Caroline Celestia Ingalls, or better known as Carrie, was the third child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and was born on August 3, 1870, in Montgomery County, Kansas. Carrie was actually born during the events which occurred in Little House on the Prairie. Because Little House in the Big Woods had Baby Carrie, and Little House on the Prairie happened after, Laura could not write around this fact. So Carrie travels with the family to Kansas, even though technically she would not have been born yet.
It is not until the books are based in De Smet, South Dakota, that interaction between Carrie and Laura occurs, without the representation of Carrie being as “Baby Carrie” as she is in the earlier books. After finishing school, Carrie worked for the newspaper in De Smet, then later onto larger newspapers.
Carrie met David Swanzey in the Black Hills. David was a widower with two young children, Mary and Harold, and they marries on August 1, 1912 in Rapid City, South Dakota. Carrie raised David’s children, and on June 2, 1946, Carrie died in Rapid City, South Dakota, leaving her older sister Laura as the last surviving member of the Ingalls family.
Some of Carrie’s possessions are on display at various Laura Ingalls Wilder historical sites and museums.
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