Hysterical Journey to Historic Places

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AMUSING FAMILY CONNECTIONS

A girl named Laura Ingalls was born in 1867 and grew up on the prairie. One of the first places she lived was on a hard scrabble little farm a few miles southwest of Independence Kansas. Her dad, Charles Ingalls, was a God fearing, and a hardworking man, but by 1871, the locusts, the drought, and the grass fires drove him out. In 1869 a family known locally as the Benders moved into the area and set up a road house along the Osage Trace about as far northeast of Independence as the Ingalls family lived southwest of Independence. The distance between was about 25 miles. The Benders supplanted their meager income by murdering and robbing travelers at their roadhouse, and then burying the bodies in their garden. By 1873 they had a dozen or so victims including a little girl. When their neighbors became suspicious the Benders scampered off to be heard from nevermore again in those parts. Vigilantes discovered the bodies in the garden and a few more in an orchard nearby. A huge manhunt ensued but the Benders made a clean getaway. Laura Ingalls came of age and married a farmer named Wilder and they settled down to raise some crops and a passel of kids on patch of land they called the Rocky Ridge Farm a few miles east of Springfield, Missouri. During the Great Depression of the 1930s Laura supplanted their meager income by writing a series of heartwarming stories about her youth. Those stories were published in the Saturday Evening Post, and then compiled into a book called Little House on the Prairie. During a book signing in 1937 Laura mentioned that her dad was one of the vigilantes who discovered the bodies in the Benders garden. It does not seem likely because the Ingalls Family left the area in 1871 and the bodies were not found until 1873. Still Laura lived in the area during the time some of those murders took place. Hollywood eventually put forth a TV series based on Laura’s stories that was called Little House on the Prairie. Laura was portrayed by a young charmer named Melissa Gilbert, and Charles was portrayed by Michael Landon. Cousin Bill called that show “Little Whores on the Prairie”. Another farmer named Joseph Johnson Oliver moved onto a patch of land up in Sheridan Township that was about 25 miles northwest of the Ingalls farm. Joe struggled to make a living there until 1876, so he was there through that whole Bloody Benders saga. It never became part of our family lore for the same reason that Laura did not mention it in her stories. It was just too gruesome to be repeated to children, especially that part about the little murdered girl. Another family that sprouted up in that area of Kansas was known as the Daltons. The Dalton sons grew up to be vicious outlaws menacing the Indian Territory borderlands. The Daltons decided to rob two banks on the same day down in Coffeyville but got themselves shot to ribbons trying to pull it off. Commerce, Oklahoma is a few miles south of Coffeyville. The baseball great, Mickey Mantle was born and raised in Commerce. A fierce old buffalo hunter named Whisky Jim Greathouse briefly lived over in Lamar, Missouri. President Harry S Truman was born in Lamar about the same time that Gramma Carolyn’s brother, Ray Sylvester, was born in Bushnell. Harry only lived there for the first eleven months of his life; otherwise he and Ray would likely have become boyhood pals throwing road apples at blind guys.

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Photos

BLOODY BENDERS
Rest Area sign a few miles north of Cherryvale, Kansas on Hwy 169. The Bender's Garden Patch has now grown into a place known as The New Harmony Cemetery. From the rest area go east on Hwy 400 towards Dennis. Turn south on Douglas Road and then turn east again on 2300 the cemetery will on the north side of the road before the bridge.

LAURA'S HOUSE
The Wilders had themselves a pretty prosperous farm. Laura's daughter also wrote some books. Visit the gift shop in the visitors center.

ROCKY RIDGE FARM SIGN
Maybe you can find a way to enlarge this picture so you can read the sign.

NOT MUCH OF A FRONT PORCH
Truman was born in a bedroom at the southwest corner of the house.

THE TRUMAN HOUSE DID NOT HAVE INDOOR PLUMBING
Lots of houses didn't back then.