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- She lived in Pepin, WI before 1868. She lived in Chariton County, MO after 1868. She lived within the boundaries of the Osage Diminished Reserve in Independence, KS between 1869 and 1870. She lived in Pepin, WI between 1870 and October 1873. She lived on the banks of Plum Creek in Walnut Grove, MN between May 1874 and July 1876. She lived in Burr Oak, IA between 1876 and 1877. She lived in Walnut Grove, MN before 1879. She lived in De Smet, Dakota Territory between 1879 and 1881. She was ill with Blindness after 1879. After a stroke, what was then classified as brain fever, a general term used to encompass a span of diseases. Some speculate that it was actually scarlet fever that caused her blindness. After she became blind, her younger sister Laura spent many hours reading aloud to her and helping her memorize what was regarded as pertinent material. Typically students arrived in Vinton by train and were met at the depot by a horse-drawn bus. New students would enter the Main Building through a back door which was near a comfortable, well-lighted sitting room used by the Principal. Although steam heat had been installed, its frequent ineffectiveness made the wood stove in that room a welcomed source of heat for the new arrivals. After a conference with Mr. Carothers, new students were frequently presented to Lorana Mattice, the highly competent blind teacher whose warm, friendly manner soon put them at ease. Parents were encouraged to stay with their newly enrolled child the first few days, until the child began to get acquainted with the new surroundings.
She was educated Iowa College for the Blind from November 23, 1881 to June 12, 1889 in Vinton, IA. No education for the blind was available in Dakota Territory. She lived in De Smet, SD after 1889. Lived with her parents, then with her sister Grace for her four last years.
She died on October 17, 1928 in Keystone, SD. She was Scotch, English, and French. Was a major character in her sister Laura Wilder's books. Her Braille Bible, slate, and other books, beadwork she made following her blindness, her gloves, and a nine-patch quilt she made as a child are all on display at Rocky Ridge in Mansfield, Missouri. Other items belonging to Mary are housed in the Ingalls home at De Smet, South Dakota.
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1865 - 1928 (63 years)
