Who is Laura Ingalls Wilder from On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894 and what is their importance?

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867 - 1957) is the author of Chapter 2 of the text. Born in Wisconsin, Laura's father moved several times before settling in De Smet in the Dakota Territory when Wilder was about twelve-years-old. Wilder attended and taught school in De Smet until marrying Almanzo James Wilder in 1885. She gave birth to Rose in 1886 and an unnamed son who died soon after birth in 1889. The Wilders left South Dakota in 1890 and lived in Minnesota for about a year and then moved briefly to Florida. They returned to De Smet in 1892.