Rocky Ridge Farm

Laura and Manly worked together to transform their Missouri land into a fruit, dairy, and poultry farm. They started slow by clearing the land in winter, then moved on to selling eggs at market and planting the first crops in 1895. Rose went to school and excelled in every subject and became a very epic reader. Laura and Manly still enjoyed riding horses and would usually ride all over their property or on quiet, shady roads. Their farm was growing with six more acres added and the apple orchard prospering with new peach and pear trees. This was the best business that Manly will ever have. They enlarged the log cabin and planted a building site for their new house Laura wanted in 1896. " Good health, good homes, a good living, good times, and good neighbors." Laura Ingalls Wilder; that is how Laura described her first years on Rocky Ridge Farm.
In the 1890's, Mansfield ( the town they moved to ) was booming with newcomers and business. Laura and Manly decided to try and live in town because of Manly's job as a drayer
( hauling loads of anything into town ) and to earn money to invest in their farm. Manly's parents visited them in 1898 which made them all the happier; but soon, Laura's Pa was suffering from heart failure and she rushed to De Smet, South Dakota to say good- bye to her beloved father. He died on June 8, 1902, surrounded by his wife and four girls. When Laura got back, Rose left with her aunt and cousin, Eliza Jane and Wilder, to Louisiana to finish high school. She was the best student there and learned four years of Latin in one. When Rose got back home, the local depotmaster taught her and his daughter telegraphy. She left Mansfield for her first job at seventeen to Kansas City, Missouri as a telegraph operator. While she was gone, Laura and Manly worked hard on their farm and enjoyed every minute of it.