Ingalls family home on 3rd Street
De Smet, SD

CHARLES INGALLS FAMILY

The Charles Ingalls family arrived here in 1879. Charles had arrived several months earlier than Caroline and the girls and was working for the railroad. After bringing the family to De Smet, Charles continued working for the railroad while the family lived temporarily in a railroad shanty near Silver Lake.

By this time, winter was approaching and the railroad crews quit working for the winter. Charles quit working for the railroad and began concentrating on finding a quarter section to file on and start building a home for his family. They needed immediate shelter though, or face backtrailing east for the winter. Luckily, Charles made a deal with the surveying crew for the use of the house the crew were living in, in exchange for Charles looking after their surveying equipment over the winter.

The Ingalls family settled into the comfortable wood frame house which was fully stocked with supplies. Laura was impressed with the size of the house and how spacious the rooms were. After living in log houses most of her life, I am sure it was like a mansion.

Images Copyright 2007 Cheryl K. Whitlock

Laura describes the Surveyor's House in her book "By the Shores of Silver Lake"®. Silver Lake is the first of four LH books set in De Smet. The others are: "The Long Winter"®, "Little Town on the Prairie"®, and "These Happy Golden Years"®. A fifth book entitled "The First Four Years"® was published after Laura's death. This book covered the first few years of married life for Laura and Almanzo in De Smet.

During the year in the Surveyor's House, the town of De Smet began to grow immensely. Laura described all of the people coming into town bringing lumber and building hotels, saloons, stores etc.

Charles Ingalls bought two lots in town and built buildings on each one. One lot he sold and the other one he kept for himself. This act was ironic as this building would be a shelter from the storm during the upcoming "Hard Winter".

Laura describes town life during the hard winter in her book "The Long Winter". Laura says in the book that an old Indian comes into town and warns them that the coming winter will be very cold and many months of blizzards. The Ingalls family move to the sturdier housing of the store building.

Laura never mentioned in her book that the Ingalls family were not alone in the store building. Also living with them were the Masters family. Husband George E. Masters, and his pregnant wife Margaret. Laura left the Masters family out of the story to punctuate the independent nature of her family through the winter and thought the Masters would detract from that. To a lesser extent, the Masters were not a very pleasant family, especially husband George. George was very selfish and self centered. Always concerned with his next meal, even over that of his pregnant wife.

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