Ozark Heritage: Laura Ingalls Wilder

The 'Little House' of Laura Ingalls Wilder in Mansfield Missouri
Nestled in the heart of the Ozark Mountains
Some of her 'Little House' books were penned here.

Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder
(February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957)

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Many of my readers, including my international audience, may be familiar with the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. They have been printed in many languages around the world. For those of you not familiar, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a pioneer child during the later half of the 19th century in the Midwestern to Upper Central United States. She was born in 1867 Wisconsin, just two years after the conclusion of the great Civil War that ravaged the American South. She was the second of five children born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The family originally moved to Kansas on the government promise of free land (The Homestead Act). They later moved to Minnesota, spent a brief time in Iowa, and finally back to Minnesota again, where Charles and Caroline lived the remainder of their lives. Laura eventually married Almanzo Wilder and moved to Mansfield Missouri down south of the Mason-Dixon line. It was here she eventually wrote her memoirs as a series of children's books commonly known as the 'Little House on the Prairie' collection.

The 'Rock House' English Cottage
Built by Rose Wilder for her Parents
Some 'little house' books were penned here.

During the time of Laura's childhood, tens of thousands of Americans migrated westward from the war-torn nation, motivated by the promise that if they could just settle a portion of land west of a certain government-drawn line, they would be granted full ownership of that land free of charge. It was the way in which America rebuilt herself after the Civil War and gave new hope to poor families who had nothing financially to lose. Thousands of American families travelled west on horse-drawn covered wagons with all their possessions inside (which usually didn't amount to much). Upon finding a suitable plot of land, the wagon was unloaded, and a small cabin was immediately built, usually using lumber harvested from nearby trees. Within a year, a small farm was usually planted, and the family would hope and pray for a successful crop. If the Lord blessed them, they would usually gain enough money to survive another year. If not, they suffered all the hardships of poverty, starvation and disease. Many of these settlers died on their homesteads. Many more returned back east for medical attention, hoping to get back to their homestead before it was torn down and re-settled by somebody else. Encounters (sometimes unfriendly) were common with Native American tribes.  Some settlers were highly successful, but most were modestly successful. The Ingalls family numbered among the modestly successful, with some setbacks and tragedies here and there. Their only son (Charles Fredrick) died in infancy. Their oldest daughter (Mary Amelia) went permanently blind after a bout with scarlet fever. Laura's husband Almanzo suffered from paralysis after they both contracted diphtheria while Laura was pregnant with her first child Rose Wilder. While all three survived the illness, Almanzo required a cane for the rest of his life and was unable to tolerate hard labour. This caused Laura and Almanzo's downward spiral into poverty and debt in Minnesota, eventually leading to their move to Southwest Missouri, a warmer area well-settled and civilised since long before the Civil War. Since this area was still considered "out west" the land was cheaper than east of the Mississippi, and the Civil War had been less devastating to Missouri than other regions down South. It made a much more tolerable climate for the couple to raise their small child, Rose, and was still close enough for the Ingalls and Wilder families to visit from time to time.

A young Rose Wilder with her mule
Spookendyke.  Laura and Almanzo gave
her the mule to ride to school, but Rose
reported that it was so stubborn she ended
up walking it to school most of the time.

Rose Wilder grew up as a Missourian, in the cradle of the Ozark Mountains, and then went on to become a world famous author and columnist. She returned to the Ozarks after many world travels with enough money to build her parents a luxury English cottage on their farm. It was here that Laura, at the prompting of Rose, began her 'Little House' childhood memoirs. Laura was herself a school teacher and a columnist. Now she was an author, and her books were designed to teach children about the life of rural Americans during the pioneer period after the Civil War. They have been published in multiple languages and are famous world wide. They are a wholesome and entertaining account of the latter 19th century. If you have not already introduced your children to her stories, I strongly recommend them.

I recently visited the Mansfield 'Little House' with some friends and captured some of the photographs featured here. While I was not permitted to take pictures of any of the interiors (houses and museum), I was free to take all the pictures I wanted outside. The interior of the houses were remarkable, as I was privileged to stand in the home and touch some of the items of this world-famous American icon. In the 1980s, film producer Michael Landon, created a movie and television series based on the memoirs of Laura Ingalls Wilder. While much of the film episodes are fiction, they are set to the historical reality of her life and times. Laura was portrayed by actress Melissa Gilbert and the episodes were narrated by her in the way Laura wrote her books. These are interesting fictional stories based on factual people and lives.

Today's local children playing
in Mansfield Missouri

The Ozark Mountains in Southern Missouri are filled with history and culture. Moving to this area was one the most rewarding decisions I've ever made. For my Catholic readers, you will be pleased to learn that Catholicism is growing in this area at a nearly exponential rate. The small rural town of Mansfield Missouri already has a thriving Catholic Church. Missouri also has some of the most generous home-schooling laws in the world, making the state extremely hospitable to traditional family life. If you are a traditionally-minded Catholic family anywhere in the United States, a move to the Ozark Mountains of Southwest Missouri or Northwest Arkansas might be a desirable placed to raise your children. It certainly worked out well for me and of course Laura Ingalls Wilder.

CATHOLICS WIN DEEP SOUTH !!!

The St. Andrew's Banner of Dixie Papists

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: History has just been made. For the first time ever, the Deep South of Dixie has just voted for two Catholic candidates for president. South Carolina and Georgia voted for Catholic convert Newt Gingrich, while Alabama and Mississippi just voted for traditional Latin Mass Catholic Rick Santorum.

Catholic Convert
Newt Gingrich

Traditional Catholic
Rick Santorum

While I suffer from no illusions about either of these two candidates -- they are both big government Republicans who have compromised their conservative principles -- I am compelled to point out to my readers that history has just been made. The Deep South of Dixie has just demonstrated a willingness to shed its anti-Catholic history and support a Catholic for the highest office of the land. (They just can't decide which one yet.)

When you couple this with the fact that Catholics are taking leadership roles within the New Southern Nationalist movement, it can safely be said that what we are witnessing in the Southland of Dixie is a profound paradigm shift crossing all religious lines. The South is coming out pro-Catholic, and as far as this strongly Evangelical part of the United States goes, they say the more traditionally-conservative Catholic the better. (Now if we can only find one that believes in Subsidiarity.)

A Southern (Dixie) Take on Monarchy

(Southern Nationalist Network) - As demonstrated by Dr Hoppe, the democratic age has brought about less liberty, weaker families, a declining birth rate and total war. It should be clear that democracy is a failure. It is a regression back into barbarism, not a progressive step forward as it is generally understood today due to non-stop propaganda in its favour. Most of our Southern ancestors wisely rejected democracy and the ‘progressive’ agenda which came from New England and the North. Instead, Southerners embraced an extremely limited, aristocratic republic which in many ways had more in common with a traditional monarchy than a modern democracy. Once liberty and property rights were the key political issues in Southern society and government interfered little in people’s lives. The Southern population was growing and highly affluent. Under democracy today the South is the poorest region of the United States, crime is rampant, millions of Third World aliens populate our States, birth rates have dramatically fallen, hundreds of thousands of laws regulate our every activity, and war (generally aggressive) is nearly always present. The more democracy has been forced upon us, the worse off we have become. Under the monarchical system the West ruled supreme in the world by any possible standard.  Civilisation was on an upwards trend. There seemed to be no height to which we couldn’t reach. Today we live in a dying civilisation. The old optimism is rightfully gone and we wonder now if we will even be able to survive the present century. Not all our problems can be blamed upon democracy, but surely this awful, failed system deserves a great deal of the blame. If we are to correct the direction of our civilisation one of the things we must do is reject the democratic system. We can not return to the past; however, by studying our past and looking back at a more healthy age and system, we can find answers which can be adapted to our present problems in the modern age. Folks like Dr Hans-Hermann Hoppe are doing invaluable work by pointing us in the right direction...

read full story here
Click here for the audio (duration: 19:15)

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT:  While most folks wouldn't normally associate Dixie Nationalism with monarchy, there is a school of thought among some Southerners that perhaps a more traditional form of government is needed that has strong ties to our European Christian heritage.  It's not hard to see traces of this element woven throughout Southern society.  For example, Southern hospitality harkens back to medieval chivalry.  Southern honour also harkens back to chivalry, when a man's word was his bond, and his integrity was not to be insulted.  Southerners have always been a traditional people, sometimes even to a fault, and this has caused us more than our share of trouble over the last century and a half.  While most Southerners would just desire things to 'go back to the way they were' in the Constitutional Republic days of the American Empire, a growing number are beginning to realise that is never going to happen.  Among those Southerners who yearn for independence again, some are open to discussion on more traditional forms of government -- monarchy in particular -- and this creates an interesting overlap with the traditional Catholic perspective.  The above citation and podcast is from a Southern (Dixie) Nationalist news blog.  I'm sure my readers will find it interesting.

THE EPIC FAILURE OF MODERNISM

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Social science has now FINALLY caught up with the Catholic Church. The latest studies show that while the world population is growing, the number of children per household is actually decreasing -- EVERYWHERE -- even in Islamic countries! The reason why the world population continues to rise is not because people are having more babies, but because people are living longer. We will hit a population plateau within the next couple decades, which will be followed by a rapid decline in overall population. The effect of this will be a prolonged and unending economic depression!!!

Causes of Depopulation...

1. Career Women - Feminism.
2. Affluence - Decadence - (fewer children - invest more in each child).
3. Artificial birth control - coupled with sexual promiscuity - sexual revolution.
4. Cohabitation = less children.
5. No fault divorce = family instability.
6. Unwarranted fears of overpopulation (not supported by modern data).

Social scientists now admit that MARRIAGE DOES MATTER. MARRIAGE DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. THE CHURCH WAS RIGHT!!! The Church was right about marriage. The Church was right about family. The Church was right about artificial birth control.

Forward this blog post. Get the word out!!!!

How To Break Up America's Political Establishment

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Many of my readers in the United States have written me to lament the current two-party (Democrat - Republican) political monopoly. They have rightly assessed the hopelessness of the situation and the virtual impossibility of establishing a viable third-party. They ask me what they can do, if anything, to change the system.

I am now going to reveal to you the way in which the two-party political monopoly in the United States can be broken up permenantly. The strategy is really very simple, and it's a whole lot easier than trying to establish a nationwide third-party. Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Here it is...

ESTABLISH LOCAL STATE PARTIES INSTEAD.

That's right, if your state doesn't already have one, then look toward establishing one. For example, I live in Missouri, and we don't currently have a state party. I would propose that some folks in my state get together and create the 'Missouri Party' or something akin to that. The goals and objectives of this party are simply to preserve and protect the best interests of Missourians against any threat to our state sovereignty from within or without. The state party should avoid controversial social and fiscal issues, focusing instead on what best preserves the sovereignty of the state, which of course protects the rights of Missouri voters. We would want to run state and local candidates for office, but we would limit our activities to that. We would not run federal candidates. In time, as each state party gains traction among their state population, the Democrats and Republicans will slowly lose their grip in those states, eventually losing their grip on federal politics as well.

State parties should avoid endorsing federal candidates from the Republicans and Democrats. If however, they feel they simply must endorse somebody, than the criteria should be based entirely on one thing. Which candidate will do more to preserve and protect the sovereignty of that state, and the right of that state to manage its own affairs.

If this strategy were enacted tomorrow, in at least half the states in the Union, than I predict by 2016 the Republicans and Democrats would begin losing control. By 2020, they would be bowing to kiss the rings of each state party chairman. As a result, local voters would have far more control over their local governments, and considerable more control over the runaway federal government. That is, if the federal government still exists in 2020.

The Sad State of the U.S. Catholic Church

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: About twenty years ago I was an Evangelical. I was part of a growing and vibrant movement. These communities couldn't expand their worship chapels fast enough. No sooner than they would grow out of a renovated store front, they would buy an abandon grocery store and convert it into a chapel, only to have to sell it a few years later and move into a renovated office building where they could build stadium seating. I now live in an area in Southwest Missouri where mega-churches the size of small college campuses dot the landscape. For all of their growth however, I knew something was missing.

A Modernist tsunami swept over all Western Christianity
in the  1960s - 1970s

Evangelicals are known to church hop. In fact they are notorious for it. They move around from congregation to congregation, 'wherever the Spirit is leading,' so they say. Rarely do they settle down on a permanent church home. So naturally these communities are highly competitive with each other for new members. 'Come to our church, we have a new children's ministry!' and 'No, come to our church, we have a new rocking worship band!' Another funny thing about the Evangelical churches of today is that they were the mainstream Protestant churches of yesteryear. This is another example of church hopping. Socially speaking, mainstream Protestantism never died. It just morphed. As liberal modernists began taking over the leadership positions of mainstream Protestant denominations during the 1960s through 1970s, their relatively conservative and traditional congregations just left. A mass exodus occurred over the course of three decades, as the old mainstream Protestants simply became the new Evangelicals! My own family of five, in which I was raised, is a perfect example of this. We started off as Lutherans in the 1970s. During the 1980s we transitioned to Baptists, and finally by the 1990s we were full-fledged nondenominational Evangelicals. My family has since remained in the Evangelical fold, while only I myself, along with my wife and children have gone back to the Catholic Church via the Canterbury Trail. This is because I came to understand an inherent weakness in the Protestant strategy of preservation through schism. You see, Protestants never confronted the tsunami of liberal Modernism that swept through Western society during the 1960s and 70s. Instead, they just ran away from it. When the liberal Modernists infected their churches, and took them over, they didn't fight to regain control. They just left and started their own new Evangelical churches. There are many problems with this, which I could spend a lot of time talking about here, but I won't. Instead I will just say this. Sooner or later, when you fail to face your problems, they eventually catch up with you. So it is with Evangelicalism. The Modernist tsunami is just now touching the doors of the Evangelical churches, and guess what! The water is getting inside. It's just a matter of time now. Soon they will be dealing with all the same problems as their traditional Protestant counterparts. Women will demand ordination (it's already happened in some of these churches) and homosexuals will demand to be recognised as 'normal.' Evangelicals will not have the tools to confront the flood once they are up to their knees in it. Their only choice will again be preservation through schism again, and this time, they really have nowhere else to go. The entire Evangelical Movement has done nothing but postpone the inevitable.

This Modernist tsunami affected every aspect of Western
society and religion itself was not immune.

As I said, my wife and I came into the Catholic Church via the Canterbury Trail. I won't go into the methodology that led to our decision to leave Evangelicalism for Anglicanism, but suffice it to say, rather than run away from the tsunami, we chose to dive right into it. There in The Episcopal Church U.S.A. we found ourselves confronted with literally everything our family had run away from -- liberal Modernism in religious robes. Thankfully, we had a relatively conservative priest, a leftover from a time long past, to help us overcome our fears of catholic ritual and tradition. What he could not help us overcome was the obvious flood of liberal Modernism that was all around us, something that he himself struggled with. My wife and I knew we could not support an institution that embraced this sort of thing, and we quickly discovered why our parents left the Lutheran church some twenty years prior. Nevertheless, our good Episcopal priest had showed us enough to overcome our fears, and so we jumped into the Tiber River and swam over to Rome.

The effect of Modernism on religion is always the same.
Only the Catholic Church has remained intact, though damaged,
after the Modernist tsunami swept through Western Christianity.

Once in the Roman Catholic Church we discovered the same liberal-Modernist tsunami had swept over there too, leaving a wake of destruction in its path. However, something was different in the Catholic fold. While many Catholics no longer practice, and those few who do oppose the Church in many areas, the doctrine of the Church remains intact. The pope remains in charge as its defender. For all the damage Modernism has wrought to Western Christianity, it is the Catholic Church alone that has neither succumbed to it, nor run away from it. Her doctrine remains intact, and the Gates of Hell have not prevailed. As the Voris video above accurately assesses the damage done to the Catholic Church by the Modernist tsunami, it does not point out what I have here. The Catholic Church took the tsunami head on, absorbing the full force of it, enduring an incredible amount of damage in the process. Many of our people were swept away by its sheer force. Yet in spite of that, the Catholic Church still stands. The Rock of Peter still reigns in Rome. All the forces of Hell could not wash it away. Now as the water recedes, and the damage is revealed, we are in awe of its devastation. The good news is it's nearly over. Rome has been tested, and Rome has survived. The mainstream Protestant denominations did not survive. They were changed, becoming part of the tsunami itself. As for the majority of mainstream Protestants, well, they just ran away, becoming Evangelicals, but they shall not escape. For some reason unknown to us, it would seem that God has ordained this tsunami to hit all of Western Christianity. Their time is coming. Indeed, that time has already come. Their church basements are already flooding. As for we Catholics, our flood is nearly over. Now comes the clean up work. As we clean up, some of our washed-away members will return to us, wandering back through the devastation, and when they find their way home, they will help us clean up. Don't be discouraged by this work. God has preserved a remnant for it. He always does.

Maybe We Should Let The Mormon Win

If Elected, Mitt Romney Would Become America's First Mormon President

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: I realise this may sound incredibly selfish so please forgive me. Considering the likelihood that America is headed for another economic catastrophe in the not-too-distant future, including the possibility of a crippling war as well, I'm almost glad Mitt Romney (a Mormon) has taken the lead for the GOP presidential nomination. I would hate for a Catholic (Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich) to be at the helm when this ship goes down. People hate Catholics enough already. We don't need the sinking of America on our backs too.

The Sinking Titanic Draws Many
Parallels to America's Future

I'm just saying, the way people usually write the history books, Catholics almost universally get blamed whenever something goes wrong in society, whether the connection is real or just perceived. So I would hate to see the Catholic Church get blamed for the sinking of America in the not-too-distant future. This ship is going down. I say, let the Mormon have the wheel. Catholics should be readying the lifeboats.

Now the Mormons have a prophecy which many (not all but many) hold to be true, and it goes something like this.  'Joseph Smith, the prophet, was inspired to affirm and ratify this truth, and he further predicted that the time would come, when the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread, and that the Latter-day Saints above all other people in the world would come to the rescue of that great and glorious palladium of our liberty' (Conference Report, October 1912, p.10).  As I said, not all Mormons agree on this, but a fairly large number of them do.  Mitt Romney has been asked about this specifically, in reference to the notion that he might be the representative of the "white horse" of Mormonism that Joseph Smith referred to in his so-called 'white horse prophecy.'  Romney wisely dismissed the notion that he thought of himself in any such way.  He did not however dismiss the prophecy itself.  Undoubtedly, if elected, many Mormons will view Romney as the fulfilment of the 'white horse prophecy' and see our current times as those Joseph Smith spoke of 'when the Constitution would hand by a thread.'  Of the latter portion about the Constitution we cannot deny.  Indeed it is hanging by a threat and has been for some time.  As for Romney being some kind of 'white horse' representative of Mormonism that is destined to save America from the abyss, well perhaps it's time the Mormons had their way to see if their so-called 'prophecy' comes true.  Perhaps if America sinks with a Mormon at the helm, they may come to question some of the other teachings of Joseph Smith as well.

Many things may happen in the next president's term, regardless if it is Romney or Obama in the Whitehouse.  A middle-eastern war between Israel and Iran seems almost certain to play out now, either under Obama's administration, or Romney's administration, depending on if/when Obama takes us to war before the election.  While Iran will certainly take a beating like nothing its ever seen before, we have to remember, these are the Persians we are dealing with here.  It's going to be a little different than Iraq.  These people aren't going anywhere, and they sure as hell are not going to easily submit to some Western power (especially the Zionist state).  There is going to be some blow back, and there are no time limits imposed on that.  The Persians may have the means to react quickly, say within a year, or slowly within ten years, but they will hit back and it will be hard.  Nine-eleven 2001 was a direct Sunni Fundamentalist response to the Persian Gulf War.  It took them an entire decade to pull off their revenge on the United States for interfering in Arabian politics.  Likewise, the Iranians will do the same, but I don't think it will take them nearly as long to pull it off.  Meanwhile, the war itself will cripple the United States financially, while Israel will find itself in even a more vulnerable position as the entire Arab world will be enraged by their attack on an Islamic Republic.  The eventual fall of Israel is almost certain, if not sooner than later.  It will cause a Second Holocaust in that region, which is unthinkable, but here at home it will disrupt the Dispensationalist faith of millions of American Evangelicals.  This of course provides a huge missionary opportunity for Catholics in the Midwest and South (Dixie) but that can't happen if a Catholic is at the wheel of this sinking nation, and the Israeli Holocaust happens under his watch.  He will be blamed for the catastrophe, and the Catholic Church will be seen as the agent behind it all.  This is the typical Evangelical tripe we get from them all the time.  Remove a Catholic president from the equation, and all of this goes away.  Either Romney (the Mormon) or Obama (the ???) will get the blame, while Catholics are free to do what Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI have been calling us to do all along -- EVANGELISE!!!