January 10, 1836
It was his family’s move from New York to Illinois when he was young that set in motion the frontier saga captured in the “Little House” books. He made the good sense decision to marry Caroline
The couple’s five children, Mary, Laura, Carrie, Charles Frederick “Freddie” and Grace and their trek through six states fueled the eight original books. In addition, aunts, uncles and cousins populated the pages of the popular
The stories of the Wilder kinfolk came to a close in 1943 with the publication of “These Happy Golden Years.” It covered the author’s teens in DeSmet, South Dakota, but what happened next to the rest of the family remained a blank. (Right, Laura, 1885)
Mary returned to DeSmet and contributed to the family income by making fly nets for horses. Following the death of Charles Ingalls in 1902,
Following Caroline Ingalls’ death in 1924, Mary lived briefly with the youngest sister, Grace Ingalls Dow, a school teacher in Manchester, just down the road from DeSmet. Grace (right) never played a major role in the “Little House” stories, having been just eight when Laura married
Mary later lived with Carrie Ingalls Swanzey in Keystone, South Dakota. She died in Keystone of pneumonia in 1928.
Portrayed in the Little House books as a bit frail, middle sister Carrie (below) married a 58-year-old Black Hills prospector, David Nevin Swanzey, at 42 after a
Carrie’s husband, David, (below) made a name not so much for himself but for a famous American landmark. He reportedly dubbed a nearby stone outcrop Mt. Rushmore for a New York lawyer, Charles
Only baby brother Freddie, who died in infancy, is omitted from the “Little House” saga. Perhaps too painful for the author, say Wilder biographers, or too somber a subject for her largely upbeat books. His brief life, however, was portrayed in a two-hankie episode of the television series entitle “The Lord Is My Shepherd.”
Mt. Rushmore before and after the monument
Wilder drew on a number of the extended Ingalls family, including Pa’s sister, Laura Ladocia “Docie” Ingalls Forbes, in several of the early books. Docie’s children by her first husband, August Waldvogel, Lena Evelyn and Augustus Eugene, appeared in “By the Shores of Silver Lake” as the cousins Lena and Jean.
Aunt Docie married Hiriam Forbes after Uncle August died and the couple moved to Nebraska, probably Holt County. She added seven more children to the list of Ingalls cousins. Following Hiriam’s death in 1906, Docia moved to Colorado to be near Augustus Eugene. She died in 1918 and is buried in Colorado. Augustus died in 1945, killed with his 27-year-old son in a tragic car accident.
Not much is written about Cousin Lena. Married to Samuel Heikes, the couple had seven children. She died in 1943 in Dakota City, Nebraska, and is buried in Sioux City, Iowa.
Hazy photo of the aunts, Ruby, left, and Docie.
Another of Charles Ingalls’ sisters, “Aunt Ruby,” Ruby Ingalls Card, was also fictionalized in “Little House in the Big Woods.” The mother of two young children, Ruby moved to Inman, Holt County, Nebraska, to be near Docie. She may have been ill at the time since she died at just 26. She is believed to be buried in Inman.
He was the father of three children who all died in infancy. Following their deaths, his grief-stricken wife, Julie, was committed to Dunn County Asylum for the Chronic Insane in Red Cedar Township, Wisconsin, in 1888. She died there in 1910