Laura Elizabeth Ingalls (Wilder was her married name) 1867-1957 was born to Charles Phillip and Caroline Lake (née Quiner) Ingalls on February 7, 1867. At the time of Ingalls' birth, the family lived seven miles north of the village of Pepin, Wisconsin in the Big Woods region of Wisconsin. Ingalls' home in Pepin became the setting for her first book, Little House in the Big Woods. She was the second of five children, following older sister, Mary Amelia. Three more children would follow, Caroline Celestia (Carrie), Charles Frederick, who died in infancy, and Grace Pearl. Laura's birth site is commemorated by a replica log cabin at the Little House Wayside in Pepin. Her life in Pepin formed the basis for her first book, Little House in the Big Woods (1932).
Laura's father was a descendant of the Delano family, the ancestral family of U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and she was also a third cousin, once removed, of President Ulysses S. Grant.
When she was two years old, Laura moved with her family from Wisconsin in 1869. After stopping in Rothville, Missouri, they settled in the Indian country of Kansas, near modern day Independence, Kansas. Her younger sister, Carrie, was born in Independence in August 1870, not long before they moved again. According to Ingalls Wilder, Ingalls' father had been told that the location would be open to white settlers, but when they arrived this was not the case. The Ingalls family had no legal right to occupy their homestead because it was on the Osage Indian reservation. They had just begun to farm when they heard rumors that settlers would be evicted, so they left in the spring of 1871. Although in her novel and Pioneer Girl memoirs Ingalls portrayed their departure as being prompted by rumors of eviction, she also noted that her parents needed to recover their Wisconsin land because the buyer had not paid the mortgage.
A portrait and profile view of our Nellie Oleson doll by Joan Ibarolle. "Played by actress Alison Arngrim, Nellie Oleson was a manipulative, witty, sharp-tongued character on the NBC television show, Little House on the Prairie. Her parents, Nels and Harriet Oleson, owned the mercantile in the small town of Walnut Grove, set in post-Civil War Minnesota." Read more... |
On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937), the third volume of her fictionalized history which takes place around 1874, the Ingalls family moves from Kansas to an area near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, settling in a dugout on the banks of Plum Creek. They moved there from Wisconsin when Ingalls was about seven years old, after briefly living with the family of her uncle, Peter Ingalls, first in Wisconsin and then on rented land near Lake City, Minnesota. In Walnut Grove, the family first lived in a dugout sod house on a preemption claim; after wintering in it, they moved into a new house built on the same land. Two summers of ruined crops led them to move to Iowa. On the way, they stayed again with Charles Ingalls' brother, Peter Ingalls, this time on his farm near South Troy, Minnesota. Her brother, Charles Frederick Ingalls ("Freddie"), was born there on November 1, 1875, dying nine months later in August 1876. In Burr Oak, Iowa, the family helped run a hotel. The youngest of the Ingalls children, Grace, was born there on May 23, 1877.
Mary, Laura's older sister became blind at 14 because of a childhood illness. She never married in real life and she lived with her sisters until 1928 when she died of pneumonia. |
Mary Amelia Ingalls (1865-1928) At the age of 14, Ingalls suffered an illness—thought to be scarlet fever—at the time believed to have caused her to lose her eyesight. A 2013 study published in the journal Pediatrics, concluded it was actually viral meningoencephalitis that caused Ingalls' blindness, based on evidence from first-hand accounts and newspaper reports of her illness as well as relevant school registries and epidemiologic data on blindness and infectious diseases. Between 1881 and 1889, Ingalls attended the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, Iowa.
The historical record is silent as to why Mary did not attend school during one year in that period, but she did finish the seven-year course of study in 1889 and graduated. She then returned home to De Smet, South Dakota, living with her parents. Mary contributed to the family income by making fly nets for horses. After her father died in 1902, she and her mother rented out a room in their home for extra income. Following her mother's death in April 1924, Mary lived for a time with her sister, Grace Ingalls Dow in Manchester, South Dakota.
After that, Mary traveled to Keystone, South Dakota, to live with her sister Carrie Ingalls Swanzey. It was there that she suffered from a stroke. She died not long after as a result of pneumonia on October 20, 1928, at the age of 63. Her body was returned to De Smet, where she was buried in the Ingalls family plot next to her parents at De Smet Cemetery.
- More About The Real Ingalls Family
- Ashton Drake: Little House Dolls - Our collectable, Ingalls family dolls were designed by Joan Ibarolle.
- Little House On The Prairie Episode Guide
- Little House On The Prairie TV Series Information
- Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School - This is where Mary attended school after loosing her vision. It is now a modern day facility!
- The Little House Boxed Set of 9 Volumes by Laura Ingalls Wilder: Little House On The Prairie, Little House In The Big Woods, The First Four Years, By The Shores of Silver Lake, These Happy Golden Years, The Long Winter, Little House On The Prairie, On The Banks of Plum Creek and Farmer Boy
- The Birth Place of Laura Ingalls
- Laura's Life: A Comprehensive Internet Guide to The Little House Series
- Learn the meaning of the names Laura, Mary, Carrie and Grace and even Nellie...
The boxed "Little House" book set. |
- Maple Sugar Days
- Ma Ingall's New Shawl
- Craft a Knitting Basket for A Doll
- We found an 18" doll sized water barrel!
- Leaving Home to Work A Different Farm - from O'Brien's Pioneer Memories
- A Pioneer Thanksgiving - from O'Brien's Pioneer Memories
- Compare O'Brein's 1rst "Long Ago Christmas" in Maine to his 2nd "Long Ago Christmas" in Minnesota
- Collecting for A Kirsten Larson Doll or A Pioneer Doll
- The Old Home by Arthur Burdick
- Doll Sized Spelling Printables - 1841
- Piece A Simple Patchwork Quilt for Your Doll's Bed
- Ezra's Thanksgivin' Out West
- The Pioneer - author unknown
- Pottery and cookware that pioneer dolls might use in their kitchens...
- The Pioneer Doll's Christmas Tree
- I found a doll sized kerosene lamp...
- DIY washboards for your pioneer dolls...
- How Mary and Laura made butter!
- Craft candle molds for historic doll display and play here
- How to make a wooden or tin lunch pail for a Pioneer doll
- How to make Mary's doll, Nettie and Laura's doll, Susan
- How to make soap for Pioneer dolls...
Doll Fans of The Little House Book Series at YouTube:
- A porcelain dolls by Joan Ibarolle by Leta Bit Of Everything - doll review
- Covered Wagon for 18" Dolls from The Queen's Treasures
- Little House on The Prairie AG Style by americangirlclc
- Miniature Ingalls Family Cabin and Part 2, The Oleson's Mercantile
- Life on the Prairie with Mary by Doll Days YouTube
- A Day in the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder - stop motion by KareMation
More Online Learning About American Pioneers:
- Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska
- Lincoln Pioneer Village and Museum in Rockport Indiana
- Gonzales: Pioneer Village Living History Center in Texas
- Pioneer Village in Ozaukee County - Saukville, WI
- Joy of rebuilding a settler cabin log-by-log on MN homestead
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