Henry and Polly Quiner

Henry Odin Quiner, older brother of Caroline Quiner Ingalls, was born to Henry and Charlotte Quiner on December 7, 1835, in Ohio.

Polly Melona Ingalls, younger sister of Charles Ingalls, was born to Landsford and Laura Ingalls in 1840 in Cuba, New York.

In February, 1859, Henry and Polly became the third pair of Quiners and Ingalls to marry. They had seven children: Louisa, Charles, Albert, Lottie, George, Lillian, and Ruby.

Uncle Henry and his family left Pepin, Wisconsin, with Laura's family in 1868, and the two families moved to Chariton County, Missouri. When Laura's family went on to Kansas in 1869, Henry and Polly returned to the Big Woods.

Uncle Henry and Aunt Polly lived near the Ingalls cabin in Little House in the Big Woods, and Pa and Uncle Henry shared many tasks, such as the butchering and threshing. Henry's son Charley was the boy who "cried wolf" while his father and uncle were working together in the fields and as a consequence, was stung by hundreds of yellow jackets.

The Quiners stayed behind when Charles and Peter left Pepin for Minnesota in 1874. However, in By the Shores of Silver Lake, the two families were reunited briefly before the Quiners moved on further west and settled in a small town near Keystone, South Dakota.

Unfortunately, the family met with tragedy there. Henry died in 1886 and Polly in 1887. In the years preceding their deaths, they lost four of their children most likely to illness. The remaining three Quiner children (Louisa, Albert, and Lottie) married and settled in Wyoming.