Charles Frederic Ingalls

Charles Frederic Ingalls was the fourth child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. The family's only son was born November 1, 1875, while the family was living in Walnut Grove. When the Ingalls family left for Burr Oak in July 1876, they visited Uncle Peter and Aunt Eliza on their farm near South Troy, Minnesota, on the way. There, baby Freddy became very sick, and died on August 27. Pa's biggest regret was that he had never played his fiddle for his son, and Ma lamented the baby's death decades later, stating sadly that everything would have been different if only Freddy had lived. Life on a farm was hard for families without sons to help with the work, and surely the family's financial strains would have been lessened had Freddy grown into manhood.