Talk:Almanzo Wilder

Untitled
If I remember from the book, which I read a long time ago, Almanzo Wilder claimed that his unusual first name was a tradition of his family, and stemmed from an from an ancestor whose life had been saved by an Arab (or maybe a Turk) during the Crusades, and who had given the Arab's name to his child to honour him.

Is there any evidence this is true? If so, it would make an interesting addition to the article. --Saforrest 23:55, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I read the same thing. Glad to see you remember it too. The honored name is Almansur, which might also be spelled Almansoor today. --Ancheta Wis 00:57, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

Choice of Profession
In the book Farmer Boy, a carriage maker offered to take Almanzo on as an apprentice. His father seemed to think it was a reasonable idea, but his mother furiously rejected it. She maintained that all the businesses in town were dependent on farmers for their business, which, in her mind, put farmers at the top of the social hierarchy. Therefore, Almanzo should be a farmer. As it turned out, Almanzo's life as a farmer was full of setbacks, disasters, years of backbreaking work in all kinds of weather, and only moderate success once the farm in Missouri was finally completed. As a carriage maker, his work would have been mostly indoors during regular hours. He was highly skilled with tools, and probably would have become a master at his craft very quickly.

I suppose we probably can't include this in the article, as it comes from one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, which cannot be relied on as references. She altered characters, events, and locations for numerous reasons. There's unfortunately no way of knowing if the story about the carriagemaker really happened.

RogerInPDX (talk) 03:50, 29 August 2010 (UTC)


 * @RogerInPDX totally agreed. I think the story about the carriagemaker isn't really happened, because the Wilder family was rich enough and they didn't have to depend on others to make their money. Almanzo's brother and sisters were learning in colleges and it's hard to believe that Almanzo's father wanted him to work at that carriagemaker's work shop. Also the carriagemaker whose name is Padok called him to work at his', when Manzo and father leaving the bank, not at his workshop where they left a moment ago.--Randeer (talk) 09:51, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

age?
I don't understand the comment of the 1875 Census saying Almanzo was born in 1861; there are numerous sources that state he was born in 1857, including in the article. The U.S. Census is filled with errors. 74.69.9.224 (talk) 21:30, 11 September 2013 (UTC)


 * 1861 is unlikely, but it sounds as though he may have been born in 1858 or 1859:  188.132.222.20 (talk) 21:38, 25 February 2023 (UTC)
 * The US Census is indeed filled with errors, but both the 1860 and the 1870 censuses indicate that he was born in 1859. He was listed as 1 in 1860 and 11 in 1870. Both censuses were taken in July and Almanzo was born in February. 172.223.176.238 (talk) 17:17, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
 * In the book The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder it explains how Almanzo’s age was a secret since he was only 19 when he filed for his claim instead of the required 21. His headstone in Mansfield, Missouri states 1857. P37307 (talk) 17:26, 14 January 2024 (UTC)
 * In the long winter they went for the wheat the last week in February. His birthdate is the 13. He was 19 and a month older than "Cap," who didn't know his real age. This makes him only 5 years older and born in 1862. The Long Winter was in 1881. 2604:2D80:BF00:5100:509A:7BBC:69B1:DA0E (talk) 03:23, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Television Show
I really think the whole final section regarding the plot line in the television show should be moved to a separate article, if not just flat-out deleted. It really has nothing to do with the real Almonzo Wilder. Todd Carnes (talk) 00:45, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Almanzo Wilder. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050129145437/http://almanzowilderfarm.com/ to http://www.almanzowilderfarm.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050129145437/http://almanzowilderfarm.com/ to http://www.almanzowilderfarm.com/
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050124023712/http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/index.html to http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby1/laura/index.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 15:10, 2 July 2017 (UTC)