Across The Fence: From Wounded Knee to the Land of Oz

Lyman Frank Baum, born May 15, 1856, was the seventh of nine children born to Benjamin Ward and Cynthia Ann Baum. Frank, as he preferred to be known, was one of the five children who survived to adulthood.

Benjamin Baum became quite wealthy during the Pennsylvania oil boom through the manufacturing of barrels used in the storage and shipping of the refined product. Consequently, Frank was raised under the privilege of wealth on his parent's substantial estate, Rose Lawn, in Mattydale, N.Y.

Young Frank was a fragile youth and given to excessive daydreaming, an unfortunate preoccupation that...