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Herald & Lantern 21 September *83

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Laura MacBride Certain To Be Tittle House’ Fan

by E.J. DUFFY WEST CAPE MAY - Since she penciJed them into nickel notebooks, Laura Ingalls Wilder's accounts of her childhood journey across the Midwest have been popular reading for five generations of children and cherished memories of their own childhoods for millions of adults. When she's old enough to read the "Little House” series, those books will likely be must reading for Laura Rose MacBride. the one-month-old daughter of Bud and Darlene MacBride from Second Avenue. The author's namesake

will not only be tempted by the adventures erf another little girl during the (-pioneering days of 1870-1880, but also by the curiosity of tracing her family roots through the detailed memories of her ancestor “Laura would be a fifth cousin of -Laura Ingalls (Wilder)," Darlene MacBride, a fourth cousin to the author, said of the connection between her baby and the Missouri farm wife who. at 65, started writing the “Little House" books. She saw the first one published in 1932. Since then, the series has

Bud, Darlene and Laura Rose

been translated into 40 languages. The book became so popular that every place the Ingalls family stopped, however briefly, during their idyll (through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri was turned into a museum and tourist haven. That happened even before the books were transformed into screen plays for the successful television series “Little House on the Prairie” and its current sequel “Little House: A New Beginning.” MICHAEL LANDON directed and starred as Charles Ingalls, or “Pa,” the fiddle-playing husband of Caroline (“ila”) and loving father of Mary, Carrie, Grace and Laura. Since 1974, faithful viewers have watched the family leave Pepin, Wise., in a. covered wagon, trek across Minnesota to Walnut Grove and beyond, brave blizzards and Mary's blindness to plant the prairie with family roots. Laura Ingalls'story continued into Missouri after ^she married Almanzo Wilder. They started a fruit, dairy and poultryfarm named “Rocky Ridge" in the Ozark Mountains where she wrote, and died inJ957 (at 90). But the story of the Ingalls family in America began with her grandfather and will continue through his descendant, Laura Rose MacBride. in West Cape May, Most of the dedicated viewers of “Little House on the Prairie" probably do not know that "Pa” Ingalls was the third of 10 children bom to Lansford and Laura Louisa (Colby) Ingalls in

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Holland, N Y. Of Scan danavian decent, Lansford had been born in Durham, Quebec. After their sixth child, Lansford James, was bom in March, 1842, the couple pulled up stakes and moved to Illinois, then to Wisconsin where Charles began the journey with his family. His brother, Lansford James (known simply as James), married Sara Dickenson, stayed on in Wisconsin and raised another Ingalls family at Rock Elm, a town 15 miles north of Pepin. “He would be my greatgreat grandfather,’’ Darlene MacBride noted, tracing her descent through James’ daughter, Sarah Belle (Ingalls) Rasmus. LAURA ROSE MACBRIDE’S great-great-, great grandfather served as a private with Company C, First Regiment, Minnesota Heavy Artillery during the Civil War. He was honorably discharged at Nashville, Term., Sept. 27, 1865. A 43-year member of the Ellsworth, Wise., lodge of Odd Fellows, he delivered mail to Rock Elm residents until he died in 1928. He was buried in the cemeteryabove town. “He also was a constable in Rock Elm and fanned as well," Darlene MacBride added. “Farming seems to have carried through the family," she continued. “My grandmother (Gertrude E. (Rasmus) Yanisch) and grandfather (Theodore Yanisch) farmed and my parents (Helen G. (Yanisch) and LeRoy J. Betlach) have a dairy farm.” Since she has moved east with husband Bud, her brother, Wayne Betlach, an agricultural student, will probably take over the farm in River Falls, Wise., when her parents retire. Originally from the Kensington section of Philadelphia, Bud, 39, eastern district sales manager for 3-M Corp., met Darlene, 27, when the couple worked for a 3-M subsidiary in St. Paul, Minn MARRIED AT RIVER FALLS in April, 1981, the

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MacBrides moved to New Jersey when Bud was transferred to 3-M’s offices in Pennsauken. With that move, the MacBrides logged many more travel miles than the Ingalls family; modern transportation has made such relocations seem commonplace. But with the move they began a new chapter of family history when, on Aug. 25, their sixpound, 15-ounce daughter was born.

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