Get Acquainted

Let's Visit Mrs. Wilder

By John F. Case

Missouri Farm folks need little introduction before getting acquainted with Mrs. A.J. Wilder of Rock Ridge Farm. During the years that she has been associated with this paper—a greater number of years than any other person on the editorial staff—she has taken strong hold upon the esteem and affections of our great family. Mrs. Wilder has lived her life upon a farm. She knows farm folks and their problems as few women who write know them. And having sympathy with the folks whom she serves she writes well.

“Mrs. Wilder is a woman of delightful personality,” a neighbor tells me, “and she is a combination of energy and determination. She always is cheery, looking on the bright side. She is her husband’s partner in every sense and is fully capable of managing the farm. No woman can make you feel more at home than can Mrs. Wilder, and yet, when the occasion demands, she can be dignity personified. Mrs. Wilder has held high rank in the Eastern Star. The time when a Farm Loan association was formed at Mansfield she was made secretary-treasurer. When her report was sent to the Land Bank officials they told her the papers were perfect and the best sent in.” As a final tribute Mrs. Wilder’s friends said this: “She gets eggs in the winter when none of her neighbors gets them.”

Born in Wisconsin

“I was born in a log house within 4 miles of the legend haunted Lake Pippin in Wisconsin,” Mrs. Wilder wrote when I asked for information “about” her. “ I remember seeing deer that my father had killed, hanging in the trees about our forest home. When I was four years old we traveled to the Indian Territory, Fort Scott, Kan., being our nearest town. My childish memories hold the sound of the war whoop and I see pictures of painted Indians.”

Looking at the picture of Mrs. Wilder, which was recently taken, we find it difficult to believe that she is old enough to be the pioneer described. But having confided her age to the editor (not for publication) we must be convinced that it is true. Surely Mrs. Wilder, who is the mother of Rose Wilder Lane, talented author and writer, has found the fountain of youth in the Ozark hills. We may well believe she has a “cheerful disposition” as her friend asserts.

“I was a regular little tomboy,” Mrs. Wilder confesses, “and it was fun to walk the 2 miles to school.” The folks living in Minnesota then but it was not long until Father Ingalls, who seems to have had a penchant for moving about, had located in Dakota. It was at DeSmet , South Dakota, that Laura Ingalls, then 18 years old, married A.J. Wilder, a farmer boy. “Our daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was born on the farm,” Mrs. Wilder informs us, “and it was there I learned to do all kinds of farm work with machinery. I have ridden the binder, driving six horses. And I could ride. I do not wish to appear conceited, but I broke my own ponies to ride. Of course they were not bad but they were bronchos.” Mrs. Wilder had the spirit that brought success to the pioneers.

Mr.Wilder’s health failed and the Wilders went to Florida. “I was something of a curiosity, being the only ‘Yankee girl’ the inhabitants had ever seen,” Mrs. Wilder relates. The low altitude did not agree with Mrs. Wilder tho and she became ill. It was then that they came to Rocky Ridge Farm, near Mansfield, Wright county, and there they have lived for 25 years. Only 40 acres was purchased and the land was all timber except a 4 acre worn-out field. “Illness and traveling expenses had taken all our surplus cash and we lacked $150 of paying for the 40 acres,” Mrs. Wilder writes. “Mr.Wilder was unable to do a full day’s work. The garden, my hens and the wood I helped saw and which we sold in town took us thru the first year. It was then I became an expert at the end of a crosscut saw and I still can ‘make a hand’ in an emergency. Mr. Wilder says he would rather have me help than any man he ever sawed with. And, believe me, I learned how to take care of hens and make them lay.”

Intelligent industry brings its own rewards. Mr. and Mrs. Wilder not only paid for the 40 acres but they have added 60 acres more, stocked the farm to capacity and improved it and built a beautiful modern home. “Everything sold by the Wilders brings a good price,” their neighbor tells me, “because it is standard goods. It was by following strict business methods that they were enabled to build their beautiful home. Most of the material used was found on the farm. Fortunate indeed are those who are entertained at Rocky Ridge.”

One may wonder that so busy a person as Mrs. Wilder can find time to write. “I always have been a busy person,” she says, “doing my own housework, helping the Man of the Place when help could not be obtained, but I love to work. And it is a pleasure to write for the Missouri Ruralist. And Oh I do just love to play! The days never have been long enough to do the things I would like to do. Every year has held more of interest than the year before.” Folks who possess that kind of spirit get a lot of joy out of life as they travel the long road.

Joined the Family in 1911

Mrs. Wilder has held numerous important offices and her stories about farm life and farm folk have appeared in the best farm papers. Her first article printed in the Missouri Ruralist appeared in February, 1911. It was a copy of an address prepared for Farmers’ Week. So for seven years she has been talking to Missouri women thru these columns; talk that always has carried inspiration and incentive for worth while work.

Reading Mrs. Wilder’s contributions most folks doubtless have decided that she is a college graduate. But, “my education has been what a girl would get on the frontier,” she informs us. “ I never graduated from anything and only attended high school two terms.” Folks who know Mrs. Wilder tho, know that she is a cultured, well-educated gentlewoman. Combined with inherent ability, unceasing study of books has provided the necessary education and greater things have been learned from the study of life itself.

As has bee asserted before, Mrs. Wilder writes well for farm folks because she knows them. The Wilders can be found ready to enter wholeheartedly into any movement for community betterment and the home folks are proud of the reputation that Mrs. Wilder has established. They know that she has won recognition as a writer and state leader because of ability alone.

John F. Case. "Let's Visit Mrs. Wilder." Missouri Ruralist (February 20, 1918).

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