CHARLES HARRISON SCHOOLER

Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa

Charles H[arrison]. SCHOOLER who died in Ringgold County, Iowa on January 6, 1865 was the first white man who settled in the county. He was born in Logan County, Ohio in 1807. He and his father were Revolutionary War Soldiers*. In 1840 Charles started for the West with a five horse team, stoppingin Mercer Co., Missouri. It was too early to enter land in that county, as it had not come into the market and he moved to Gallena, Illinois. Here sickness and bad luck broke him up, and he sold his team, wagon, and other possessions and took his family down the Mississippi to St. Louis and then up the Missouri and settled in Ray County, Missouri. In August 1845 he settled in this [Ringgold] county, on land now owned by Mr. TIMBY. He thought he was settling in another part of Missouri. The location of the State line occasioned much trouble and was not finally settled upon until about 1852. Mr. SSCHOOLER was the lone white man in the county for a year. Elam BARBOUR moved in in 1846, Mr. BARBOUR had come with SCHOOLER in 1845 [his father-in-law?] and helped raise his house, but did not move here till the next year.

This house had a hole for a window but no sash or glass, a stick and sod chimney, and the floor was made of cottonwood puncheons. He made his own furniture, the bedstead a part of the house. His stock was a yoke of oxen. His trading was done at Albany, then in Athens, Missouri, 40 miles from what would become Mount Ayr.

Soon after moving here, Mr. SCHOOLER was called to help a Mr. GAY put in a water mill at Athens. While there he took down sick and it was six weeks before Mrs. SCHOOLER knew of it, as he had no way to notify his family. For months he saw no human beings except the members of his own family and Indians.

On the 21st of November, 1846, a snow fell waist deep. Mr. SCHOOLER's corn was in the patch and he could only get it by carrying it out a sackfull at a time. This snow stayed until March, 1847. It became hard to walk on during the winter.

The Indians entertained a high opinion of SCHOOLER. Once he and his family were away on a five weeks visit to Missouri, and when they returned they found the meat which had been salted down on the porch, untouched.

Mr. SCHOOLER was an inveterate hunter and frequently killed four deer in a day. BARBOUR moved in as has been said in 1846. In 1847 James TETHEROU settled where Zeek now lives.

Others did not come for several years. Mr. SCHOOLER could not enter the land he lived on until it came into the market in 1854. He hauled goods 75 and 100 miles and paid $2 for corn often. Perhaps no one who ever lived in the county was on terms so familiar with the Red men as Mr. SCHOOLER and when the trouble broke out in 1855, he went to the Indians on Sand Creek and conferred with the Chiefs and leading braves. He became satisfied that they were not guilty and returned home, refusing to have anything to do with the racket, but to satisfy Mrs. SCHOOLER, who in common with her neighbors had become very nervous in anticipation of a general massacre, he moved in to Denver, Missouri, now Fairview. Here he met the Indians, when they were being taken away. "Col. John" shook his hand and cried over the abuses they were suffering, declaring their innocence.

Mr. SCHOOLER collected the taxes every year and paid them over to the Taylor County officers. At the first [Ringgold County] election, at Mrs. HIMES', in 1855 when this county was organized, he was put in County Superintendent of schools, but declined the office. Mr. Wendell POOR was appointed in his place. Mr. SCHOOLER served several terms as Sheriff of the County.

The first school taught in the county was by John CUNNINGHAM in a log house on SCHOOLER's land. Manoah [Mack] attended and there were besides him, Return, Sarah and Peter CASE, Jane Alexander and Alfred FORBES from Missouri, Frank and James HARROW, Susan CUNNINGHAM and Charles T. SCHOOLER. The seats were halves of trees with legs inserted, extending the length of the house. The teacher was given to tantrums and whipped each one several times a week.

Mr. SCHOOLER's house was an early preaching place.

In October 1852 the county Judge of Taylor County ordered that Ringgold county be a separate election precinct to be called Schooler township.

*NOTE: Family descendants state that the SCHOOLER men did not serve in the Revolutionary War. Charles' father Benjamin Harrison SCHOOLER (1780-1834) was a Captain in the 3rd Ohio Militia during the War of 1812.
Mahitabel BARBER, Charles' wife, was born circa 1819 in Ohio, and died after 1870, Worth County, Missouri. She was the daughter of Andrew and Oral (GARDNER) BARBER. Known children of Mahitabel (BARBER) and Charles Harrison SCHOOLER:
1) Manoah Barber "Mack" SCHOOLER, born 24 Oct 1847, Ringgold Co. IA; died after 1885
2) Charles Taylor SCHOOLER, born circa 1849-50, Ringgold Co. IA; died 1905 IL
3) Benjamin Harrison SCHOOLER, born 21 Nov 1852, Caledonia, Ringgold Co. IA; died 08 Oct 1915, Genesee, Latah Co. ID
4) John Elvis SCHOOLER, born 28 Jul 1855, Ringgold Co. IA; died 27 Jul 1920, Boise, Ada Co. ID
Grant City [MO] attorney in 1881
5) Elia E. SCHOOLER, born 1856, MO

SOURCES:
Ringgold Record, Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
January 20, 1881
GUE, Benjamin F. History of Iowa: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Vol. III. Pp. 405-06. The Century History Co. New York. 1903

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, June of 2009