Charles Wilbur SCHOOLER

   General Notes:

!Wilbur was a cowboy all his life, even after he was too old to do the work, he looked the part. He started his life work very young, breaking horses for his Uncle Richard. He said he used to break 25-30 horses a winter, mainly for the freight line. He also worked for "Morris and Knudeson" which was at the time a new young company. After he was married, Rosetta made a denim skirt for him to wear so that he could break horses for ladies to ride. He also helped in the driving of the freight teams and sometime after 1903, Wilbur and Jesse Schooler and Tom and Joel Campbell helped build the railroad grade from Bliss to Hagerman and from Hagerman to Twin Falls. They built a bailer of logs and bales tied with ropes, to supply wild hay for the horses used in building the railroad grade. They brought in the first printing press to the Hagerman valley by lowering it over a rock wall on the Justice Grade. Iron hooks and spikes can still be seen on top of the rim. They lowered runners and generators in when the lower Salmon power plant was contructed, and they also helped to make the Big Ben irrigation canal. Frank Boyer had the first threshing machine in Hagerman and one time when Wilbur was working for him, he fell into the thresher, but was rescued in time for no harm to be done. In 1958, when in Hagerman for the funeral of Jesse Schooler, Joe the last son of Wilbur and Rosie found the remains of the old rock barn that Wilbur had built on their place years before. Wilbur and Rosie had a family band that played for dances in Hagerman. Wilbur would call square dances and play the fiddle, and was quite a dancer himself. About 1961 Elmer Cook came to visit Wilbur and Rosie in LaGrande for the last time and they showed us some of their fancy dance steps and really did a good job for two "old geezers" as they called themselves. In 1928 Wilbur built what he called the first mobile home to move his family to LaGrande, Oregon. He built or bought, a small long narrow building and placed it on a flat bed wagon and made a temporary home out of it. He cut a window in the front, so that he could see to drive the horses, and drove it over unpaved roads that sometimes had very steep sides and no safety rails. At night Rosie, Mary and Orma would sleep in the wagon and Wilbur, Thomas, Johnny, and Joe would sleep on the ground to keep the fire going. They left Hagerman, because Chuck and Wanda had each married and ended up living in LaGrande. They went back to breaking horses and training them and Thomas was thrown from his horse and tampled to death by Johnny's horse. In the 1950's Wilbur and Rosie, Chuck and Rhea, Roy and Wanda, and Joe and Lila all lived within a four or five block area and almost had a little Schooler community. As children, the grandchildren really enjoyed being able to go to their Grandpa and Grandma's little house to visit or spend the night. It was very, very small and they didn't have much. But the love overflowed. They had climbing roses covering the front screened porch and many more roses in the garden beside the house. !CENSUS:1900 Lincoln Co., Idaho, Malad precinct !CENSUS:1920 Gooding Co., Idaho, Hagerman precinct !MARRIAGE:Justice of the Peace Record, married by A. N. Conklin, J.P., Malad precinct.!MILITARY:I found his draft registration in Gooding Co., Idaho

   Marriage Information:

Charles married Rosetta Ann CAMPBELL, daughter of David William CAMPBELL and Kizzie Ann AVERETT, on 10 Nov 1903 in Hagerman, Lincoln, Idaho. (Rosetta Ann CAMPBELL was born on 4 Mar 1881 in Grand Junction, Mesa, Colorado, died on 13 Feb 1969 in LA Grande, Union, Oregon and was buried on 17 Feb 1969 in LA Grande, Union, Oregon.)