Taking Wilder to Heart

I found the article on places associated with author Laura Ingalls Wilder (‘Once Upon a Time on the Prairie,” April 15) interesting. My father, Homer Estus, knew the Wilders well. He was born May 22, 1891, near Mansfield, Mo., where the Wilders ended up living in 1894. Their old home is open to the public. My father once broke a horse to ride for Almanzo, Laura’s husband.

I bought my father Wilder’s book “On the Way Home,” a diary of the family’s trip from South Dakota to Mansfield. Dad read the book over and over. It contains pictures of Mansfield as it looked when he was young. He would have loved your article.

DORIS ESTUS

GILL Phelan

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We enjoyed the account. But the author did overlook the best museum on the Wilders, located in Spring Valley, Minn., as well as the Wilder farm.

The museum is in the basement of the old Methodist church. The collection fills the basement and a home across the street. Visitors should ask for Sharon Jahns, a historian and one of the museum’s directors, who has a wealth of information about the Ingalls and Wilder families.

The barn was built by Laura’s husband and his brother, my grandfather Purley Day Wilder. It still stands on the edge of town; it’s in private hands and not open to the public. The Wilder family raised Morgan horses on this farm, which was their home after they moved from Malone, N.Y.

PHIL WILDER

Huntington Beach