Mr. Edwards – Biography

Mr. Edwards – Biography

Laura fondly writes of Mr. Edwards, the wildcat from Tennessee throughout her series of books. Mr. Edwards was the one who made sure Laura and her sisters got their Christmas gifts from Santa Claus in Little House on the Prairie. It is also Mr. Edwards who gives Mary a twenty dollar bill to start off her college education fund. But in reality, Mr. Edwards did not exist.

It is believed that the real Mr. Edwards was actually a Mr. Edmund Mason, who is buried in the Harrison Cemetery in Independence, Kansas. It is unlikely, however, that he would have returned to Independence, after supposedly meeting up with the Ingalls in De Smet, South Dakota. However, there are many other possible people who could have been Laura’s Mr. Edwards, people she wrote about in her first biographical memoirs, Pioneer Girl, and those who have shown up in the Independence Census.

It is also speculated that Mr. Edwards is a completely made-up person, whom Laura gave the traits and actions of people she knew who did kind deeds for the Ingalls throughout the years. Mr. Edwards is a mystery to all but the Ingalls family themselves, and hopefully more research will prove without a doubt who Mr. Edwards of the Little House books really was.