Caroline Ingalls
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Caroline Lake Ingalls, née Quiner (December 12, 1839–April 20, 1924) was the mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame. She was born in Brookfield, Wisconsin, the fifth of seven children of Henry Quiner and Charlotte (Tucker) Quiner. She may have been the first non-Native child born in what is now the Greater Milwaukee area.
She lost her father at the age of five in a shipping accident, reportedly on Lake Michigan, near the Straits of Mackinac. After moving with Caroline, her brothers Joseph, Henry, and Thomas, and her sisters Martha and Eliza, her mother eventually married Frederick Holbrook, a farmer who lived nearby; they would have one child, Charlotte "Lottie" Holbrook. Caroline evidently loved and respected her stepfather, and would later honor his memory by naming her only son (who died in infancy) "Charles Frederick Ingalls". At the age of sixteen, Caroline started working as a teacher. On February 1, 1860 she married Charles Ingalls. She eventually gave birth to five children, Mary, Laura, Caroline "Carrie", Charles Frederick "Freddie" and Grace. Caroline traveled a lot with her family, but they finally settled in De Smet, South Dakota. She died at the age of 84, and was buried at De Smet Cemetery.
[edit] In the media
Caroline was played by: Karen Grassle (on the TV series Little House on the Prairie), Lindsay Crouse (Beyond the Prairie), and Erin Cottrell (on a new miniseries).
The Caroline Years, an extension of the Little House on the Prairie series, by Maria D. Wilkes and Celia Wilkins, follows Caroline from her fifth year to her late teens, up to her engagement to Charles Ingalls. The names, dates and people mentioned in the books are true, but much of the content of the books is, by necessity, fictionalized.
