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True Facts About the Real Little House on the Prairie


If you belong to any online groups having to do with the real or TV Ingalls families, you might have noticed questions arising after Netflix dropped the Little House on the Prairie reboot. So let's get a few details straight.

The Little House series of books was different from the true-life Ingalls family, a
nd the original TV series was nothing like the true-life Ingalls family. The reboot is also not faithful to the book or real-life Ingalls family, but it was a little more faithful to both than the Michael Landon silliness.

Here are some facts about the real Little House on the Prairie; let's get a few truth bombs out of the way.

1. Laura and Mary were toddlers, not spunky schoolkids

In 1868–1869, when the family left the Big Woods of Wisconsin for the Kansas prairie, Laura was just two years old, and Mary was four. Because Laura was so young, she wasn't relying on her own vivid childhood memories when writing about their time in Kansas. Instead, she was reconstructing history based on stories her parents, Pa and Ma, retold around the fireplace years later, which she mixed with a healthy dose of literary license in her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, and the "historic fiction" children's books.

2. Baby Carrie wasn't born until after they moved

Contrary to popular TV portrayals where Carrie is already along for the wagon ride, Caroline "Carrie" Ingalls was actually born in August 1870 in Montgomery County, Kansas. She was born right on the prairie in the very cabin the family built. 

3. Jack the dog never made it to Kansas

In the beloved book, Jack the bulldog is a central character who survives the dangerous river crossing and guards the family in Kansas. In reality, Jack was sold along with their farm team of horses back in Wisconsin to help fund the journey. The loyal bulldog of the books was an amalgamation of working dogs the family owned over the years.

4. The family squatted illegally on Osage land

Pa built their cabin on land that explicitly belonged to the Osage Nation under an official 1865 treaty. The federal government had not opened the land to white homesteaders yet. Pa banked on a common rumor that the government would force the Osage off their land soon anyway, a gamble that backfired when the U.S. Army was sent to enforce treaty borders and remove squatters.

5. They were forced to move back to the Big Woods

Rather than being driven out by a dramatic prairie fire or locust plague, the real reason the Ingalls family abandoned their Kansas home was legal and financial pressure. Realizing the army was going to evict illegal settlers, and after hearing from back home that the buyer of their Wisconsin farm had defaulted on payments, Pa packed up the wagon in 1871 and headed back to the Big Woods to reclaim their original property.

6. "Mr. Brown" saved Christmas, not Mr. Edwards

In Little House on the Prairie, the beloved neighbor Mr. Edwards braves a swollen creek to bring the girls tin cups, peppermint candy, and heart-shaped cakes from Santa. According to Laura's autobiography Pioneer Girl, the real-life neighbor who performed this Christmas act of kindness was actually a man named Mr. Brown.

7. Dr. Tann was real but unnamed in Laura's early writings

The black physician who saved the Ingalls family from "fever 'n' ague" (malaria) was real, and his name was Dr. George A. Tann. While named in the fictionalized book, he was initially unnamed in Laura's early biographical drafts. Dr. Tann is one of the only neighbors in that area, along with Osage Chief Soldat du Chene, whose presence can be historically verified through local land and census records from 1870.

8. The Scott family was created from the Robertsons

The friendly neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Scott in the book were heavily fictionalized versions of real-life neighbors named Mr. and Mrs. Robertson. Laura altered several names and personalities of neighbors to streamline the narrative for younger readers.

9. The real "Little House" was tiny and windowless

While TV sets show spacious, well-lit log cabins with multi-pane glass windows, the real house Pa built was tiny, rough-hewn, and originally had open window holes covered only with greased paper or cloth to keep out the wind. It was drafty, cramped for a family of five, and barely insulated against the harsh Kansas elements.

While I've always fancied myself a bit of a Laura Ingalls Wilder geek, I'm not an LIW expert or scholar. I  want to thank the Netflix reboot of Little House on the Prairie for encouraging me to research some details to refresh my memory. 

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