Laura Ladocia (Ingalls) Forbes (1845 - 1918)

Born 8 Jul 1845 in Campton Township, Kane, Illinois, United States

Ancestors

Wife of August Eugene Waldvogel — married 1 Mar 1866 (to 1868) in Wisconsin, USA

Descendants

Died 19 Jan 1918 at age 72 in Roggen, Weld, Colorado, United States

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Biography

Laura Ladocia Ingalls was born 8 July 1845 in Campton Township, Illinois, the sixth of ten children. Her brother was Charles Ingalls, the father of author Laura Ingalls Wilder. She and her mother are the namesake to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Docia played a large part of the Ingalls family moving from Walnut Grove to De Smet, South Dakota. She asked Charles to be a paymaster and run a store for a railroad being built through the Dakotas.^[1]

She married August Waldvogel in 1865 in Wisconsin. They later divorced.

"One day, driving a pair of young steers hitched to the sledge to bring water from the spring [Docia] had an accident. The steers ran away but were caught by a young neighbor named Augustin Waldvogel, who had recently come from Switzerland to join his brothers, Joe and Carl. Docia was wearing a bright red jacket which [her mother] had made for her, and she must have been quite attractive. Anyway, they were married March 1, 1866. August filed for naturalization papers and also for a homestead near Plum City in Union County… August built a two-room log cabin and began gathering some livestock. He became pay-master for a logging crew, and one night, believing some men were coming to rob him, he threatened them and then fired through the door, killing one of the men. For that he was sent to prison for eight years. Docia divorced him. Lena was nearly two years old, and Docia was expecting her second child. — Lola Flack, “Laura Ladocia, Grandma Docia” in The Ingalls Inquirer, Volume 2, November 1985, 95-96."^[2]

Her husband, August, shot Milo Goodenough in May 1868 and was guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to prison for eight years in December 1868.

"The trial of August Walvoogle for the murder of Milo Goodenough in May last, before the circuit court in Pierce county, has terminated in a verdict, "guilty of manslaughter." and a sentence to a sojourn of eight years in state prison."^[3]

August and Docia had two children together.

"Laura Ingalls Wilder introduced readers to Aunt Docia in Little House in the Big Woods (Chapter 8, “Dance at Grandpa’s”), as one of her aunts living with Grandma and Grandpa Ingalls in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Because of her aunt’s circumstances, Wilder decided to imply that Docia was single, and for this reason, her cousins Lena and Gene are said to be the children of Hiram Forbes in By the Shores of Silver Lake. They were the biological children of Docia and August Waldvogel."^[2]

Docia met Hiram Forbes while visiting her brother Hiram. Hiram was born to a Scottish minister. They were married between 1872-1874 in Elsworth, Minnesota, and traveled by covered wagon in Minnesota, Iowa, Dakota Territory, and Nebraska.^[2]

"Variously called Hi, Hirah, or High by Laura Ingalls Wilder, she changed his last name to Holms in her Pioneer Girl manuscript. A large man with bright red hair, Hiram Forbes worked for the railroad as a teamster. While living in Dakota City, Nebraska, they learned that railroad workers were needed, so Hiram went to work as a finisher on the grade. Docia took the job of cooking for the men. They moved from railroad camp to railroad camp as work was available, and one of those camps was on the Dakota Central line being built west through Dakota from Tracy, Minnesota. Although Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote that the Forbeses were “going west,” they went south to Yankton after leaving Kingsbury County, where they lived for two years. From here, they moved to Bancroft, Nebraska."

Hiram and Docia had seven daughters together.

Hi passed away in 1906 in Bancroft, Nebraska. Docia moved to Dixon county and then later went to be with son Gene, in Weld County, Colorado.

"Docia moved to a small house in Dixon County to be near three of her daughters. Gene relocated to Colorado to homestead in 1904, and Docia soon followed him and filed on a claim of her own. In 1913, she proved up on a homestead in Section 17, Township 1-South, Range 51-West, in Washington County, Colorado. A granddaughter remembered her as a “thin, bent little woman who never smiled.” Docia died January 18, 1918. She is buried in Fort Morgan, Colorado, with daughters Katie and Frances beside her."^[4]

She was sick for about four weeks prior to her death; the cause pulmonary edema. Laura Ingalls Forbes died 19 January 1918 in Roggen, Colorado. She is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Fort Morgan, Colorado.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Fort Morgan Times "Fort Morgan cemetery has ‘Little House’ connection", 1 Oct 2010.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Pioneer Girl website
3. ↑ Clipping Newspapers.com, Semi-Weekly Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 16 Dec 1868, Wed • Page 4.
4. ↑ Source Citation Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records; Washington D.C., USA; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., General Land Office Records, 1776-2015 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008. Original data: United States. Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records. Automated Records Project; Federal Land Patents, State Volumes. http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/. Springfield, Virginia: Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States, 2007. 'Name: Laura L Forbes Issue Date: 21 Nov 1913 Place: Washington, Colorado, USA Meridian: 6th PM Township: 001s Range: 051W Aliquots: SE¼ Section: 17 Accession Number: 366292 Document Number: 07619
5. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #60500671

• Obituary Mrs. Laura Forbes Ancestry Tree
• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M8RM-H8R : 12 April 2016), Lura L Ingals in household of Lansford Ingals, Campton, Kane, Illinois, United States; citing family 99, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MWM1-PTR : 12 December 2017), Ladocia L Ingles in entry for Lansford Ingles, 1860.
• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MCVH-MZM : 29 July 2017), Lorrey Forbes in household of Hiram Forbes, Township 93 and 94 Range 55, Yankton, Dakota Territory, United States; citing enumeration district ED 107, sheet 481B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0115; FHL microfilm 1,254,115.
• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M3BL-LYY : accessed 1 March 2018), Laura L Forbes in household of Hiram Forbes, Precincts 1, 4 & 11, Cedar, Nebraska, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 33, sheet 10A, family 179, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,919.
• "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK42-JWH : accessed 1 March 2018), Laura L Forbes, Ashland, Washington, Colorado, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 261, sheet 1A, family 8, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 125; FHL microfilm 1,374,138.
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/QV2Q-DW1G : 11 July 2016), Laura Ladocia Ingalls Forbes, 1918; Burial, Fort Morgan, Morgan, Colorado, United States of America, Riverside Cemetery; citing record ID 60500671, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.