Laura and Lettie; Little House and Streams Authors

What do Laura Ingalls Wilder and Lettie Burd Cowman have in common?

More than you might expect.

The authors of the Little House books and Streams in the Desert share a few similarities which might surprise fans of both works.

Births

They were children of the post-Civil War years in the United States.

Laura Ingalls was born on February 7, 1867, outside of Pepin, Wisconsin.

Lettie Burd arrived on March 3, 1870, near Afton, Iowa.

The two towns are 320 miles apart. Wisconsin, of course, was full of big woods while Afton was in the rolling plains.

Both fathers were farmers; both mothers were hard-working farm wives who cared about appearances and proprieties.

Charles Ingalls was poor; Isaac Burd was wealthy. Both fathers doted on Laura and Lettie.

Schooling

Both girls attended school in their small towns.

On The Banks of Plum Creek clued me into how they might be connected.

The Ingalls family resided in a dugout along Plum Creek near Walnut Grove, Minnesota when Laura finally could attend school.

The Burds lived on a large “estate” just south of town.

The girls grew up attending their small local schools, where they excelled.

But Laura and Mary Ingalls were poor girls in homespun dresses. Neat and clean as Ma could make them, they seldom wore shoes except in the winter.

Laura felt her poverty keenly.

Lettie, on the other hand, was the surprise baby–born eight years after her closest sibling when her mother was 49-years-old.

The youngest of eight in a relatively wealthy family, Lettie wore much more elaborate clothing.

If Laura’s straight hair was ever curled it was because of rag curls tied into her hair at bedtime.

Lettie, with naturally curly hair, wore her hair in beribboned sausage curls on a regular basis.

Indeed, had she lived near Plum Creek, Lettie–in appearance at least–would have fit the Nellie Olsen character.

Isaac Burd, after all, eventually became the president of the Afton Citizen’s Bank.

Education for Laura and Lettie

They both learned reading, writing, and arithmetic from the McGuffey Readers.

(Free downloads of all the McGuffey Readers are available here).

In a paper about the readers, Professor Samuel J. Smith of Liberty University wrote:

With over 122 million copies sold since 1838, the McGuffey Eclectic Readers taught more Americans to read than any other textbook. Initial publication coincided with a unique period in United States history as the West was settled, newly arrived immigrants assimilated, and the common school movement gained momentum.

At this time, the nation was at a critical point of forming a distinct identity. These phenomena created a demand for textbooks that would not only meet the practical need for curriculum in developing schools but would also extend prevailing American values to both children new to the frontier and those new to the nation.

McGuffey Readers

The first primer began quite simply: it listed the ABCs, with a pronunciation guide and simple words. Children learned to read using phonics.

The books taught reading and penmanship (“slate work”). Students learned literature that included patriotic works, lots of poetry, and moral sayings.

Readers used excerpts from great literature, eventually working up to selections from Lord Byron, John Milton, and Daniel Webster. Bible lessons and morality stories figured in McGuffey Readers as well.

While Laura and Lettie learned ciphering–arithmetic–both preferred literature and elocution.

Similarities in writing style

The influence of McGuffey Readers can be seen in books written by Laura and Lettie.

They both loved poetry and quoted it in their books.

Lettie wrote Streams in the Desert as a compilation of poetry and wise sayings from people she’d read over the years.

Laura included excerpts from the poetry she loved, usually in the context of her schooling or speaking. Like Lettie, she included words from the songs she sang while accompanying Pa’s fiddle.

Lettie, too, loved to sing–she had a trained voice and accompanied herself on the piano. She derived a great deal of encouragement and satisfaction from hymns.

Their choice of loved poems and songs came from the same readers they grew up with. The McGuffey Readers set their “taste” for what they liked.

Writing Life for Laura and Lettie

Both Laura and Lettie were busy adults.

Lettie’s early married life was far easier than Laura’s on a tree farm. But both embraced their husband’s vocations as their own and used their writing skills.

Both women wrote magazine columns for many years. Laura for farming magazines; Lettie for God’s Revivalist and the Oriental Missionary Society magazines.

They wrote about their lives, occasionally included poetry, and honed their skills. Their style may seem simple by modern standards, but it was very good.

The small town schools of the late 19th century taught them both well. Their grammar skills were excellent and they both had an ear for how a sentence should sound.

Music, literature, family life, and their intellect served them well.

It’s important to note the two women wrote in very different genres. Laura’s Little House books make up a series of children’s historical fiction telling her family’s story.

Lettie’s works are Christian devotionals, many of them compilations of poems and Biblical insights from other authors.

They share a “tone” and “voice” that reflects their patriotic, music-loving, poetry preferences–which I think came from their education with the McGuffey readers.

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