Mary Amelia Ingalls

    Mary Amelia Ingalls

[1865-1928]

    



Mary Amelia Ingalls
   Born: January 10, 1865 Pepin, Pepin County Wisconsin
   Died: October 17, 1928 Keystone, Pennington County South Dakota
   Spouse: Single
    Parents: Charles Phillips Ingalls, Caroline Lake Quiner
    Occupation: House Keeper/ Piano Player
    Cause of Death: General Debility
     Date of Burial: October 28, 1928
      Death Certificate #: 118560
     Age at Death: YRS: 63 MOS: 9 DYS: 5
     Interment: De Smet Cemetery De Smet Kingsbury County South Dakota

 

South Dakota Death Index, 1905-1955 about Mary Ingalls
Name: Mary Ingalls Certificate Number: 118560 Death Day: 17 Death Month: Oct Death Year: 1928 County: Pennington Page Number: 444

 

 

Source:

http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=0&gsfn=&gsln=Ingalls&sx=&f17=&f16=&rg_f15__date=&rs_f15__date=0&f14=Pennington&gskw=&prox=1&db=sddeaths&ti=0&ti.si=0&gss=angs-i&indiv=1&pf=1&recid=&h=65315&fh=1&ct=&fsk=&bsk=

 

School For the Blind

http://www.aph.org/museum/MaryScript.html

 

 Mary Amelia Ingalls- Biography

 Mary Amelia Ingalls was the first child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and was born on January 10, 1865, in Pepin, Wisconsin. Mary was a character in all of the Little House books and Mary and Laura were inseparable.

 

When Mary was fourteen years old, she became severely ill. Her illness, which is variously described as scarlet fever (in the books) and meningitis, resulted in a stroke which caused Mary to go blind. Laura then became Mary's "eyes", describing everything around them to her sister.

 

In 1881, the Dakota Territory paid for Mary to attend the Iowa School for the Blind in Vinton, Iowa (know known as the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School). She graduated in 1889, and returned to De Smet, South Dakota to live with her parents.

 

Like most blind women of the time, Mary never married, and lived with her parents until their deaths. Mary then lived with Grace and her husband. In Keystone South Dakota, Mary died on October 17, 1928 at the home of her younger sister Carrie.

 

Some of Mary's beadwork, as well as her special Braille slate and bible are housed at the Mansfield Museum while many of her other possessions are housed at De Smet.

 

Source:

http://www.laurasprairiehouse.com/family/maryingalls.html

 

FIndagrave.com

Folk and literary figure. Born the eldest child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls in Pepin County, Wisconsin on her father's birthday. At the age of 14 she fell ill with what was then described as brain fever. Although she recovered, the illness robbed her of her sight. In 1881, Mary enrolled in the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School in Vinton, Iowa. Mary's academic achievements were considered exceptionally high, in addition to academic subjects she excelled in music sewing, beadwork, knitting, hammock and fly net tying. Mary graduated in June 1889, one of eight in her graduating class. After graduation she returned to De Smet where she lived with her parents. After her father's death, she made fly nets in order to supplement the family income. She was active in the church, and taught Sunday school classes. With the death of her mother in 1924, Mary moved in with her sister, Grace, before settling in with her sister Carrie, at Keystone, South Dakota. She never married. At the age of 63, she succumbed to pneumonia, and was interred in the family plot at De Smet. Her sister, Laura, would later immortalize the family in the popular ‘Little House' series of books.

 

 

Taken By Jeannette K. ROok
April 12, 2014


Source:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3952

 

 

"We regret to report the death of Miss Mary Ingalls."

On October 17, 1928, an elderly blind woman named Mary Amelia Ingalls died in a small rural community in South Dakota. Her obituary in the local newspaper was brief: "Miss Ingalls passed away at the home of her sister, Mrs. D.N. Swanzey. She suffered another stroke a few days before her death, after a year of ill health following former strokes. Funeral services will be held at the Congregational Church Friday at two o'clock." No one, other than her friends and relatives, was particularly interested in Mary's life, in her story. Yet just four years later, her name was known to people all across the country, and she was loved by thousands and thousands of young girls, some of whom aspired to be just as good and kind and sweet as she was, though most preferred her mischievous and much livelier younger sister, the one who always forgot to wear her sunbonnet, was crazy for horses, and got into all kinds of scrapes.

 

That sister was named Laura. Laura Ingalls Wilder, the celebrated children's author. Laura's fictionalized accounts of her childhood experiences on the western frontier, hand-written in soft pencil on lined yellow paper, eventually filled seven books. The story they tell is as much Mary's as Laura's, though the first book in the Little House series was published four years after Mary's death

 

Source:

http://www.aph.org/museum/MaryScript.html