My Genealogy Hound

De Smet, South Dakota, Grace Ingalls Dow, grave and tombstone, photo

The grave and tombstone of Grace Ingalls Dow, the youngest daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls and sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House book series. Grace was born on May 23, 1877 in Burr Oak, Iowa. The Ingalls family helped operate the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa for about one year between late 1876 and late 1877. The time that the Ingalls family lived in Burr Oak is not mentioned in the Little House series of books but was during the period between the books, On The Banks of Plum Creek (Walnut Grove, Minnesota) and By The Shores of Silver Lake (De Smet, South Dakota).

In 1879, when Grace was two years old, the Ingalls family moved from Walnut Grove, Minnesota to De Smet, South Dakota and she lived the remainder of her life in the area. After becoming an adult, Grace was a school teacher in nearby Manchester, South Dakota, a small town about seven miles east of De Smet. In 1901, Grace married Nathan William Dow in a ceremony that took place in her parents home in De Smet. After her mother, Caroline, died in 1924, Grace and her sister, Carrie, became the caretakers of their blind older sister, Mary, who in turn died in 1928.

Grace Ingalls Dow died at the age of 64 as the result of diabetes complications on November 10, 1941 at Manchester, South Dakota and is buried near Charles and Caroline Ingalls in the De Smet Cemetery, outside De Smet, South Dakota. She is buried next to her husband, Nathan Dow, and near other members of the Ingalls family including sisters Carrie (Swanzey) and Mary Ingalls. An unnamed infant son of Laura and Almanzo Wilder is also buried here, next to Caroline, mother of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

De Smet is the county seat of Kingsbury County, South Dakota.