Background
Brink was born and raised in Moscow, Idaho, in the Palouse region. Orphaned at age eight following her mother's suicide, Brink lived in Moscow with her widowed maternal grandmother and an unmarried aunt; the grandmother had grown up on a farm in Wisconsin. In a preface to the later edition of Caddie Woodlawn, the author said the books were partly based on the life of her grandmother, Caddie Woodhouse Watkins (1853–1940), and her siblings: elder sister Clara, elder brother Tom, younger brother Warren, younger sisters Henrietta and Minnie, and Baby Joe.
The house where her grandmother had lived is now a historical site, about 12 miles (19 km) south of Menomonie, Wisconsin.
Read more about this topic: Caddie Woodlawn
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