Laura Ingalls Wilder on Homekeeping
A Feminine View of the Dignity Found in Everyday Duties
Before she ever began writing her Little House on the Prairie series of books, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a farm columnist for rural journals in her home state of Missouri. In her article Folks are ‘Just Folks’ she writes that “Homekeeping hearts are happiest.” Yet Laura was willing to concede that sometimes a woman must work outside the home and was, in fact, quite proud of her daughter Rose’s accomplishments.
In her 1916 article All in a Day’s Work, Laura writes that “while there has been a good deal of discussion for and against women in business, farm women have always been business women and I have never heard a protest.” However, she prefaces this feminist sounding statement with the remark that: “of course a woman’s real business is keeping the house and caring for the family.” In many of her articles, Laura describes in glowing terms what a strong-willed woman could do on her own. Yet, she prefers an ideal situation where the ideal home is “made by a man and woman together.”
Pioneering Spirit
During Laura’s pioneer childhood, her family moved frequently as Pa sought greener pastures on the frontier. Laura’s heart was with her Pa. Laura was always willing to move when her Mother would have preferred to stay where they were in civilized country.
However, Laura’s restless heart still appreciated the little comforts of home. Every time the family moved, Ma made a point of cleaning and arranging their new quarters to be as home-like as possible. Laura always describes their settling in with attention to detail that made it clear that the quality of home-life was important to her.
Making a Home
During the years of constant moving Ma’s ability to make a place a home was important to the entire family. In the book On the Shores of Silver Lake we read, “When Pa came home to dinner, he was pleased to see everything so nicely settled and arranged.” One thing Ma always did was sweep the floor. The rhythm of sweeping must have been a soothing one for Ma and for Laura, who always-noted Ma’s sweeping.
A Clean Sweep - Laura's Affinity for Brooms
In Little House on the Prairie, Laura writes about settling into the cabin that gave her book series its name.
“‘We’re moving into the house today, and all the chips must be out.’ So they ate quickly, and hurried to carry all the chips out of the house. They ran back and forth as fast as they could, gathering their skirts full of chips and dumping them in a pile near the fire. But there were still chips on the ground inside the house when Ma began to sweep it with her willow-bough broom. Ma limped, though her sprained ankle was beginning to get well. But she soon swept the earthen floor, and then Mary and Laura began to help her carrying things into the house.”
When the family leaves Indian Territory and settles in Minnesota they find themselves in a sod house On the Banks of Plum Creek. It didn’t matter if their home wasn’t a proper house; the floor must be cleaned. Ma makes sure to sweep away all the dirt in their sod house after the ox falls through the roof: “Then they carried out the rock and the earth and the bunches of hay that had fallen. Ma swept and swept again with the willow-twig broom.”
Later when they moved into a proper house, they are delighted with the machine made broom that Pa buys for the new house “They hurried to do the work. And in the lean-to they found a boughten broom! There seemed no end to the wonders in this house. This broom had a long, straight, perfectly round, smooth handle. The broom part was made of thousands of thin, stiff, greeny-yellow bristles. Ma said they were broom straws. They were cut absolutely straight across the bottom , and they curved at the top into flat, firm shoulders. Stitches of red string held them tight. This broom was nothing like the round, willow-bough brooms that Pa made. It seemed too fine to sweep with. And it glided over the smooth floor like magic.”
The family’s last major move found them settled By the Shores of Silver Lake. When they first settle in Dakota territory they live in a small shanty that relatives had built for them. It was a temporary home; a place to stay while they waited to stake a claim. It was tiny and “The floor was bare ground, with humps of obstinate grass roots in it, but they swept it clean.” During their first winter at Silver Lake, they stayed in the surveyor’s house when they arrived “Ma looked at everything and she was pleased, ‘It’s very nice, I’m sure,” she said. ‘And so clean. We can get settled here in a jiffy. Bring me the broom, Carrie.’”
An Answer for Feminists and Homebodies Alike
Perhaps Laura was simply a woman of common sense. In the end she settles the argument by writing a pithy bit of wisdom that applies to life no matter who you are, what you believe, or what you do. She writes, “It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation.”
Read more about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books at Suite101
Child in Pioneer Costume
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