Fans of the “Little House on the Prairie” (Laura Ingalls Wilder) will remember Charles “Pa” Ingalls and his ever-present fiddle, creating a sensory motif throughout the book series that celebrates occasions and brings comfort to the family during hard times. Specific tunes and dances were named, lyrics included, and generations of fans sang and danced to the familiar Americana tunes. Books and CDs of these tunes have been published and the music continues to be played and performed at the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites each summer.
Charles lived nearly all of his life in the Upper Midwest; first as a boy moving to Elgin, Illinois, then to Concord, Wisconsin where he met and courted his neighbor Caroline Quiner. They married, and left in 1863 for Pepin, Wisconsin. “Ma” and “Pa” moved around from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Iowa, finally settling in De Smet, South Dakota where Pa lived until his death in 1902.
His daughter Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie books series, moved with her husband and young daughter Rose to Mansfield, Missouri in the late 1890’s and stayed there until she passed in 1957. In her sixties and struggling for funds, Laura decided to turn to writing her pioneer stories. Her adult daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, was by then an acclaimed, if not controversial, author, and the two worked together to create one of the most popular and iconic children’s book series in American history.
As a fiddler immersed in the Upper Midwest fiddling style, I’ve always felt uneasy with calling Charles Ingalls an Upper Midwest fiddler. After years of reading and research, I have come to the conclusion that in the mother-daughter literary process, they turned the real Charles Ingalls into a 1920’s Ozarks fiddler playing the well-known music of the day, primarily hymns, commonly known dance tunes and minstrel tunes.
If you are curious as to how I got from point A to point B, here is an article that I was honored to be able to present to the 2025 LauraPalooza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This event, sponsored by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Literacy and Research Association, brings together the best-known scholars of Little House on the Prairie history and lore.
I do acknowledge that researching traditional music during Pa’s time is a challenge, and there is a lot of guesswork. I certainly welcome comments, questions and additional information to help us all get a better understanding of the music of this treasured series.
Mary Pat Kleven
July, 2025
marypat@roadfarming.com
