Did the Ingalls Family Found DeSmet, South Dakota?

In the past, I've referred to the Ingalls as the family who founded the town of DeSmet, South Dakota. But the reality is that it's not as romantic as all that.  

After reading By the Shores of Silver Lake, I had ad a specific image of the Ingalls family arriving in Dakota Territory. In our minds, Pa, Ma, and the girls are the heart of De Smet. But if you’re a history buff looking at the legal maps and town charters (which I am not), the question of whether they "founded" the town gets a little more nuanced. It’s one of those beautiful instances where the legend and the ledger don't quite match up, but both are equally fascinating.

Who Founded DeSmet, South Dakota?

When we talk about the "founding" of De Smet, we’re really looking at two different stories: the legal birth of a town and the more human (and interesting) story of the people who were its first inhabitants. If we're going on facts, the Ingalls family didn’t "found" De Smet in the way a pioneer might discover a hidden valley and plant a flag. In reality, De Smet was a corporate creation. The Chicago and North Western Railroad held the cards, and the Western Town Lot Company drew the lines.

The Ingalls family arrived in the area in 1879 because Charles Ingalls was broke.  No surprise there. After the grasshopper plagues in Walnut Grove and a tough stint in Iowa, Pa took a job as a clerk and timekeeper for the railroad. This wasn't a grand quest for freedom so much as a steady paycheck.

 Because of that job, the family was allowed to winter in the surveyors' house. While the books make this feel like a cozy, isolated adventure, they were essentially living in a company-owned building on a site that had already been surveyed and bought by a corporation. And they weren't living there alone, either.

In the books, Laura paints a picture of a wide-open world where they were the first to stake a claim. In reality, the "founding" of De Smet was a bit more of a corporate affair involving railroad scouts and land speculators. Names like Western Town Lot Company show up on the official paperwork more often than "Ingalls." However, being the first family on the ground meant they were the ones who turned a railroad camp into a community. Pa was instrumental in organizing the first school district and helped build the First Congregational Church. He wasn't just a resident; he was a literal architect of the town’s social and physical foundations.

Town Girls

It’s also fun to look at where the books and history diverge a bit. For instance, the books make it feel like the family was always out on the "Little Town on the Prairie," but the Ingalls family actually spent a significant amount of time living right in the heart of the village. Charles eventually built a home on Third Street so the girls could be closer to school and Ma could be closer to church. He served as a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Sheriff, proving that while he might have had "itchy feet" for the wilderness, he was a pillar of the very civilization he often tried to outrun.

So, did the Ingalls family found De Smet? Legally, they were part of a larger wave of pioneers and railroad employees. But in every way that matters to us today, they are the reason De Smet exists in the cultural imagination. Without them, it might have remained just another stop on the Dakota Central line. Instead, because of their grit during The Long Winter and Laura’s gift for storytelling, they didn't just found a town, they gave it a legacy that has outlived the frontier itself.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's Legacy

We also have to look at the reality of the contributions of the Ingalls family." In the books, Pa is a leader of men, but in the actual records of De Smet, he was a man of modest means who often struggled to prove up on his claims. He did serve as a Justice of the Peace and helped organize the church, but these roles were often about bringing order to a chaotic, muddy outpost where land jumping and claim disputes were constant headaches. 

The pretty version of the Ingalls Family Saga skips over the fact that the family eventually moved into town permanently because the farming dream on the homestead was largely a failure. The harsh Dakota environment was unforgiving, and the Ingalls family, like many others, found that surviving the town's early years required giving up the isolation of the prairie for the relative safety of a town lot. As Grace wrote in her diary, Pa never had a successful crop there.

Even the timeline in the books gets a little fuzzy to suit the narrative. For example, the town grew much faster and was much more "civilized" than Laura’s writing suggests. By the time they were settled, De Smet already had a burgeoning business district and a complicated social hierarchy. Acknowledging these facts doesn't take away from their legacy, though. If anything, it makes their story more impressive. The Ingalls family wasn't just legends. They were real people navigating the corporate-driven expansion of the West, clinging to a piece of land that the environment repeatedly tried to take back.

The Truth About Reverend Alden

 

If you grew up watching the original TV show or reading the "Little House" books, Reverend Robert Alden is portrayed as the ultimate pillar of frontier morality. He was the kind-hearted man who brought the church to Walnut Grove and famously gave the Ingalls girls their Christmas Bibles. Laura Ingalls Wilder spoke about him with affection.

But as is so often the case with the real people behind Laura’s stories, the historical Robert Alden was a lot more complicated and controversial than the saintly figure portrayed by both. You can imagine my disappointment when I learned about the real Reverend Robert Alden. 

The Truth About Reverend Alden

While it is true that Robert Alden was a missionary who helped establish the Congregational church in Walnut Grove, his life outside of the Ingalls’ circle was marked by ambition and some very questionable financial dealings. After his time in Minnesota, Alden moved further west, and it was during his years in the Dakota Territory and beyond that his reputation began to sour. Unlike the humble man of God we read about, the real Alden was deeply involved in the messy politics of the U.S. Indian Agency, a career move that eventually led to accusations of corruption and shady bookkeeping.

Reverend Alden's Shady Side

One of the most jarring aspects of the real Reverend Alden’s history is his tenure as an Indian Agent for the Fort Berthold Agency in North Dakota. At the time, these positions were often rife with graft, and Alden was eventually caught up in the middle of it. He was accused of mishandling funds and government supplies that were intended for the Native American tribes he was supposed to be assisting.

 Instead of a man purely focused on spiritual salvation, records from that era paint a picture of someone who was perhaps a bit too interested in the financial perks of his government appointment. The discrepancies in his accounts became serious enough that they led to his eventual removal from the position under a cloud of scandal.

There is also the matter of how he left the communities he served. While Laura’s books suggest a long, steady bond, the real Alden was known to be somewhat transient and occasionally left churches in a state of financial or social disarray. He had a habit of making big promises about church buildings and community growth that he couldn't always fulfill. For a man who represented the moral compass of the frontier, his actual track record suggests he struggled to balance his religious calling with his personal desire for status and profit.

Reverend Alden Had His Share of Drama

Even his personal life had its share of drama that wouldn't be appropriate for a children's book series. He married several times, and his later years were spent wandering through various states, trying to outrun the scandals of his middle age. By the time he passed away, he was a far cry from the revered figurehead of Walnut Grove.

Understanding the shadier side of Reverend Alden doesn't necessarily take away from the kindness he showed the Ingalls family. It's a good reminder that the frontier was filled with real, broken people. 

Will the Real Nellie Oleson Please Stand Up

Genevieve Masters. 

From the first time she disdainfully muttered "country girls" to new girls Mary and Laura Ingalls, the name Nellie Oleson has become synonymous with the ultimate playground antagonist. However, readers of the original "Little House" books might be surprised to learn that the girl Laura Ingalls described was not actually one person. Instead, the character of Nellie Oleson was a composite super-villain created by Laura Ingalls Wilder, who blended the traits of three different girls she encountered during her childhood on the frontier.

Nellie Owens

The first and most significant inspiration for Nellie was a girl named Nellie Owens. Much like the character in "On the Banks of Plum Creek," Nellie Owens was the daughter of a local shopkeeper in Walnut Grove, Minnesota. Her father, William Owens, ran a general store that competed with other local merchants, and the Owens family enjoyed a level of relative luxury that the Ingalls family lacked.

 Nellie Owens was known to be proud of her fine clothes and her status as a merchant’s daughter, which sparked the initial rivalry with Laura. While she provided the name and the base personality for the literary Nellie, she wasn't the only girl to leave a mark on Laura’s memory.

Genevieve Masters

A few years later, after the Ingalls family moved to De Smet in the Dakota Territory, Laura encountered Genevieve Masters. Genevieve was the daughter of a former teacher of Laura’s from Walnut Grove who had also relocated to the plains. Genevieve was widely considered the "queen bee" of the De Smet school circle. She was sophisticated, wore stylish clothes from the East, and looked down on the local girls. Laura’s descriptions of Nellie’s haughty attitude and her leadership of a mean girl clique in "Little Town on the Prairie" are based on her real-life friction with Genevieve Masters.

Stella Gilbert

The third piece of the Nellie Oleson puzzle came from a girl named Stella Gilbert. During the "hard winter" and the subsequent years in De Smet, Stella was a beautiful girl who became Laura’s rival for the attention of Almanzo Wilder. In the book "These Happy Golden Years," Nellie is depicted as trying to steal Almanzo away by joining him on buggy rides. In reality, it was Stella Gilbert who was the girl in the buggy. Laura’s jealousy and the competitive tension she felt regarding Almanzo were funneled into the character of Nellie to give the fictionalized version of her rival a familiar face.

Introducing Nellie Oleson

By combining the name and family status of Nellie Owens, the urban sophistication of Genevieve Masters, and the romantic rivalry of Stella Gilbert, Laura Ingalls Wilder created a character that was far more interesting than any single person could be, and more complex than the caricature played out on TV. It allowed her to condense several years of childhood conflict into one consistent foil. 

While the real-life Nellie, Genevieve, and Stella eventually moved on to lead their own separate lives, they remain forever linked in history as the three women who stood up together to become the most famous "bad girl" in American literature. 

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Charlies Frederick Ingalls: About Laura Ingalls' Wilder's Brother - And it's Not Albert

If you grew up watching Little House on the Prairie on a heavy wood-framed TV, you probably remember Albert Ingalls as the plucky kid who brought a new spark to the show in the later seasons. But if you dig into the actual historical records of the Ingalls family, you’ll find that Albert was a total invention, a fictional addition created by Michael Landon to shake up the script. The true story of the only Ingalls son is much shorter, quieter, and honestly, far more heartbreaking. 

Meet Charles Frederick Ingalls.

Charles Frederick "Freddie" Ingalls

In reality, Charles and Caroline Ingalls had one biological son named Charles Frederick "Freddie" Ingalls, born in late 1875 while the family was living in Walnut Grove. For a father like Pa, who spent his life breaking ground and building homesteads, having a son to carry on the family name was a massive deal. Even a young Laura was reportedly thrilled to finally have a baby brother in a house full of sisters.

Unfortunately, Freddie’s story doesn't have the long arc that Albert’s did on screen. He was only nine months old when he began to fade. This happened during a particularly rough patch for the family, right as they were leaving Minnesota to help run a hotel in Iowa. Medical care on the frontier was primitive at best, and despite everything Ma and Pa tried, Freddie passed away in August of 1876.

Why Was Charles Frederick Ingalls Left Out of the "Little House" Series?

It is often asked why Laura left him out of her famous book series entirely. It seems to come down to a mix of personal grief and editorial choices. Writing for a young audience in the 1930s, Laura and her daughter Rose likely felt that the death of an infant brother was a bit too grim for the "pioneer spirit" they were trying to capture. Plus, it happened during the "lost years" in Iowa that Laura chose to skip over in the books to keep the timeline moving toward the Dakota Territory.

While Albert Quinn Ingalls gave America plenty of memorable TV moments, he was essentially a tribute character (and a pet peeve of mine). When we look at the real history of the Ingalls family, it’s little Freddie who represents the actual, often harsh reality of frontier life. He never got to grow up or have his own adventures, but for anyone who loves the real history of the Ingalls family, he’s a piece of the puzzle that shouldn't be overlooked.

The Prairie is Calling: Why "Little House Discussed" is Back!

Rose Wilder Lane's Former Connecticut House is Up for Sale at $439K

Got a spare $439K lying around? Rose Wilder Lane's former home in Danbury, CT is up for sale!

The private 2 acre property located at 23 King Street was built in 1879 and boasts 3,505 square feet. We know Rose liked a bigger home so we can see how this rambling home appealed to her.

There's an eat in kitchen, 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, balcony, French doors, mud room, study (of course!), formal dining room, pantry, and sun room, and the patio is just lovely. Oh, and it's located near a golf course.

If you click through to the realtor you'll see the decor is definitely very "old & country." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

If you're a writer like Rose was, you're sure to be inspired by this lovely home. If you're a Laura Ingalls Wilder buff like I am, you might wish you could have this property if only for its historic significance.

Interested? The Rose Wilder Lane home is listed with Southeby's, you can check it out here.

My "Little House" Pet Peeve: The TV Show Ingalls Family IS NOT the Real Ingalls Family

I'm easy going, Laura Ingalls Wilder fans. I don't complain a lot and I try to take life as it comes. But with all of the publicity surrounding "Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography " there's something that's been happening a lot lately and it's sticking in my craw.

Images of the wrong family are being used to portray the Ingalls family in articles and reviews. 

For example, this article from The Guardian:

And this article from The Express about "the real" Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Come again? That's not "the real" Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The problem isn't exclusive to reviews of "Pioneer Girl," though. For example this blog post discussing racism in the "Little House" series of books:

People. This is the REAL Ingalls family:

Ingalls Family L-R: Caroline, Carrie, Laura, Charles, Grace, Mary

This IS NOT the real Ingalls family:

When talking about the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, her friends and family, can we please use photos of the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, her friends, and family?

I realize there are people who are fond of the "Little House on the Prairie" television series and I don't begrudge them that. But if a writer is going to the trouble of writing an article about "the real" Laura Ingalls Wilder, or discussing "real" situations that happened to the Ingalls family, illustrating a piece with a photo of the fictional family is lazy writing and tells me the author can't be bothered to do his or her research.

To make it worse, when I geek out about LIW as I'm often known to do, there are people who didn't know Laura Ingalls Wilder was a real person. OR they know she was a real person but they think the events portrayed in the TV show are true to life.

There is very little about the Ingalls family in Little House on the Prairie TV show that even remotely resembles the family of the real Charles and Caroline Ingalls.

The Ingalls family had no adopted children

No, Virginia. The Ingalls never adopted a son named Albert.

Even today, there are people wondering why the real Laura Ingalls Wilder didn't write about her adopted brother Albert. Dude. There was no Albert. He was a figment of Michael Landon's imagination just like the rest of the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series. There was no Cassandra, no Albert doing drugs, no climbing to the top of the mountain (as if Walnut Grove actually had mountains), and no Nellie Olsen running a hotel.

The Ingalls family didn't live most of their life in Walnut Grove, MN

The town of DeSmet, SD and it's rich history would have made an awesome backdrop for a TV series.

Though the years the Ingalls family lived in Walnut Grove, MN were notable ones: Grasshoppers, floods, Laura braving a bridge as she sought help for her sick Mom. the truth is, the Ingalls family didn't spend many years there. Laura and Almanzo certainly didn't meet there, and the whole town didn't blow up once the entire Little House gang was done with it. 

The real Ingalls family were the first settlers in the town of De Smet, SD. They moved there when the real Laura Ingalls Wilder was 12 years old. They weren't"among" the first settlers, but the actual first people to say "hey, we're going to live here" thanks to the the kind surveyors who let the family winter in their home.

This is what makes me grumpiest. There is history here. The founding of a town and all the characters in the town? Man, that would have made an awesome series! The birth of a new town? Cap Garland? The comedy team of Almanzo and Royal Wilder? Laura watching the town drunks as she sewed her buttonholes? Lazy, Lousy Lisa Jane? I can tell you that the true life Ingalls family was more entertaining and interesting than the TV Little Housers.

Also? Why is no one in the Masters family featured in the television series at all? This is a family that played prominently in the Ingalls family's history - at least during the time the Little House books take place. Man, that kooky crew would have been better fodder than the Garveys.

There is so much that could have been used from Laura and her family's real life adventures which would have been way more interesting than the  Little House on the Prairie TV series we saw on NBC. And I'm not saying that to knock the series, (even though it became unwatchable for me after the first couple of seasons) I'm saying that because the series could have been so much better than it was if we had just stuck with the history of the Ingalls family. It had all the elements of an awesome TV series: excitement; intrigue, and romance, and no one would have had to compromise family values to get us there. Instead, Landon relied on the tugging of the heartstrings and many unlikely scenarios.

Mary Ingalls was never married

Mary Ingalls never married.

Sigh. No. Sorry Adam Kendall. Sorry blind school in Walnut Grove that never actually existed. Sorry all those extras who were on set to be used as blind kids. The real Mary Ingalls famously went to the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton Iowa. She attended for several years  and then came home to live with her parents. After her parents passed away she lived first with Grace and then with Carrie. There was no man in her life and she didn't found a school for the blind. Yet, there are people today who think this really happened because a TV show took a few too many editorial liberties.

Yes, I know the "Little House" books were considered Historical Fiction

Now, it was pointed out to me one Sunday afternoon that the The Little House Books took a few editorial liberties of their own. I get that. Though letters between Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter and editor, Rose Wilder Lane show she argued to keep the books as truthful as possible, it's true that the Wilder women DID make the story into a work of fiction to sell as a series of juveniles. With that said, they still managed to capture the essence and pioneer spirit of the Ingalls family and stay true to much of their history and core values. The television series became so far removed from the real story of the Ingalls that one can't even argue that the two situations are similar.

Can we please stop using photos of the fake Ingalls family when talking about the real Ingalls family?

It was once suggested to me there might be copyright issues with many of the photos of the real Ingalls family and their friends, but there are still plenty of  photos of LIW and family available via the Creative Commons, Fair Use, or the Public Domain.

There are better options than Michael Landon and the Melissas. 

Once again. This is the real Ingalls family:

Now that you know, can we please stop trotting out photos of the fake TV series when discussing the real Laura Ingalls Wilder, her family, and her books?

Thank you, kindly.


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