History Characters / LittleHouseOnThePrairie

* DeterminedHomesteadersChildren: Like her daughter, she grew up on the Western Frontier.
* DeterminedHomesteadersWife: Practically the trope namer.

* DeterminedHomesteadersChildren
* PluckyGirl
* TheSmartGirl

* DeterminedHomesteadersWife: Or just determined homesteader, as she is a ''single mother'' (on the Western frontier no less). This pushes her to become a...
* DeterminedWidow

* IllGirl: The malnutrition the family faced during ''The Long Winter'' hits Carrie a lot harder than the rest of them; she was described as 'spindly' and 'delicate' beforehand, and remains sickly long after the others have recovered. She suffers frequently from what sound like migraines, and almost faints after standing too long at the blackboard in school. She doesn't appear to have fully recovered until the ending of ''These Happy Golden Years'' -- almost four years later. (She lived to be seventy-five, and was known to have moved around a bit trying to find a climate to better her health.)

* MisplacedKindergartenTeacher: Her attempt to teach the De Smet school are an unmitigated disaster: she goes for a TastesLikeDiabetes approach with a bunch of hard-working frontier kids (which ends exactly as well as you'd expect), [[WhatAnIdiot listens unquestioningly]] to the gossip of one of her students (and doesn't bother to verify any of it), [[MisplacedRetribution abuses]] Carrie to punish Laura's perceived faults while trying to stay sweet as pie to the other students... it's no wonder she only managed one term.

* TookALevelinBadass: The highlight of "The Long Winter". Although he and his brother were comfortable and well stocked-up in their provisions to last them throughout the winter, Almanzo made it his mission to look for a stock of wheat grain to feed the town after noting Charles "Pa" Ingalls' emaciated appearance and realized that there might have been more people starving. Note that they took this mission on a simple basis of a rumour that there might have been wheat supplies somewhere.

* TheDeterminator: On the personal note: He continued driving Laura to her teaching assignment 12 miles one way even after she told him that she's only going with him just to go home to her family. His persistence eventually won her over.
* Prior to this, he took a perilous journey through the snow in order to find grain for the town. [[spoiler: It was about a 40 mile round trip and they did get caught in the blizzard upon reaching town.]]

* TookALevelinBadass: The highlight of "The Long Winter". Although he and his brother were comfortable and well stocked-up in their provisions to last them throughout the winter, Almanzo made it his mission to look for a stock of wheat grain to feed the town after noting Charles "Pa" Ingalls' emaciated appearance and realized that there might have been more people starving in town. Note, that they took this mission on a simple basis of a rumour that there might have been wheat supplies somewhere.

* TookALevelinBadass: The highlight of "The Long Winter". Although he and his brother were comfortable and well stocked-up in their provisions to last them throughout the winter, Almanzo made it his mission to look for a stock of wheat grain to feed the town after noting that Charles "Pa" Ingalls' emaciated appearance and realized that there might have been more people starving in town. Note, that they took this mission on a simple basis of a rumour that there were wheat supplies somewhere.

** Before this, in the "The Long Winter", Ma surprised and scared Pa and the rest of the family when she refused to let him look for the rumoured wheat.

** If I was Pa, I'd also set up my daughter to the most eligible bachelor in town!

** There have been doubts about his real age as some recent research [https://www.wildercompanion.com/2019/11/when-was-almanzo-wilder-born.html] showed evidence that he may have been born in 1859 instead of 1857 so there might be some "truth" that he lied about his age just to be eligible to become a homesteader.

* CoolHorse: It's his horses, a pair of matched Morgans named Prince and Lady, that first catch Laura's attention. At a Fourth of July in ''Little Town on the Prairie'', he enters them in a buggy race despite not having a buggy and having to make do with a much heavier cart than any of the other competitors are driving... and wins.
* TheDeterminator: On the personal note: He continued driving Laura to her teaching assignment 12 miles one way even after she told him that she's only going with him just to go home to her family.

** There have been doubts about his real age as some recent research showed evidence that he may have been born in 1859 instead of 1857 so there might be some "truth" that he may have lied about his age just to be eligible to become a homesteader.

* TheDeterminator: Once walked 200 miles to find work to feed his starving family.

* CoolHorse: It's his horses, a pair of matched Morgans named Prince and Lady, that first catch Laura's attention. At a Fourth of Jin ''Little Town on the Prairie'', he enters them in a buggy race despite not having a buggy and having to make do with a much heavier cart than any of the other competitors are driving... and wins.
* TheDeterminator: Undertakes a perilous journey through the snow in order to find grain for the town.

* CoolHorse: It's his horses, a pair of matched Morgans named Prince and Lady, that first catch Laura's attention. At a Fourth of July celebration in ''Little Town on the Prairie'', he enters them in a buggy race despite not having a buggy and having to make do with a much heavier cart than any of the other competitors are driving... and wins.

* DoggedNiceGuy: Drives twenty-four miles round trip in forty below weather to bring Laura home for the weekend. ''After she's said she's not interested in him''.

* RealWomenHaveCurves: She is the protagonist the (mostly female) reader relates to and laments how she's pretty plump and sturdy as a "little French horse" compared to more delicate and willowy blondes like Nellie, even noting how her face is "all curves" like her body and is [[BuxomIsBetter "well-developed"]], something that Garth Williams tends to highlight in his illustrations.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Has her moments. Like when she gave Nellie Oleson a slap that sent her crying to her mother!

* StiffUpperLip: Scarlet Fever? Check. Blindness? Check. Emotion....

* SpoiledBrat: Owing mainly to the fact that she's about ten years younger than her sisters.

* DotingParent: To her son, Wilder Thayer, and to Rose when she lives with her during high school.

* SpoiledBrat: Owing mainly to the fact that she's about ten years younger than her sisters.

* TheSmartGirl: In the prequel series, she's the most intelligent of her sisters and even goes to the city to further her studies.
* SilkHidingSteel: Seems sweet as pie at first glance... then you realize she's spent her life hiking across the Wild West, facing Indians, wolves and bandits.

* {{Pride}}: Hinted at and finally admitted to. Mary admits to Laura that she was always proud of being the better and prettier sister and her ProperLady as a kid was occasionally an act to make herself feel superior to Laura.

* DeterminedHomesteadersChildren: Like her daughter, she grew up on the Western Frontier.

* CountryMouse: In the prequel series, when she visits her aunt and uncle in the city. She grows out of it though.

* DoggedNiceGuy: Drives twenty-four miles round trip in forty below weather to bring Laura home for the weekend. ''After she's said she's not interested in him''.

** {{Pride}}: Hinted at and finally admitted to. Mary admits to Laura that she was always proud of being the better and prettier sister and her ProperLady act as a kid was occasionally to make herself feel superior to Laura.

* {{Schoolmarm}}: Unlike her daughter, she genuinely loved teaching, and giving itr life hiking across the Wild West, facing Indians, wolves and bandits.

[[folder: Mary Ingalls]] up to get married and follow Charles wherever he wandered was a difficult decision.

* SilkHidingSteel: Seems sweet as pie at first glance... then you realize she's spent he
Laura's older sister.

** When the neighbor's baby mistakes Laura allowing her to play with Laura's beloved ragdoll, Charlotte, for Laura giving her the doll to keep, Ma scolds Laura for objecting to this and tells her to let baby Anna have Charlotte. Then, when Laura is miserable and grieving the loss of the doll, she again scolds for sulking. Once she realizes how much Charlotte meant to Laura, she apologizes and says she would never have made her do such a thing if she'd known...and when Laura finds Charlotte discarded in a puddle, Ma is quick to conclude that she did nothing wrong in taking it back.

** She also inadvertently encouraged a competition between Mary and Laura, telling them to ask their teenage aunt whether she likes golden or brown curls the best, or asking them if they're going to give their beads to Baby Carrie.

* {{Schoolmarm}}: Unlike her daughter, she genuinely loved teaching, and giving it up to get married and follow Charles wherever he wandered was a difficult decision.
* TheSmartGirl: In the prequel series, she's the most intelligent of her sisters and even goes to the city to further her studies.
* SilkHidingSteel: Seems sweet as pie at first glance... then you realize she's spent her life hiking across the Wild West, facing Indians, wolves and bandits.

[[folder: Mary Ingalls]]

* BigEater: In ''Farmer Boy'', he's capable of putting away vast amounts of food. Backfires when he tries to stuff himself in order to grow faster so that he can help break the horses; even he has trouble finishing the food he piles onto his plate, however, and he gets scolded by his father for being wasteful.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Compared to the official illustrations, Pa in the TV series looks like a real hunk. Ironically enough, Pa in real life was [[https://littlehouseontheprairie.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/About-Caroline-Ingalls-Ma.jpg boyishly handsome]], almost fey, a trait that was somewhat obscured by his absolutely wild beard.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Compared to the official illustrations, to say nothing of real life, Pa in the TV series looks like a real hunk.

* BigEater: In ''Farmer Boy'', he tries to stuff himself in order to get big and strong. He has trouble finishing the food he piles onto his plate, however, and gets scolded by his father for being wasteful.

* BewareOfTheNiceOnes: Gentle, ladylike Ma shocks Laura when she remarks with unusual fierceness that Almanzo, who is courting Laura, is likely to get Laura's neck broken driving her around behind half-trained horses and she hopes he breaks his own first. ''Ouch.''