One thing you’ll find when you start researching “Little House” families is that a lot of them turn out to be related somehow. Not necessarily by blood or marriage, but by proximity. That wave of settlers constantly moving west carried families from here to there, and in many cases, the families knew each other before homesteading in Dakota Territory and probably were involved in each other’s decision to make the move in the first place.
One of the prominent land agents in De Smet was Alfred Waters. He came from Green County, New York. A lot of early De Smetians came from Green County, too. Why? Because Waters heavily advertised the virtues of De Smet in Green County. The Cooleys were old Green County residents, for one.
A lot of De Smet families came from the counties along the railroad in Minnesota. That makes perfect sense, because news and families traveled along the railroad. Lots of Redwood County Minnesota families ended up in De Smet – not only the Ingallses, and not only the ones you read about in the “Little House” books.
The Owens and Seelye families were related. The Hopps and Powers were related. The Dows and Cooleys were related. The Boasts and Bouchies were related.
I didn’t go into the Hopp/Leitch connection when I did the “Jake Hopp” page. Maybe there’s somebody out there other than Gina who salivates at the thought of this stuff. When writing about her friend Mary Power’s family, Laura Ingalls Wilder only mentioned Mary’s parents. She didn’t mention that Mary had three brothers and two sisters. Mary’s sister Susie married Jake Hopp. Mary’s sister Lizzie married Sam Leitch. When Susie Hopp died, Jake married Alice Leitch, Sam’s sister.
Now you know.
