They met for a short while also in By the Shores of Silver Lake, when Mr. Edwards helps Pa file his claim during a sudden settlement rush, and in The Long Winter, when he generously gives the now-blind Mary a $20 bill.
An Alabama native and 35-year-old bachelor named Fred Brown is listed as a resident of Rutland Twp Montgomery Co. KS in the 1870 US Census, the same township where the Ingalls family lived in 1870.
However, Pamela Smith Hill, the editor of Pioneer Girl suggested that Mr. Edwards may have been the 25-year old English native named Edmund Mason who is also enumerated as a bachelor neighbor of the Ingalls in Rutland Co. Montgomery Co KS ([2]).
[3][4] A poorly educated, gruff-looking dirt farmer, Mr. Edwards helps the Ingalls family build their new home on the prairie and deal with the hardships that arise.
Laura's mother, Caroline, distrusts Mr. Edwards at first, finding his mannerisms and rough demeanor uncouth, but in time grows to respect and accept him as one of the family.
The family remains a part of the cast until the end of the third season, when Mr. Edwards uses a gold claim to begin a logging empire (the storyline was created after Victor French took the lead role in another series, Carter Country).
Distraught, Mr. Edwards returns to Walnut Grove, keeping his dark secrets under wraps until he causes a street accident that seriously injures Albert Ingalls (Charles' adopted son).
Mr. Edwards tries to break into the Mercantile to obtain alcohol, but when it is locked up, he sees the church and goes in to pray and seek God's forgiveness and guidance; he subsequently reconciles with Charles and eventually becomes Rose Wilder's godfather.