Good Times

Laura and Manly lived on Rocky Ridge for more than a decade. In 1907, Laura started to build a house made entirely of rocks and stones found on the farm, timber, and real glass windows with four porches, a study, and a library. It was completed in the fall of 1913 and the Wilders quickly moved into it. The farm was thriving all around them and Laura was always praised for her eggs. Then one day, the editor for The Missouri Ruralist came to offer a job for Laura because he was so impressed with her writing style. She agreed to take it and started off her career as a writer with her article "Favors the Small Farm Home." She wrote for years and made between five and ten dollars for her articles (she started writing a new one called "As a Farm Woman Thinks" too). Her works even passed through the St. Louis Star Farmer, the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, and the Kansas City Star. Her daughter, Rose, got married in San Francisco (as she became a writer too and her job moved her) and came to visit Laura in 1910. World War 1 slowed business and Laura was desperate to keep her job. Rose saved the day by telling her to write about the Missouri State Fair.
When Laura got home from the fair, she spent year after year writing for The Missouri Ruralist and watching her income grow. In 1916, Laura created The Athenian's, a group devoted solely to provide educational experiences and friendships among the members and to help build a county library. While this was happening, Rose published her first novel Diverging Roads and sailed to France to work in the Paris publicity office of the American Red Cross. She traveled all over Europe and wrote another book called Peakes of Shala. When Rose got home four years later, Laura went with her on a road trip with Manly's new 1923 Buick. Rose again showed Laura how to make more money with her writing, but it never launched. Rose permanently settled down at home at Rocky Ridge with the building of a new house after she sold her Ozark serial to another newspaper and divorced her husband. Laura was so happy to have her home; " We were living good times on the farm!"- Laura Ingalls Wilder