As it did for many people, the school restored a lot of Mary’s self-confidence.
The family sacrificed to get their share of the money needed to send her to the Iowa School for the Blind (support including money for tuition and books also came from the Dakota territorial government). Laura had to step up and take more responsibility. Her blindness greatly impacted the whole family. Her independence and future were sharply curtailed when she lost her sight at age 14. As the oldest sister, she was studious and enjoyed music and crafts. Mary was the fair-haired child of the Ingalls family.
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Still, it was Grassle’s calm assurance that made many TV viewers feel that they, too, were safely part of the Ingalls family. Oleson (portrayed by Katherine MacGregor) was a regular feature of the show, especially in the early years (“Really Charles, THAT WOMAN!” – pick your episode). Grassle’s version of Ma was calm and soft-spoken with a small fiery streak absent from the books. On the NBC TV series, Karen Grassle portrayed Ma Ingalls. While book version Ma objected to Laura working in a hotel in De Smet, Caroline had both her older daughters working with her in the Masters’ Hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa. While book version Ma was horrified that Laura might go help with haying, the real-life Caroline went into the fields herself to help as a matter of course.
While Ma’s neighborliness, her creativity in desperate times, and education were described in the books, definite limitations were placed on her character to make a starker contrast between Ma’s character and Pa’s, the world of domesticity and the world of the outdoors. She valued education, having attended an academy “back east” near Milwaukee, and tried to keep the family in fashion as best as she was able.īook Caroline was pushed farther within the Victorian ideal than real life Caroline. Caroline was a strong pioneer woman, willing to do what she had to do to keep the family going. Caroline married Charles Ingalls and, drawn on by his efforts to make a better life for her family, and she was pulled from “pillar to post” as goes the expression her book character uses. Life was hard during those years, and Caroline expressed a longing for stability. Caroline Lake Quiner Ingalls or “Ma” (1839-1924)Ĭaroline was raised in a blended family after her father went down in a shipwreck on the Great Lakes, and her mother later remarried. Played without an attempt at Charles’s famous beard, Michael Landon remains the embodiment of Pa for many people around the world. For the majority of the episodes, they stayed firmly entrenched in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
On the NBC TV show, Charles and the Ingalls family were a far more permanent part of the community. The books don’t portray the financial assistance the family received from the Minnesota state government during the grasshopper plague emergency and from the Dakota territorial government for Mary’s tuition to the College for the Blind. They also leave out the family’s financial problems. The Little House books simplify and streamline the various moves, leaving out things like Charles’s deal to pre-empt a tree claim in Walnut Grove and then resell it a few days later. It’s known in Laura circles as the Third Street House and is where Charles and Caroline spent the rest of their respective lives. Together Charles and Caroline built up one final home in De Smet, South Dakota. After many moves and attempts, with his family’s help, Charles proved up his homestead, but due to health issues, he retired from farming almost immediately afterward. Charles followed this same pattern with his own family after marrying Caroline Quiner, always in search of better financial opportunities, specifically a successful wheat farm. In real life, his family had long been farmers, moving several times while he was growing up in search of a better chance. There is the real-life Ingalls family, the version in the books, the NBC television version, the ABC miniseries version, the version in the musical, and those in the pageants, just to name a few.Ĭharles Phillip Ingalls or “Pa” (1836-1902)Ĭharles had a wandering foot in all his various incarnations. However, that raises the question of what version of the Ingalls family people relate to most. Thanks to the cozy, warm, and affectionate portrayal of the Ingalls family across all kinds of media platforms around the world, many people think of Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, Carrie, Grace, Almanzo, and even Jack the bulldog as part of their family.
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