecticut and Vermont – and Toronto, Canada. In addition to traveling extensively in the U.S. and the U.K., she has a BA in Journalism from Point Park University (PA), a MA in Holocaust & Genocide Studies from Stockton University (NJ), and a Master of Professional Writing from Chatham University (PA). A writer and editor for Only In Your State since 2016, Beth grew up in and currently lives outside of Pittsburgh and when she’s not writing or hanging out with her bunnies, budgies, and chinchilla, she and her daughter are out chasing waterfalls.
Generations of readers have traveled across the United States – from Wisconsin to South Dakota and stops in between – guided across the prairie and into the woods through the tales of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Today, decades after her death, the beloved American pioneer and author’s stories continue to inspire the imagination as new generations of readers discover her books. While her life took her to various places, she spent the vast majority of it in Missouri. Her gravesite is in Mansfield, Missouri, too.
Laura Ingalls’ story, the one millions of readers (and TV viewers) have embraced for generations, began in Pepin County, Wisconsin on February 7, 1867. But it wasn’t until decades later that she would start to tell that story.
By the time she began writing her first book, “Little House in the Big Woods,” in 1932, Laura was 65. She and her husband, Almanzo Wilder, lived on a farm in Mansfield, which today serves as the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum.
Laura and Almanzo’s daughter, Rose, also lived at Rocky Ridge Farm when Laura wrote her famous books. She served as her mom’s editor, and the two are said to have collaborated on the series.
For the next decade, Laura wrote the Little House series that introduced us to Ma, Pa, Mary, Carrie, Grace, and her husband, Alamazo. The books were semi-autobiographical with each focusing on a different time during her childhood.
Laura and Almanzo spent much of their lives on their farm in Mansfield. Almanzo died at 92 in 1949. After his death, Laura continued to write, this time about the early days of her marriage to Almanzo.
Laura, Almanzo, and Rose are all buried in Mansfield Cemetery. Every year, fans of the books, and of the Ingalls and Wilder families, travel to Missouri to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home & Museum and the final resting place of the Wilder Family.
Have you visited Laura Ingalls Wilder’s gravesite in Mansfield, Missouri? If you have, share your experience in the comments! Then learn why Mansfield, Missouri is an ideal getaway, especially for literary lovers. You might even want to plan an overnight or weekend getaway by checking into a Vrbo.
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