Throughout the widely read children’s book series “Little House on the Prairie” and the autobiography “Pioneer Girl” Laura Ingalls Wilder painted a portrait of her father as a fiddler who played a wide variety of music for all occasions. Charles “Pa” Ingalls (1836-1902) likely learned to fiddle in northern Illinois and lived most of his life in the Upper Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota.
Tunes vs Songs
In the books, nearly all the music titles that Laura references are all popular songs and hymns of the day that were well researched and recorded. These songs ranged from minstrel songs, Civil War tunes, popular songs of the day and hymns. However, Laura mentions very few regular fiddle tunes; and the ones she does are extremely common.
For the purpose of this article, I will define tunes as instrumental pieces that are played, typically for dances, and songs, which have lyrics as being sung. There are a few that fit into both categories (such as Buffalo Gals), but for the most part, fiddling can be divided into tunes and songs.
This article addresses the many other tunes that Charles Ingalls would likely have played on his fiddle. When we dive into her writings along with research done by Laura Ingalls Wilder scholars and compare it with the research being done in Upper Midwest fiddling, we can conclude that Pa likely had an extensive repertoire of Upper Midwest tunes, including waltzes, schottisches, polkas, jigs and reels from his Scandinavian and Irish neighbors, and perhaps even some Illinois tunes from his teenage years.
Fiddle Music of the Upper Midwest
“The Upper Midwest was not the America of New England villages, New York tenements, Pennsylvania Dutch farms, Appalachian hollows, Southern cotton plantations, or Western plains celebrated by folklorists and familiar to the nation. Here was a territory of deep woods, inland seas, mines, mills and hardscrabble farms; a place wherein Native peoples, native-born and newcomers jostled, jangled and intermingled to forge Another America.” From “Folksongs of Another America
There are a wide variety of different fiddling styles throughout the United States, and this statement seems to capture the essence of Upper Midwest music in comparisons to other parts of the country. In terms of fiddle music, some of these distinctions include:
Type of tunes – Fiddlers from the Upper Midwest typically play a blend of waltzes, schottisches, polkas, jigs and reels (or hoedowns). The brought a wide variety of tunes from their native cultures, but when they go to the United States, these were the tunes that they could agree on.
Tone – The music has a clear quality to it, notes are played distinctly, generally a sweeter more melodic sound than the hard driving rhythmic music of the south.
Melodic line – Unlike Appalachian music, the tunes are quite “notey” with lots of runs and arpeggios.
Harmony – Because of more complicated melodic line, there aren’t as many drones or double stops (two notes at once). Backup is nearly always guitar, sometimes mandolin, and occasionally a banjo. Accordion backup became popular in the early 1900’s.
Tuning – Pa would have learned from the Norwegians that settled in Walnut Grove, and they would have played their Hardanger Fiddle, the type of fiddle common from Norway. The Hardanger looks similar to the standard violin, except that it has four strings that run under the keyboard that provide sympathetic vibrations when the top strings are played. Norwegian fiddlers often tuned their instruments in A-D-A-E or A-E-A-E rather than the standard tuning of G-D-A-E. When played in this tuning, the Scandinavian tunes have a wonderful sweet ringing quality to them. Perhaps this is why Laura often referred to Pa’s fiddle “singing” at night.
Key Signatures – Upper Midwest tunes are typically in major keys and other than Irish tunes, very rarely are they in minor or modal keys. They are most often in the “open” keys of G, D and A as these are the easiest keys for a fiddler to play in. Some Upper Midwest tunes that have been collected are in F and in Bb, which is a bit more common in Irish but unheard of in Appalachian music. Tunes may sometimes switch keys (most commonly D to A) between parts (most tunes are two-part, A and B). This also suggests that the banjo was not used as often as accompaniment as it is more difficult for the banjo to change keys quickly.
Folk Processing – Much of the music brought over by immigrants has been simplified; perhaps because it was played by amateurs – hardworking men and women who picked up an instrument only when their demanding lives allowed a little leisure time. Scandinavian tunes that had three parts were shortened to two, and some ornamentation was dropped. This is evident when we compare current day Norwegian musicians with musicians from the Upper Midwest; the tunes have a very different quality to them. We also find that many tunes we’ve collected have an A or B part from another tune, so they are essentially “mash ups” of the tunes. The style of music changed when it came to America. One great example is the Scottish Hornpipe. In the old country, this was a medium tempo tune with a dotted eight pattern that was danced by an individual man with intricate footwork. In America, these were turned into reels for contra dances played straight and fast.
Religious influences – The fiddle in America has long been associated with the devil, and we may wonder how we can reconcile Pa’s fiddling with Laura’s stories of the strict codes of religious behavior on Sunday, practiced by the Ingalls. However, the strict ban of dancing, and the fiddling that went with it, was not as prevalent in the Upper Midwest, and Pa and Ma, according to Laura, “saw nothing wrong in it, and the events passed gaily with Pa’s music and our dancing.” The reason may be because many accounts of dances of the day describe them as family affairs including babies to grandparents, with fewer descriptions of drunken and lewd behavior. And Laura makes it clear that “weekday tunes” were not played on Sunday – instead, Pa switched to playing hymns.
Gender differences – It was not surprising that Laura and her sisters didn’t learn to play the fiddle. Women fiddlers were rare; by and larger the fiddle was considered an instrument to be played by men. Women generally played piano and men played the fiddle. However, even this changed in the Upper Midwest; by 1926, newspaper accounts of fiddle contests in Minnesota list numerous female fiddlers.
Background on Charles Ingalls
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s father, Charles Phillip Ingalls, affectionately (and hereafter known as Pa) was born January 10th, 1836 in Cuba, NY. When he was eight or nine, his family loaded up their wagon and headed west. Pa ended up in Elgin, Illinois (Kane County) on Fox River around 1844-1845. As a teenager, he attended monthly dances upstairs at the Garfield House Inn/Tavern. It is possible that this is when he acquired his violin, a mass-produced German instrument dated 1850, and learned how to play although it could have been earlier, as at that time, it was typical for a child to learn to play an instrument when they were old enough to hold it. Many children who spent time around music and dancing knew many of the tunes before they were able to play them, so it came quite naturally once they were old enough. In general, fiddlers would learn how to play by being mentored by older relatives or neighbors who played.
Charles would have started his musical journey with the English, Scottish and Quebecois (French Canadian) traditions from New York State, which we think of in the Midwest as the “Yorker” traditions. During Charles’ time in Illinois, the waltz, polka and schottische were newer musical forms that were still growing in popularity; he more likely picked these tunes up later in Wisconsin and Minnesota and taught Laura and Carrie to dance these “round dances” in their home. Instead, he would have spent his formative years learning reels, hornpipes, jigs, marches and quicksteps.
Pa moved in 1851, following the Fox River north from Illinois to Wisconsin, settling in Concord, Wisconsin (Jefferson County) just west of Milwaukee, on the north banks of the Oconomowoc River. There he met and courted his neighbor Caroline and took her to dances. They married, and left by 1863 for Pepin, Wisconsin.
At this point, some of these dates may look different to the reader. Laura needed to rearrange dates and eliminate details in order to make The Little House on the Prairie books work for a children’s book series. For this reason, the series is considered historical fiction.
Laura was born in Pepin in 1867 and headed with her family to Kansas in 1869 for new land. It turned out to be land that was still owned by the local tribes, so Pa headed back to Wisconsin in 1871 and lived in Pierce and Pepin Counties until 1874.
Pa moved the family west to Minnesota; in Feb 1874, they crossed Lake Pepin on the ice and ended up in Lake City. They then traveled to New Ulm, Minnesota where Pa played the fiddle by campfire at night, and finally settled in Walnut Grove, Minnesota (by Plum Creek) that summer. An historic grasshopper invasion drove them out and they spent the summer of 1876 in the township of South Troy, Minnesota camping along the Zumbro River before heading to a job in Burr Oak, Iowa. After an unsatisfactory year of working in Burr Oak, they returned to Walnut Grove in 1877. They continued west in 1879 to Dakota Territory, where Charles remained for the rest of his life. He died in 1902, in DeSmet, South Dakota.
Music of the Day
Since instrumental fiddle tunes are nearly always intended for dancing, in order to determine what types of tunes Pa played, we need to look at the references to the dances. Pa attended dances as a teenager in Elgin, Illinois and courted his future wife Caroline at dances in Concord, Wisconsin. This is most likely where he learned the popular tunes of the day, including those that Laura mentions.
Iva Dingwall (1877 – 1965) was a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder who learned how to fiddle from her father, and as a child, accompanied him to many of the dances held around their Elk River, Minnesota home. In 1891, the family moved to Superior, Wisconsin (adjacent to Duluth, Minnesota), where Iva married, raised a family and played and taught music, and wrote articles on her childhood. Iva recorded tunes that she learned from her dad in the 1950’s, and in studying these source recordings, we learn that she was using the version that appear in the multi volume work called Howe’s Musicians Companion and Howe’s Musicians Omnibus published in Boston from the 1840’s through 1863.
Dance at Summer Hill
In her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, Laura wrote about a dance in Pepin, Wisconsin at their Irish neighbor, Mr. Huleatt. Ma (Caroline) danced at the party and Pa played his fiddle part of the time. “Sometimes he stood by the wall and played it, and sometimes he danced, keeping right on playing. There were other fiddlers there too and a banjo.”
It’s not surprising that Pa was familiar with Irish music. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, most of the Irish Immigrants in Wisconsin came between 1840 and 1860 and were the largest English-speaking group to settle in the state.
We don’t know what tunes they played, because unlike Scottish music, traditional Irish music during that time was in danger of becoming extinct for economic and political reasons, and very little is known of tunes that may have been around Wisconsin in the 1860’s. Fortunately, Irish police chief, author and musician Francis O’Neill started collecting these tunes in Chicago at the turn of the century and with the help of his nephew, they’ve been written down and preserved. By his death in 1936, he’d published 3,500 tunes, and his music is widely heard today.
When recreating the dance at Summer Hill, there are a handful of Irish tunes that show up in the Howe’s collections; all of these tunes and the tunes collected by Francis O’Neil are the ones that are most likely to accurately capture the spirit of the event that Laura experienced. The Celtic tunes that Laura does mention in her books, such as Haste to the Wedding (pub. 1800), Miss McLeod’s Reel (pub. 1809), and Money Musk (pub. 1780) are Scottish rather than Irish tunes. The Scots were generally wealthier, and their musical traditions were written down and widely known. These tunes are also sometimes played by Irish fiddlers and may show up in Irish tune books, but they originated in Scotland, so it is hard to know if they were played at Summer Hill. This is an area that certainly warrants more study.
Dance at Grandpa’s
Laura briefly mentions a dance at her Grandpa Ingalls that occurred while they lived in Pepin, and she provides a great deal more detail on the dance in her book Little House in the Big Woods. As a traditional Upper Midwest fiddler, I have been working on recreating this dance in various fashions as a program piece. Her retelling may be influenced by the fact that she had been living in the Ozarks for years before writing the stories, as the steps and tunes mentioned have a little more of a Missouri feel. When I play Iva Dingwall’s tunes and use versions from the Howe’s books, I get much more of an Upper Midwest feel to the story.
The biggest difference is the jigging contest described in Dance at Grandpa’s. According to Old Time Ozark Square Dancing, “The most noticeable regional difference in this square dancing is the jigging where each one dances as he or she wants to. Some shuffle to the music, some step around in time to the music and some do a more difficult step often called a jig.” I haven’t found as many accounts of this being done in the Upper Midwest.
Waltzes, schottisches and polkas
In Pioneer Girl, Laura writes that while living in Walnut Grove between 1877-1879:
“On stormy winter evenings, Pa loved to play his violin and he took great pains to teach Carrie and me to dance together nicely all the round dances. With him playing, and watching our steps to see that we did them right, we learned to waltz, schottische and polka. Pa had taught me some of the steps before, but I had to dance alone. Now Carrie was big enough to dance with me, we became quite expert, and were often called on to dance when someone came in for the evening.”
By looking at these dates, we can presume that Laura first learned these dances when she first moved to Minnesota in 1874. Later, while living in the Dakota Territory 1880-1885, she refers to being invited to a square dance and games.
“I could have dance waltzes, polkas or schottisches as Pa had taught me long ago, but had never learned the square dances, so I went through them awkwardly.”
The type of dancing that Laura refers to is the house party that was popular in the Upper Midwest until the advent of the automobile. The tunes played were waltzes, schottisches, polkas, quadrilles, squares and set dances. The fiddle was the key instrument, sometimes two. Often there was a guitar or a banjo. After the 1900’s, the piano, pump organ or button-box accordion was the common accompaniment. Elmo Wick, a fiddler who lived about 80 miles north of Walnut Grove, collected tunes from his family and neighbors along with notations. This collection, Fiddle Music of Crow River Country: The Music of Elmo Wick, provides tunes that, like the O’Neil collection, can provide an historically accurate recreation of the types of tunes that Pa would have played.
It is not surprising that Laura didn’t write down the names of the waltzes, schottisches and polkas that she danced. Scandinavians either did not name their tunes or would name their tune after the fiddle they learned it from, meaning that the name changed as the tune was passed along. This naming convention makes it very difficult to trace tunes.
It is also not surprising that Laura struggled to spell schottische in writing her autobiography. We’ve also seen it spelled schottis in some manuscripts; and while the Swedish call these tunes schottisches, in Norwegian, it is called a reinlender, which is also misspelled as Rhinelander.
Pa’s Fiddle Project
A recent set of recordings called “Pa’s Fiddle Project” does a beautiful job of setting out all the fiddle tunes that Laura mentioned in her children’s book series. However, the CDs were recorded in Nashville, Tennessee by a group of bluegrass musicians, and while these talented musicians did a lovely job, the recordings have been largely disregarded by more traditional Upper Midwest fiddlers for their historical inaccuracy.
Bluegrass was developed in the 1940s in Kentucky, and came into its heyday in the 1950’s and 60’s. Traditionally, bluegrass bands have five acoustic instruments (fiddle, guitar, bass, mandolin and modern banjo). The tune is played, then passed around from instrument to instrument (called “passing the break”), with lots of improvisation. There is a great deal more singing in Bluegrass music with the instrumental breaks. This style of music is intended for listening.
Pa would have played in the old-time style, meaning that he would have been the lead and would have played the tune for the entire time, usually the length of the dance or song. He probably only played with one or two other musicians, and it would be whoever showed up and was available. If there was a banjo (not as common in Wisconsin and Minnesota at the time) it would have been very different in construction and sound than today’s bluegrass banjo. He might have varied his tunes a little each time they were played, but not a complete improvisation.
To be clear, Pa did not play country or bluegrass, ragtime, blues, Southern Appalachian, Texas or sing cowboy songs. All of these styles developed, or were discovered, after he passed away in 1902. While the music he played predates all of these, much of these traditional tunes serve as the basis for all these genres.
The Red Heifer
This tune continues to be a mystery; Laura mentions this fiddle tune more than once in her writings, but historians have considered this tune as lost. Some have suggested that it was an Irish tune called the Yellow Heifer or The Red Cow, and Laura simply confused the title. Since Laura was unable to recall any of the other Irish tunes Pa played, it seemed unlikely to me that she was persistent on recalling this particular one.
Recently, when a klezmer band posted a tune called The Red Heifer on YouTube, it generated some excitement about Laura enthusiasts. This particular tune, however, was written by Andy Stratman from Montreal, Canada in 2014, so it is not the tune Laura has named. It did get me thinking though; as a girl growing up in Milwaukee I recall it having a vibrant Jewish culture. I did some research and found a 2010 article in the Daily Jefferson Union describing a small Jewish community in a part of the Town of Concord called Bakertown that was in existence during the same time that Pa lived in the area, about six miles away. The Baker family owned a creamery and a broom factory and established a small synagogue. Since many Jewish boys learned to play the violin, and The Red Heifer is a significant symbol in the Jewish religion, it would make sense that The Red Heifer was a Jewish fiddle tune that Pa picked up during his time in Concord either directly from a Jewish fiddler, or from another fiddler who had picked up the tune. It would have had a very distinctive sound, much different than the other tunes that Pa played, making it likely that it stuck in Laura’s memory. If the tune was collected and written down, it was likely written in Hebrew, so it wouldn’t have showed up in previous searches. It is most likely, however, that this is a folk tune that has disappeared, leaving us wondering at its origins.
Versions
We’ve mentioned the concept of “folk processing” which is extremely common in fiddle music. Knowing the name of a tune is not always a reliable source, as the same tune name can have many different variations, and sometimes, completely different tunes. Laura alludes to this in the Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Early on, in her conversations with her agent, she agrees that the publisher should check all the musical references to make sure they are okay to publish. Essentially, I take this to mean that the versions that appeared in the books were ones that the lawyers deemed okay to use. Later, she writes to her daughter that she ran across written versions of “Blue Juniata” and “Mary of the Wild Moor” signed by her Pa that was not the version in the book but was the one she recalled. This brings into question many of the versions printed in the book; for example, did Pa sing “Home Sweet Home” as published as a popular parlor tune of the day, or did he play “Home Waltz” – a ¾ time version or “Sweet Home” a 2/4-time march version of the same tune – or perhaps all three? The books list the popular version of “Old Dan Tucker”, but Iva Dingwall played as a fast, square dance tune as published in Howe’s. Because Laura lacked the resources to research the music in greater depth, and the children’s books were so heavily edited, we need to rely on other sources to verify the music she includes in the stories.
In my opinion, the casual reader should enjoy the music as they see fit and enthusiasts should appreciate that there may be other interpretations of the music written in the book. On the other hand, ethnomusicologists should not cite the children’s book series “Little House on the Prairie” as a primary source for the music of the day unless they have a secondary source to back up their statement.
Upper Midwest Fiddle Tune Resources
Other tune books that provide resources for fiddle music played in Wisconsin and Minnesota during Pa’s time there (1853-1879) include:
Howe’s Musicians Companion and Howe’s Musician’s Omnibus (many of these were later published under the titlesRyan’s Mammoth Collection and Cole’s 1000).
Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Projects I and II (Reviving the Wisconsin Barn Dance Tunes of Leonard Finseth) by Michael Sawyer
The Music of Elmo Wick: Fiddle Tunes from Crow River Country by Mary Pat Kleven
O’Neill’s Music of Ireland by Francis O’Neill
Scandinavian Old Time Music, Vols 1, 2 and 3 by LeRoy Larson
Uff Da! Let’s Dance! Scandinavian Tunes & House Party Music for Accordion by Bruce Bollerud
About the Author
Mary Pat Kleven, Cannon Falls, Minnesota, received her bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, and studied classical music for many years. She first learned the old-time fiddling style from Debra Greenblatt, Nebraska Arts Board Artist in Residence. She is the current president of the Minnesota State Fiddlers Association, and the recipient of two Minnesota State Arts Board grants for old-time fiddling and is the author of “The Music of Elmo Wick – Fiddle Tunes from Crow River Country”. An award-winning contest fiddler herself, she now organizes the Old Tyme Fiddle Contest at Laura Days in Pepin, Wisconsin. She is a member of “Hoof on the Roof,” an old-time string band that plays dance music from the Upper Midwest. She writes a blog that is available at www.roadfarming.com.
References
Anderson, William. (1992) Laura Ingalls Wilder – A Biography. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Author unknown, December 28, 2010. Bakertown School a Fond Memory. Daily Union. Retrieved from: https://www.dailyunion.com/news/bakertown-school-a-fond-memory/article_978dae4d-7e47-57be-b625-
e303bffcdda6.html
Bollerud, Bruce. (2009) Uff Da! Let’s Dance! Scandinavian Tunes & House Party Music for Accordian. Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
Edwards, Matt.(2014). The Leonard Finseth Tunebook. St Paul, MN.
Fraser, Caroline. (2017). Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.
Haggerty, Bridget. Francis O’Neill – The Man Who Saved Our Music. Irish Culture and Customs. Retrieved from: https://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/AMusic/FrancisONeil.html
Kleven, Mary P. (2016). The Music of Elmo Wick: Fiddle Tunes of Crow River Country. Cannon Falls, MN: Minnesota State Fiddlers Association.
Krassen, Miles. (1976) O’Neill’s Music of Ireland. New York, NY:Oak Publications.
Leary, James P. (2015). Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Leary, J. P. (1999). Wisconsin folklore. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
Martin, Phillip. (1994) Farmhouse Fiddlers, Music & Dance Traditions in the Rural Midwest. Mount Horeb, Wisconsin: Midwest Traditions, Inc.
Mulrenin, Karen; Saeger, Rita; Brandt, Terry. Fall, 1974. Old Time Ozark Square Dancing. Bittersweet. Retrieved from: https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/fa74d.htm
Howe, Elias. (1843) Musician’s Companion, three vol. Boston, MA, Ditson
Howe, Elias (1861) Musician’s Omnibus, five vol. Boston, MA, Elias Howe Co.
Sawyer, Michael (2012) Minnesota Fiddle Tunes Project. Retrieved from http://minnesotafiddle.blogspot.com/
Smith-Hill, Pamela. (2014). Pioneer Girl – The Annotated Autobiography. Pierre, South Dakota: South Dakota Historical Society Press.
Traditional Tune Archive. Money Musk. Retrived from:
https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Money_Musk_(1)
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. (1932) Little House in the Big Woods. New York, NY: Harper Collins
Wilder, L. I., & Anderson, W. (2016). The selected letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder /cLaura Ingalls Wilder, edited by William Anderson. New York: Harper Collins Books.
