Whatever Happened to Cap Garland

 

If you're like me, one of your favorite characters of all the Little House books was Cap Garland. Except he wasn't a character. Unlike Nellie Oleson and Mr. Edwards, Cap Garland existed - and Cap Garland was his real name. 

So, Whatever Happened to Cap Garland?

It’s one of the most heartbreaking "what-ifs" in the entire Little House series. The Long Winter, Cap Garland was my first literary crush. He was the hero of De Smet, brave, athletic, and the guy who risked his life alongside Almanzo Wilder to find the wheat that saved the town from starvation. In Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, he’s frozen in time as this golden, courageous teenager. But the real-life story of Cap Garland is much shorter and more tragic than many fans realize.

Oscar Edmund "Cap" Garland wasn’t just a character Laura invented to add tension to her story; he was a real staple of early De Smet. In the books, we see him as a leader among the boys, someone who could handle a team of horses or a sled better than anyone else. He was one of the popular kids, but I don't think it was in a school jock sort of way. More that he was a kind and decent soul.

One thing that always stuck with me is that Gap Garland traveled through blizzards to save the town from starvation and then returned to school soon after. I was probably in my 20s when it hit me how young Cap was when he and Almanzo made their heroic trip.

Did Laura Have a Crush on Cap Garland?

I'm not the only person who developed a bit of a crush on Cap Garland while reading the Little House books; it turned out Laura did too, as she admitted in Pioneer Girl. With blue eyes and "blonde hair bleached by the sun," how could she not? It turns out, one of the Nellie Olesons did too. But Cap only had eyes for Laura's bestie, Mary Power.

After the "Hard Winter" ended, Cap remained a prominent figure in the town's young social scene. He was known for his charisma and his physical strength, but unfortunately, that strength couldn't protect him from the dangers of early industrial work.

The Tragic Fate of Cap Garland

The real tragedy happened just a few years after the events of the books. In 1891, at the young age of 26, Cap was working at a local threshing machine. These machines were the lifeblood of the prairie, yet they were incredibly dangerous. Cap was involved in a horrific accident where a boiler exploded. He didn’t survive his injuries, dying shortly after the explosion. It was a shock that rocked the small community of De Smet, as he was still very much considered one of their brightest stars.

What makes his story even more poignant is the connection to the Garland family as a whole. You might remember Cap's sister, Florence, who was Laura’s teacher and a close friend. The Garlands were a tight-knit family who had survived the leanest years of the frontier only to lose their son just as the town was finally starting to prosper. Cap never got to see the town fully grow up, and he never got to get married or have a family of his own.

You can read Cap Garland's obituary here.

Immortalizing Cap Garland

In the books, Laura gives Cap a sort of immortality. She focuses on his heroism and his bright spirit, perhaps because that’s how she wanted to remember the boy who helped save her family. While the fact is that his life was cut short by a brutal mechanical accident, the fiction allows him to remain the brave boy who traveled 15 miles in a blizzard to save his town. He remains a symbol of the grit it took to build De Smet, even if he wasn't there to see the finished product.