unity

Unity Jackman married Samuel Worthen Ingalls, Jr. Samuel Ingalls was the brother of Lansford Ingalls, who was Laura Ingalls Wilder's grandfather. In the photo, Unity Ingalls is shown with grandson Alva Gile, son of Samuel and Unity's daughter Adeline Amelia Ingalls Gile, who died in 1862.

It's not that any person related to Laura Ingalls Wilder is interesting because of that relationship, but I find the Samuel Worthen Ingalls family interesting for their other "Little House" connections as well.

Samuel Ingalls' family moved from New York to Kane County, Illinois. From there, they moved to Grundy County, Iowa, which is where Samuel died and is buried. They were a successful farming family in Grundy County. They lived very near both the Robert Boast and Joseph Bouchie families. Robert Boast and Joseph Bouchie were first cousins.

Samuel and Lansford Ingalls had another brother, Aaron, whose son Frank lived in the same township in Grundy County as the Boasts and Bouchies. Frank Ingalls and Charles Ingalls were first cousins. When Joseph Bouchie's first wife died and he remarried, Joseph's children were "adopted" by various neighbors, and none would live permanently with their father ever again. Joseph's son, Louis Bouchie, lived for years with the Frank Ingalls family. When Louis Bouchie went west and took a homestead in Kingsbury County, Dakota Territory, Frank Ingalls came west and took a homestead in neighboring Miner County.

When Laura Ingalls taught the Bouchie (fictional Brewster) School, she boarded with Louis Bouchie. One can't help but wonder if it ever came up in the conversation that Louis had been taken in by Charles Ingalls' cousin.
- posted by pioneergirl at 10:20 PM