Since there was a tie between which character I should cover next--Caroline Ingalls or Nels Oleson--I opted to write the character profile of Ma Ingalls first.
Karen Grassle was the first actor to bring Caroline Quiner Ingalls to life for lovers of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. Though Erin Cottrell and Lindsay Crouse would portray Caroline in the future, it is Grassle's Ma that endures through the generations. Here is my profile of Grassle's Caroline "Ma" Ingalls.
WARNING!!! CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!
Viewers first meet Caroline Quiner Ingalls in the snowy Big Woods of Wisconsin (The Pilot) as she bravely says goodbye to her parents and sister and follows her husband to the Kansas prairie. Charles Ingalls settles his family of five (they have three daughters: their oldest, Mary, Laura, and baby Carrie) about 40 miles from Independence. From the very beginning, Caroline proves herself an equal partner and the loving, but firm, Ma we see through to the very end. She helps Charles build a home and takes care of the family.
When the government arrives and tells Charles they are in Indian Territory and must leave, Caroline helps Charles pack up their family--as she will do in the future (Season 5 and Season 9)--and works alongside him to build a new place along the banks of Plum Creek in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Caroline proves herself to be a smart businesswoman, selling her brown eggs to Hanson's Mill when Mrs. Oleson tells her they will bring four cents less than white ones (Country Girls). Through the years she and Mrs. Oleson will have more battles, but when the Ingalls family decides to move to Winoka in Dakota Territory, they admit they will miss each other (I'll Be Waving As You Drive Away). She will also make many other friends in town, including Eva Beadle, Grace Snider Edwards, and Alice Garvey.
Those who know and love Caroline, regard her as a woman of strong character and faith. When she buys an expensive piece of fabric to spite Mrs. Oleson, instead of making a dress for herself, she makes dresses for Laura and Mary (Country Girls). Alone while Charles and the girls are on a camping trip, she is inspired by Scripture to cut out an infection that saves her life (Matter of Faith). When a childhood friend contacts her with a plea for help as she is pregnant and living with her husband in a mining camp, Caroline and Doctor Baker travel there to take care of the residents of the camp (A Faraway Cry).
Caroline is resourceful and unafraid of hard work. When Charles is forced to leave home to find employment after he loses his wheat crop to a hail storm (100 Mile Walk), she rallies the other women to work together to harvest whatever wheat they can to keep their families fed through the winter. She takes over the farm work when the mill closes down and Charles needs to take on additional jobs (The Richest Man in Walnut Grove); she also takes a job at Nellie's Restaurant when Charles is injured in an accident at the mill. She will keep this job until they leave Walnut Grove and relocate to Burr Oak, Iowa, becoming a monetary contributor to the family and also assisting Mary and Adam in renting the blind school in Sleepy Eye when she becomes a partner (He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not).
Caroline endures her share of hardships: the loss of their infant son Freddie (The Lord is My Shepherd), the loss of her mother (Author! Author!), having to tell Charles she is no longer able to bear children (I Do, Again), their foster son James almost dying when he is shot during a bank robbery (He Was Only Twelve), learning their adopted son Albert will die (Look Back to Yesterday), and witnessing the destruction of their beloved Walnut Grove (The Last Farewell).
A source of guidance and support for her family, Caroline helps them through growing pains, dating, and into adulthood. Ma is known to be wise, loving, and fair. She stays by Mary's side when she is injured by a horse and requires surgery (To Live With Fear) and supports her during academic achievements like when she wins a place in a statewide math competition (The Pride of Walnut Grove), but she is not afraid to take Mary to task when she insinuates Caroline is having an affair with the handyman Charles hired to finish the house addition (The Handyman) or to punish her when she nearly burns down the barn (The Award). While she understands Laura's desire to make Almanzo see her as a woman one day (Season 6), she forces her to apologize to Nellie and Almanzo when Laura makes cinnamon chicken for their dinner that is laced with cayenne pepper (Back to School). And, when Laura assaults a young woman she thinks is having an affair with Almanzo (Divorce, Walnut Grove Style), she breaks up the attack and warns Laura to be silent (Ma believes in acting properly).
Though Laura has always been closest to her pa, she admits that all her life she wanted to be like Ma (The Last Farewell). She understood that Caroline was Charles's strength and that he never could have gotten through the hard times without her. Caroline taught her children well, and because of her fine example, they grew to be strong and loving people of faith.
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