My Genealogy Hound

Pepin, Wisconsin, Ingalls Family Cabin, Little House In The Big Woods, photos

The author, Laura Ingalls was born at this location on February 7, 1867 in a small cabin, located about seven miles north of Pepin, Wisconsin. Laura's older sister, Mary, was previously born here on January 10, 1865. In 1869, when Laura was two years old, the Ingalls family moved from Pepin to a location on the prairie near Independence, Kansas. The Kansas lands the Ingalls settled on were part of the Osage Indian Reservation. As a result, in 1871, the Ingalls family returned to their cabin near Pepin, Wisconsin where they remained until 1873 when they then moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota. At the time the Ingalls family lived near Pepin, the area was rather heavily wooded. The move to Walnut Grove was to a location with more open land better suited to the taste of Charles Ingalls for the type of land he desired for farming.

Timetable:
1863: Charles Ingalls purchased land near Pepin, Wisconsin.
1865: Mary Ingalls born.
1867: Laura Ingalls born.
1869: Ingalls family moved to near Independence, Kansas; setting for the book: The Little House on The Prairie (1935).
1870: Carrie Ingalls was born.
1871: Ingalls family moved back to their family near Pepin, Wisconsin; setting for the book: The Little House In The Big Woods (1932).
1873: Ingalls family moved to Walnut Grove, Minnesota; setting for the book: On The Banks Of Plum Creek (1937).

The cabin in this photo is of a replica of the type of cabin the Ingalls Family lived in at this location near Pepin, Wisconsin. The Little House Wayside is located on Highway CC, about seven miles north of State Highway 35 in Pepin, Wisconsin. Pepin sits on the banks of Lake Pepin which is a wide point on the Mississippi River dividing the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.