What Happened Next?
This article is based on a feature written on William Anderson by Bev Pechan for the Rapid City Journal in 1999. Bev, of Keystone, SD, has been active with the Keystone Area Historical Society, and is a talented artist and writer. In 1999 she wrote a series of articles on Black Hills lore for the Journal to mark the end of the century.
When William Anderson heard his third grade teacher read "Little House on the Prairie" to his class, he had more than just a passing interest in the stories. Last fall, with the publication of a deluxe collector's edition of the book, a cycle seems to be completed: the book that inspired his interest in history now includes an essay he wrote entitiled "The Making of Little House on the Prairie".
Years have lapsed since that first reading, filled with varied activities and involvement in research and writing on the Wilder theme. Anderson's initial question, after reading the eight original books was "What Happened Next?". That inquiry has led him far, both in miles and in pages accumulated in books, magazine articles, scripts, speeches, and "Laura Ingalls Wilder Lore" (the Newsletter for the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in DeSmet, SD), which he founded in 1975, and has edited ever since.
Much of his work took place in South Dakota and has centered there. Ironically, his great-grandparents were Norwegian immigrants to eastern South Dakota in 1880, and lived through "the hard winter." His ancestors must have endured many of the same hard-ships of the Ingalls family on the relentless, yet abundant prairies. "My mother rells me I was inquisitive, even as a preschooler," Anderson says. "I guess this is a good quality for a researcher."
Besides visiting the sites of the Little House books in the beginning years of their existence, Anderson corresponded and met many who were related to the Ingalls's and Wilder's as distant family or through friendship. He says today that his most valuable research was the oral history he recorded on tape with many people who knew the book characters first-hand. "I have hours of this fascinating material," he says. "Imagine how interesting it was to interview Neva Whaley Harding of Brookings, who sat in the same schoolroom as the Ingalls children, and observed Manly Wilder come calling for Laura. Another font of information was DeSmet's venerable historian and editor, Aubrey Sherwood, whose family was intertwined with the Ingallses for three generations. Another valuable interview was with Helen Boylston, who lived with the Wilders for several years at Rocky Ridge farm in Mansfield, and accompanied Rose to Albania in 1926.
letters, she edited his first
writing on the family, and signed books for him. "You know more about my relatives than I do, or did, until reading your manuscript," she said.
The first published writing to bear the name "William Anderson" was a slim booklet titled "The Story of the Ingalls." It appeared when the author was 15, and was published to raise funds for the museum building at the Wilder Home in Mansfield. The booklet has been revised several times, and is still available. A series of seven other booklets followed to fill in the gaps and answer questions about the people and places described in the Wilder books.
For seven summers, Anderson worked with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society in DeSmet, giving tours to the increasing numbers of tourists who were retracing the footsteps of the Ingalls family. "Those were enjoyable seasons," he says now. "There was a hard working group of people dedicated to the 'cause', and many of the routines and procedures of the Society were rooted then. There was a lot of improving; none of us were museum specialists. But most of the visitors were excited to be in DeSmet and they appreciated whatever we could tell them, show them."
"I was always particularly interested in the Ingalls home, built by Pa," Anderson says. "To me it was a mysterious place, knowing how much of the family history was lived there. It was fun to find out facts and speculate on their lives there from 1887-1928. During the early years, people came through who remembered visiting there when the famly was alive. Naturally we quizzed these people and put together the story of life in the Third Street house."
Another project of his was to seek out and acquire any available Ingalls-Wilder memorablilia to be displayed by the Society. "At first, the only authentic item was a chest of drawers built by Pa," he says. "Now there are hundreds of family possessions." Part of Anderson's duties were to locate, exhibit, document and authenticate items. He worked for months to create the "multi-plex", which afforded many hours of reading for tourists.
An amusing incident involved Roger MacBride. Anderson encouraged the Wilder heir to make a visit in 1973, his first. He flew his own plane to South Dakota. When Anderson met him and brought him to the Ingalls home, it was crowded with hundreds of visitors, in town to see the "Long Winter Pageant." "Roger was incredulous," Anderson says. "He had no idea what went on in DeSmet. He was so impressed that on his next visit, he paid off the balance owed on the Ingalls home, and donated a great deal of Rose's furniture and personal items to display. That created another challenge: where to put these things. The upstairs at the Ingalls home was quickly renovated, and the outside stair was replaced. It has never been an ideal arrangement, but at least people learn more of Rose and her life."
Anderson believed that Rose's birthplace should be marked on Highway 25, so after a trip to Pierre, the state capitol, to fact find on highway historic markers, the Society agreed to sponsor the marker. "It is one of my writings that can never go out of print," he says of the marker text he wrote.
Along with helping guide tours, Anderson's summers in DeSmet were full of research. "Being there," he says, "gave me the luxury of that most demanding discipline of historical research. I leafed through thousands of crumbly brown pages of "The DeSmet News", finding nuggets of Ingalls-Wilder news. All of this enriched what we could tell visitors, and make life of early DeSmet more than textbook history. From the newspaper I learned, for instance, exactly when Pa built his house, a fact unclear up to that time." Longtime editor of the paper, Aubrey Sherwood and his wife Laura, became mentors and friends to the young researcher.
Of the Sherwoods, Anderson remarks: "Their interest in my interest continuously motivated me. Aubrey's fascination with history that he and I uncovered was as vital to him as the event of the present day. He would nod with awe and amazement any time I shared some new fact. DeSmet has never been the same now that they are no longer there."
Through the years, Anderson found himself constantly reeled into Society projects, although unofficially. When he began teaching in Michigan, and other demands on time intervened, he was often asked for advice and information. He especially enjoyed helping with special summer events that brought people like Roger, Barbara Walker, Les Kelly and others to DeSmet to mingle with fans. Most memorable were the two visits of Garth Williams. "Garth could be a book in himself," Anderson states. "He always brought along a portfolio of valuable original art. I kept my eagle eye on that, so that it wouldn't be forgotten or lost. Finally, Garth said: "I've found the perfect place to leave them: under the bed 'Oh no, I thought; it is a water bed.
We quickly made other arrangements for his art."
