Every Day Is Special: pioneers

Showing posts with label pioneers. Show all posts

May 16 - A Wagon Train Heads for Oregon

Posted on May 16, 2022

This is an update of my post published on May 16, 2011:

A thousand people with horses, mules, oxen, dogs, possessions piled high in wagons—and they're off!

On this day in 1843, the first large wagon train left Elm Grove, Missouri, bound for Oregon City, Oregon. About 1,000 pioneers made up the wagon train, which traveled about 2,000 miles to their new homes.

Pioneers were told to take enough food for each person for three or four months—25 pounds of bacon per person, 150 pounds of flour per person, 25 pounds of sugar per person, and a lot of other foodstuffs. Of course, bringing along a cow for milk and emergency meat was also recommended!

Check out the packing lists—including food, clothing, medicines, and camping equipment—here.

Apparently the Oregon Trail constantly improved in road quality, ferries, and bridges, so that pioneers traveling just three years after might have a significantly easier passage. Also, it got to be that Oregon Trail travelers could purchase repairs, new supplies, and new teams of animals to pull the wagons (mostly mules and oxen) at various forts and trading posts.

Find out more...

If you can find it, the book Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw depicts a family living during the exciting transition when fur trappers traipsing the Western lands to pioneers settling them. The book is a bit rah!-rah! about the pioneers settling Native American lands, but given the fact that the main character is a white boy whose life was saved by Crow Indians, with whom he lived for years and identified with, it is an interesting book to read and discuss.

Here is an interactive map of the Oregon Trail.

Here is the famous game about the Oregon Trail created by thinkquest.

Here are some pages with activities to help you learn about pioneer life!

Also on this date:

Wear Purple for Peace Day

St. Brendan's Day

National Sea Monkey Day

Biographers Day

Anniversary of discontinuance of half dime and introduction of nickel

International Day of Light

Birthday of astronomer Nancy Roman

Birthday of mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi

Vesak in Indonesia and India
(Varying Dates)

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:
May holidays
May birthdays
Historical anniversaries in May

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

June holidays
June birthdays
Historical anniversaries in June

February 7 - Happy Birthday, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Posted on February 7, 2022

This is an update of my post published on February 7, 2011:

She lived in a little house in Wisconsin, then in little houses in Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa. She ended up in the Dakota Territory - but you better believe she still lived in a little house!

Born Laura Ingalls on this date in 1867, she married Almanzo Wilder and lived in the Dakotas, Florida, and Missouri. At times as a married woman Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in a ramshackle, windowless log cabin—but eventually the hard-working couple managed build and live in a 10-room farmhouse with outbuildings.

Wilder had lived a pioneering, farming, rural life as a child and as an adult, and later in life, inspired by her daughter's writing career, she began to write about her own and others' experiences in a series of children's books: Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and six other books. Wilder was 64 years old when her first book was published.

Above, Laura Ingalls Wilder
Below, Rose Wilder Lane

Wilder's daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, wrote adult novels—and the two most successful were written about many of the same adventures in her mother's Little House series. Both women were able to achieve a certain amount of fame and fortune for their writings, although these days Wilder is far more famous than is Lane.

Apparently there is a big question mark about how much of the Little House books Laura Ingalls Wilder actually wrote, and how much was Rose Wilder Lane's work. Probably Wilder did pretty much all the writing and Lane heavily edited. At any rate, the mother-and-daughter team succeeded, however they divided up the work!

WARNING!!

Wilder's books portray horrible racism toward Native and Black characters. Some people suggest cutting out the most egregious passages, but most people agree that we should enjoy the books BUT talk about the racism. Why did Ma and Pa say such awful things? Let's deal with the racism that existed then and today, examine it, discuss it - and there lies the path toward building anti-racism!

Here is an article to help you consider the racism in the books.

Linda Sue Park wrote a book that is deliberately
parallel to Wilder's books - but her main
character is half Chinese. Well worth reading!!

Explore the World of Laura Ingalls Wilder:

Here are some coloring pages and printables.
Take a peek at this Little House on the Prairie Musuem.

Here are more printables and resources.

Here are some recipes for foods in the Little House series.

The Little House books became the inspiration for a TV series
popular during the 1970s and 1980s.

Also on this date:

National Periodic Table Day

Ballet Day

"e” Day

Grenada's Independence Day

Author Charles Dickens's birthday

Anniversary of a river flowing uphill

Anniversary of the Bonfire of the Vanities

Wave All Your Fingers at the Neighbors Day

Dry Bean Day

Anniversary of the "British Invasion" (in music, that is)

Birthday of comedian / actor / polyglot / marathon runner Eddie Izzard

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

February holidays
February birthdays
Historical anniversaries in February

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

September 14 – A Whole Lotta Holidays!!

(Second Saturday of September)

Posted on September 14, 2019

There are all these national days meant to focus our attention on important issues or the products that advertisers are trying to get us to buy... There are silly "holidays" and food "holidays" and so MANY holidays that, when I checked out holidays for the day, I found a bunch of special days meant to be celebrated on the second Saturday of September:

Banana Festival - Today is a chance for the people of Fulton, Kentucky, and South Fulton, Tennessee, to go bananas! The twin cities focus their concerts, races, and fair-like festivities on bananas because, in the late 1800s, the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad was the first railroad to offer refrigerated cars, and so Chiquita (as it is now named) used that railroad to ship bananas north from New Orleans. It was Fulton that had the only ice house on the route north to Chicago!

Farmers' Consumer Awareness Day - This worthwhile event, which is located in Washington, connects farmers and consumers as farmers show off farm equipment and give tours of their farms, and consumers get to ask questions about techniques and practices. The emphasis isn't just on growing and harvesting foods, but also how those foods get to the grocery store - the entire story of where our food comes from.

International Drive Your Studebaker Day - The Sudebaker Drivers Club sets up this annual day, but people are urged to have fun driving their Studebakers wherever they are. Of course local chapters of the club can organize to actually get together and host an event.

National Hollerin' Day - Spivey's Corner, North Carolina, has held an annual hollerin' contest for decades now. Hollerin' may be the earliest sort of communication humans ever used. The contest is for fun but also started as a fundraiser for a volunteer fire department.

There are four categories of hollers, apparently: communicative hollers, warnings/distress, functional farm/field/work hollers, and hollers for pleasure (these are more like music than the others). Check out more here.

National Iguana Awareness Day - Iguanas are wonderful creatures - large lizards that eat leaves, flowers, and fruit; swim; and live in trees. They're so cool that loads of people want them for pets - BUT! When almost a million iguanas are imported from tropical locales every year for the pet trade, you know you're going to have problems!

Iguanas are not great starter pets - they need special care and can be aggressive. It's hard to get veterinary care for iguanas. Also, people often buy iguanas when they are small and inexpensive - but the lizards can grow to six feet in length! Most pet owners cannot provide the right kind of home for iguanas.

Many iguanas imported as pets to warm places like Florida are released by unhappy pet owners - or escape - and they tend to wreak havoc on local ecosystems!

Basically, the awareness we should have about iguanas is: it's nice to learn about these marvelous lizards, and to admire them - but we probably shouldn't keep them as pets!

Prairie Day - This family-oriented event occurs in Missouri at the George Washington Carver National Monument. This fun and educational day not only offers insight into the agriculturalist and inventor G. W. Carver, but it's also a celebration of covered-wagon days and pioneers. We're talking horse-drawn wagon rides, quilt shows, demonstrations of everything from banjo building to basket weaving, cider making, and all manner of storytelling, singing and dulcimer playing, and a horse show!