Yolo-Yuba-Lake County CA Archives Biographies.....Schooling, Oliver B. 1848 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 9, 2005, 6:19 pm Author: Tom Gregory OLIVER B. SCHOOLING In 1859, when he was eleven years of age, Oliver B. Schooling came to California across the plains with his parents. Although this was not a very early date as compared with the time of the old pioneers, the family nevertheless had their share of hardships and adventures on the great trans-continental trail before their train was disbanded in Marysville. At the beginning of the journey the company consisted of five families, but it grew larger as it proceeded and overtook other small bands of immigrants, and presently was a twenty-wagon train. They met the usual bands of mischievous Indians with eyes on the travelers' cattle, and it took all their care and watchfulness to prevent trouble and preserve their three hundred head of livestock. Mr. Schooling relates an incident along this line which is unusual and unique. The train seems to have crossed the trail of a general buffalo migration, and these wild animals occasionally were disposed to claim relationship with their kin, the immigrants' cattle. In quite a sociable way they went through the train and succeeded several times in stampeding the domestic herd. Of course the men used their rifles freely, and not only had plenty of buffalo meat as an article of diet, but captured a number of buffalo calves whose mothers had fallen in the fights. The family settled on a small farm which was purchased on Horncut creek, where they lived for about five years. Their next venture was the accumulation of one thousand acres at Live Oak, where they engaged in sheep raising for six years. This tract they sold and removed to Lake county, in this state, and securing a fine range on the shores of Clear Lake went into farming and stock-raising. They were there during the water and range troubles, when a dam, built in a watercourse by a company for the purpose of drowning out a number of contesting settlers, was destroyed by a band of four hundred angry farmers living around the lake. This occurred in 1870, and it was partially the cause of the Schoolings selling out after ten years' residence and removing to Modoc county. There they had some more warm experiences, as the big Modoc war came on during their residence in that wild, rocky, Indian-invested country. Mr. Schooling was married to Miss Lillias Gordon, a native of Siskiyou county, Cal., and their children are Leonard C., Ervin P., Robert E., Albert and Eva. The eldest child, Leonard C., is deceased. Ervin P. married Miss Maggie Slayter, and they have three children. Robert E. married Miss Bell Charter, and they are the parents of five children. Eva married Fred Hamblet of Dunnigan, and they have three children, Earl, Russell and Mabel. Albert married Miss Fannie Flournoy, and resides in British Columbia. Oliver B. Schooling in 1892 was again on the wing, as it were, as during that year he changed his residence from Modoc to Tehama and then down to Colusa county. Finally he came to Yolo county. This was in 1909—just a half-century from Old Missouri. It was a long time of wandering, but it was ended at last. He was then sixty-one, not old for a man who has lived fifty years in California —where people grow young as they grow old. True, his wife, to whom he was married years ago, is deceased, but he is settled down, content to pass the remainder of his days in quietude. His home farm consists of one hundred and sixty acres, about eight miles southwest of Dunnigan, besides which he rents adjoining land, devoting it to grain and hay. He is quite successful in sheep-raising, but his specialty is the raising of turkeys. He carefully selects the best breeds and the flocks he produces for market take the highest price. In 1910 and 1911 he sold $1,000 worth each year. Additional Comments: Extracted from HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH Biographical Sketches OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth and Development From the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY TOM GREGORY AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/schoolin130nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 4.7 Kb