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Biography[]

Adam Kendall was the husband of Mary Ingalls. At a young age, Adam was fishing with his father. As he was walking over the rocks to cross the rushing stream, he fell in and hit his head. He woke up in the doctor's office, blind.

Adam first met Mary when she was sent to the Burton School for the Blind in Iowa where he worked as a teacher. At first, she despised him, but eventually the two fell in love and got married.

After moving the blind school and combining it with Hester-Sue Terhune's school, they stayed in Walnut Grove until the blind school was burned down by a fire that was accidentally caused by Albert Ingalls and a friend. In this fire he and Mary lost their infant son, Adam Charles.

After the fire accident, with the help of Laura Ingalls, she and other children restored an old building to the new blind school in Sleepy Eye that was dedicated to Alice Garvey and Adam Charles Holbrook Kendall Jr., who died in the fire at the old school.

A year later, in a freak accident, Adam's sight was restored, although his wife was still blind. Attending law school on a scholarship, he was able to realize his dream of becoming a lawyer, something he had wanted to do until he went blind in an accident as a boy. He set up his first law office in Walnut Grove, but eventually left because of the small need for a lawyer in the quiet town. Adam left for New York with Mary to work at his father’s law firm.

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