Historical Background
"Lew Brewster" was a pseudonym for Louis Bouchie. He was a distant relative of Mr. Boast, a good friend of the Ingalls who appears in several of the books. Bouchie and Genevieve Masters were the only two people whose names Laura changed for her books, as Nellie and Louis Bouchie's wife were both unpleasant people, and Laura wished to respect their privacy.
There is today a small town called Carthage, South Dakota, located where Laura placed the Brewster settlement, although it is unclear if Carthage grew out of the original Bouchie (Brewster) Settlement.
Nellie Oleson, depicted in this story, is actually a combination of two of Laura's rivals: Genevieve Masters, in the school passages, and Stella Gilbert, in the passages about the buggy rides with Laura and Almanzo. The news Laura hears near the end of the book, that "Nellie has gone back East", refers to Genevieve Masters.
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Read more about this topic: These Happy Golden Years
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