We are all well familiar with Laura Ingalls Wilder, who is famous for her Little House books. But not much is said about her family, her parents, Charles and Caroline Ingalls, her siblings: Mary Ingalls, Carrie Ingalls Swanzey, Grace Ingalls Dow, and her baby brother, Charles Fredrick Ingalls, who died in infancy; her husband, Almanzo "Manly" Wilder, and their two children, daughter Rose Wilder Lane and their son, baby boy Wilder who died shortly after his birth.
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Mary Amelia Ingalls
The oldest daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls, Mary Amelia Ingalls was born on January 10, 1865 in Pepin, Wisconsin. When Mary was just 14 years old she suffered an illness caused Mary to lose her sight. Although the Little House books said Scarlet Fever was the cause, but in truth, it was a viral meningoencephalitis that caused Mary to go blind. A 2013 report in the journal Pedriatrics that described evidence of Mary's illness concludes based on newspaper reports on Mary's illness and school registries and epidemiologic data on blindness and infectious diseases.
Mary attended the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School in Vinton, Iowa between the years of 1881 and 1888. Despite missing one year, for reasons unexplained, Mary graduated in 1889 and returned home to DeSmet, South Dakota to live with her parents until their death. Mary helped with the family with finances by making fly nets for horses.
Although the television counterpart of Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson) shows she married Adam Kendall (Linwood Boomer), where they taught at a blind school and had a son who died in infancy, the real Mary Ingalls never married. After the deaths of her parents, Mary lived with her sisters, Carrie and Grace, until her own death on October 20, 1928 from complications of pneumonia and stroke at the age of 63. Her final resting place is DeSmet Cemetery.
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Grace Pearl Ingalls Dow
The youngest daughter born to Charles and Caroline Ingalls, Grace Pearl Ingalls Dow was born on May 23, 1877 in Burr Oak, Iowa. Dow received her training as a schoolteacher and taught school in Manchester, South Dakota, just seven miles where her family lived in DeSmet, South Dakota. She met and married Nathan William Dow in her parents' parlor in DeSmet on October 16, 1901. The couple had no children. Manchester, South Dakota no longer exists due to a F4 tornado that wiped out the town in June 24, 2003 and never rebuilt.
