Laura Ingalls Wilder and Freemasonry: A Renewed Reading of a Pioneering Figure
For many readers, Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) remains closely tied to the Little House on the Prairie series, which made the daily life of American pioneers widely known. This image, powerful as it is, does not fully reflect the moral coherence and sense of responsibility that guided her life. One aspect in particular remains largely overlooked: her connection with Freemasonry through her involvement in the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic appendant body open to women. Exploring the place of Freemasonry in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life allows us to better understand her relationship with duty, community, and transmission. To understand her Masonic commitment is to discover a woman who lived her values with sobriety, steadiness, and fidelity.
- 1. The roots of a pioneering life: how did Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood prepare her future involvement in the Order of the Eastern Star?
- 2. Mansfield and the emergence of a literary voice: how does a pioneering life become a universal testimony?
- 3. A family in Freemasonry: what role did the Order of the Eastern Star play in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life?
- 4. Values and convictions: what does Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Masonic involvement reveal about her moral and political outlook?
- 5. Conclusion: what does the Order of the Eastern Star reveal about the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder?
- 6. FAQ – Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Order of the Eastern Star
- 7. PODCAST — Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Renewed Perspective through the Order of the Eastern Star
The roots of a pioneering life: how did Laura Ingalls Wilder’s childhood prepare her future involvement in the Order of the Eastern Star?
Laura Ingalls Wilder was born on 7 February 1867 in Pepin, Wisconsin, into a family marked by a long colonial heritage: her father, Charles Philip Ingalls (1836–1902), descended from the Delano line, related to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ulysses S. Grant; her mother, Caroline Quiner (1839–1924), traced her ancestry back to Richard Warren, a Mayflower passenger. Yet the family, though anchored in American history, lived a harsh and simple life, moving repeatedly: Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, then back to Wisconsin before settling in Walnut Grove.
The Ingalls family as originally photographed, contrasted with the later television portrayal — a reminder of the distance between lived reality and cultural myth.
These migrations shaped in Laura a sharp sense of adaptability and a deep attention to family bonds. Pioneer life was far from romantic: extreme weather, isolation, uncertain harvests. This constant trial forged an ability to analyse situations, a moral sobriety, and an active solidarity that would later reappear in her Masonic commitments, where fidelity, responsibility, and constancy are central values.
Between migrations and early responsibilities: what foundational values shaped Laura Ingalls Wilder?
The family’s move to De Smet in 1879 finally provided lasting stability. Laura, then an adolescent, could follow a continuous schooling and experience a more structured community environment. At 15, she became a schoolteacher—an exceptional responsibility for someone so young. She contributed to the family finances while mastering the foundations of pedagogical transmission, a skill that would shape her later writing.
Her marriage to Almanzo Wilder (1857–1949) in 1885 opened a difficult period: Almanzo’s illness, fires, droughts, the death of a child. These hardships did not break her; rather, they strengthened an ethic of perseverance and solidarity. This way of facing adversity—without emphasis, through work and loyalty—naturally echoed the spirit of the Order of the Eastern Star.
Mansfield and the emergence of a literary voice: how does a pioneering life become a universal testimony?
In 1894, Laura and Almanzo settled in Mansfield, Missouri. There, they gradually built a viable farm: orchards, dairy production, poultry. This newfound stability allowed Laura to increase her involvement in the local community. She became a columnist for the Missouri Ruralist, offering readers clear and structured reflections on rural life, family, domestic economy, and the role of women in a society undergoing transformation.
Laura Ingalls Wilder and her husband Almanzo Wilder — a partnership shaped by work, hardship, and quiet, enduring loyalty.
This journalistic work shaped a precise, sober writing style, attentive to reality. Mansfield became for her a laboratory of social observation and a space where her ability to describe daily effort—without complaint or sentimentality—fully emerged. This posture, lucid, rigorous, and deeply moral, already aligned with the values of the Order of the Eastern Star, even if it was not yet the centre of her commitment.
From family memory to literary saga: how did Laura Ingalls Wilder build a lasting body of work?
When Laura submitted a first autobiographical manuscript to her daughter Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968), she did not aim for literary success: she wanted to preserve a memory. Rose, already an established writer, helped her structure the narrative, give it rhythm, and make it coherent. From this collaboration emerged Little House in the Big Woods (1932), the first volume of a series that continued until 1943.
The third book, Little House on the Prairie (1935), became the emblematic title and later gave its name to the famous television series. Far from embellishing the past, the saga offers an embodied testimony of pioneer life—its rigours, duties, and solidarities. Laura’s fidelity to family values, effort, and moral integrity gives the work a lasting place in American literature. This ethical realism, marked by dignity, resonates closely with the principles she would later practise within the Order of the Eastern Star.
A family in Freemasonry: what role did the Order of the Eastern Star play in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life?
When the Ingalls family settled in De Smet, they finally found the stability needed for regular community involvement. It was there that Charles Philip Ingalls was received as a Freemason in 1885, extending into a structured framework the values of duty and rectitude he already lived within his family. In 1891, Caroline Ingalls and their daughter Carrie joined the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic appendant body open to both women and men, emphasising mutual aid, fidelity to commitments, and charitable work anchored in its tradition.
Laura, who had grown up in an atmosphere of uprightness and solidarity, found in the Order a framework that naturally extended the education she had received. She was received into the Eastern Star in 1893, the same year as her father, which highlights the moral continuity that united the two generations. She later became actively involved in the life of the Chapter and was elected three times as Worthy Matron, the President of the Chapter, a central office in guiding the work and charitable activity of the Order. In this commitment, there was nothing worldly: simply the desire to live out, within a structured community, principles already deeply rooted in her family life.
Values and convictions: what does Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Masonic involvement reveal about her moral and political outlook?
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s political choices reflect a constant attachment to personal responsibility. Growing up in an environment shaped by pioneer self-reliance, she viewed with caution any form of excessive government intervention in family life. Her distancing from the Democratic Party during Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was not an ideological shift but a concern: the fear of seeing the state intervene too deeply in private affairs. Alongside her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, she is counted among the figures who—often unintentionally—helped prepare the intellectual ground for twentieth-century American libertarianism.
Her social sensitivity also appeared in her stance on civil rights. Mansfield, like many American towns of that era, lived in a climate where segregation was widely accepted. The simple act of Laura publicly shaking hands with a man of colour caused a local scandal: a gesture trivial in itself, but one that broke a deeply rooted social convention. It reveals a woman little influenced by prejudice and attentive to the dignity of each person, whatever their condition.
Between tradition, freedom, and responsibility: what inner coherence emerges in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life?
Faith played an important part in Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daily life: she prayed, read the Bible, and attended Methodist services each week. Yet neither she nor Almanzo ever became official members of the Methodist Church. This voluntary distance reflects a way of life marked by fidelity to values rather than formal institutional membership. She recognised the spiritual dimension of existence but refused to delegate its interpretation to an ecclesiastical authority. This attitude, stable and thoughtful, sheds light on her broader way of balancing tradition and freedom.
Four portraits of Laura Ingalls Wilder at different stages of her life, reflecting the steady character and moral consistency that shaped her journey.
This is the context in which we must understand her commitment to the Order of the Eastern Star. Laura did not seek prestige or distinction there, but a place to live principles consistent with her temperament: constancy, honesty, practical solidarity. Her journey does not reflect nostalgic attachment to an idealised past, nor a spirit of rupture. Rather, it expresses fidelity to what she believed to be right, without yielding to religious, political, or social conformisms. This quiet yet firm inner coherence gives unity to a life shaped by personal responsibility and concern for others.
Conclusion: what does the Order of the Eastern Star reveal about the life and work of Laura Ingalls Wilder?
Rereading the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder through the lens of her commitment to the Order of the Eastern Star reveals the deep coherence of her journey. Her fidelity to duty, concern for others, refusal of social conformism, and sense of personal responsibility were not abstract principles: they took shape in her daily life, her civic choices, and her work within the Chapter.
Freemasonry and the Eastern Star did not shape her thinking, but provided a framework in which values already present since her pioneer childhood could naturally unfold. They also shed clearer light on her literary work: behind the family narratives lies an ethic of uprightness, sobriety, and solidarity. Laura Ingalls Wilder appears as a figure whose apparent simplicity conceals a steady inner constancy—attentive to others and faithful to a demanding moral line.
By Ion Rajolescu, editor-in-chief of Nos Colonnes — serving a Masonic voice that is just, rigorous, and alive
To continue this exploration, you may also visit our selection devoted to the Order of the Eastern Star.
1. Was Laura Ingalls Wilder actually a member of a Masonic appendant body?
Yes. She was received into the Order of the Eastern Star in 1893 in De Smet and later affiliated with the Mansfield Chapter in 1897.
2. Is the Order of the Eastern Star part of Freemasonry?
The OES is a Masonic appendant body historically linked to Freemasonry, but it operates through its own autonomous Chapters and has its own structure.
3. Was Charles Ingalls, Laura’s father, a Freemason?
Yes. Charles Philip Ingalls was received as a Mason in 1885 in De Smet.
4. Did Almanzo Wilder also belong to the Eastern Star?
Yes. Almanzo was received as a Mason in 1898 and joined the Eastern Star in 1902.
5. What offices did Laura Ingalls Wilder hold within the Eastern Star?
She held twenty-three offices over the years, including three terms as Worthy Matron (President of the Chapter).
6. Did her Eastern Star involvement influence her writing?
Indirectly. Themes such as responsibility, mutual support and moral constancy, present in the OES, resonate with the ethical tone of her autobiographical saga.
7. Why did Laura join the Order of the Eastern Star?
Her decision reflected a continuity with her family’s values: steadiness, solidarity and a commitment to shared community work.
8. Why did she distance herself from the Democratic Party during the New Deal?
She was concerned about what she perceived as excessive government intervention in private life, a stance aligned with her emphasis on individual responsibility.
9. Was Laura Ingalls Wilder an advocate for women’s rights?
Yes, in a practical and measured way. She supported women’s education, independence and active participation in civic life.
10. Why did she cause a scandal in Mansfield?
Because she publicly shook hands with a Black man — a simple gesture, but one that challenged local segregation norms of the time.
Read the full transcript of the podcast here for those who prefer reading or want more detail.
PODCAST — Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Renewed Perspective through the Order of the Eastern Star
Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Renewed Perspective through the Order of the Eastern Star
Laura Ingalls Wilder is often approached through the gentle, familiar lens of Little House on the Prairie, which has shaped the public’s imagination for decades. Yet behind this softened portrayal stands a woman whose life reveals a steadiness, a moral clarity and a sense of responsibility that deserve a more attentive reading. Her trajectory reflects the quiet discipline of the American frontier, where solidarity was not an ideal but a necessity.
Born in eighteen sixty-seven in Wisconsin, Laura grew up in a family accustomed to long winters, repeated moves and the need to rely on one another. When her father, Charles Ingalls, was received as a Freemason in eighteen eighty-five, he formalised values already central to the family: duty, perseverance and reliability. In eighteen ninety-one, Caroline Ingalls and their daughter Carrie joined the Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic appendant body historically linked to Freemasonry yet operating through its own autonomous Chapters. Laura followed in eighteen ninety-three, naturally extending the familial ethic within a structured setting.
When the Wilder couple settled in Mansfield in eighteen ninety-four, this engagement continued. Laura was affiliated with the local Chapter in eighteen ninety-seven and went on to hold twenty-three offices, including three terms as Worthy Matron. These responsibilities were not a search for prominence; they reflected her willingness to support the community steadily and without display. Almanzo, received as a Mason in eighteen ninety-eight and later a member of the Eastern Star in nineteen oh-two, shared this same constancy.
Her literary work emerged in the same spirit of sincerity. In nineteen thirty, Laura entrusted her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, with an autobiographical manuscript. Their collaboration led to Little House in the Big Woods in nineteen thirty-two, then Little House on the Prairie in nineteen thirty-five, followed by the subsequent volumes published until nineteen forty-three. The series does not embellish the past; it conveys an experience lived in effort, mutual support and restraint.
Her civic positions mirror this coherence. Laura viewed with caution any excessive intervention by the state in private life, favouring instead the responsibility of individuals and families. She showed the same independence of mind regarding social conventions. A single gesture — shaking hands publicly with a Black man in Mansfield — was enough to provoke local disapproval, simply because she refused to endorse the prejudices of her time.
Seen through the lens of her involvement in the Order of the Eastern Star, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life gains depth rather than complication. Her engagement was neither decorative nor accidental; it expressed the same ethic that guided her actions, shaped her writing and defined her presence within her community. A steady, thoughtful woman whose discretion reveals, rather than conceals, a profound sense of integrity.
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