S.R. Durand: "In 1934...I wrote to my wife's Aunt Ada, Mrs. William Colvin, who lived on a ranch near Binford, North Dakota to ask for data on her parents and ancestors. She replied... that her mother, Sarah Jane (Schooley) Abbott had been born in August 1855 in Viroqua, Wisconsin and that her parents' names were James and Celeste (Smith) Schooley. She told us that they had gone to Kansas, where the had a peach farm seven miles from Holton and three from Circleville [in Jackson Co.]. She mentioned the names of her uncles and aunts as John, Joseph, Will who lived in Denver and had three children, Hannah who was Mrs. Kiser and had a son John, Mary, Jane Smith, Isaac who lived near Holton, and George who lived in Holton and later in Beloit, Kansas... She recalled her mother saying that she had an uncle who was a surgeon in an Iowa regiment during the Civil War. I found in the History of Vernon County, Wisconsin on page 268 for the village of Viroqua the following: "Dr. J.H. Schooley came from Ohio in 1855 and located with his family in Viroqua. He was not a graduate of any medical school fir was known as a man of 'good sound sense and had some experience' in the profession. He was about fifty years of age. He remained here for a number of years and then removed to Missouri." Actually, he went to Kansas. ...In 1952 I was in the genealogical section [of the Los Angeles Public Library] and noticed several large volumes of the records of Iowa regiments in the Civil War, and this reminded me of what Aunt Ada had mentioned. I went through the names of officers, and found that Dr. John W. Schooley was an assistant surgeon in the Third Regiment of Volunteer Iowa Infantry. I wrote to the state capitol in Iowa to get his military and pension record. From these I learned that he had once lived in Cedar Grove, Hocking County, Ohio and that in 1888 when he obtained a pension, he was 60 years old. This gave me a clue that his brother, James, had most likely also come from Hocking County, Ohio when he I wrote to the record office in Logan, Hocking County, Ohio attempting to follow up on this, but they had no records prior to 1867. Eight years later, I received a letter from a Mr. Roger W. Raines of Des Moines, Iowa. He had gone to the State Capitol in Iowa to search for data on his great-grandfather, and found my 1952 letter in the file. He thought I was also descended from Dr. John W. Schooley, and wrote to ask if I had traced the family back in Ohio. He mentioned that he had old letters written by Joseph Schooley, father of John and James Schooley, dated August 27, 1858 and July 31, 1859, in which mention was made of James Schooley's wife, Ciliseti. This proved the relationship between John and James Schooley... Mr. Raines mentioned, too, that John Wesley Schooley's youngest son, James Eldredge Schooley, was still living and had a farm near Ada, Minnesota. I wrote to him, and in his reply he told me that his father had been born August 12, 1824 in Guernsey County, Ohio and that he recalled only the names of an Aunt Nancy Hickox who lived in LeRoy, Kansas; and Aunts Mary and Bettie who lived in Ohio. He knew nothing more about his father's family. Later in 1960 I had to go to Columbus, Ohio [for work]... I took time to look up in the Ohio State Records office the United States Census data of 1850 for Ohio. In these records for district 195 of Benton Township, Hocking County made September 24, 1850, the James Schooley family is listed under dwelling No. 159 and Family No. 161. James Schooley is listed as age 27 and his wife, Elizabeth, as age 25, both having been born in Ohio. Their children in 1850 were John aged 6, Joseph aged 5, William aged 4, Hannah aged 3, Mary aged 1, and Jane Smith aged 11 months. James Schooley is listed as a farmer with a real estate value of $800. I do not know why James Schooley's wife's name is recorded as Elizabeth when she was known to her descendants as Celeste. However, the children's names are the same as those remembered by Ada. Three more were born after 1850: Isaac and George in Ohio, and Sarah Jane in Wisconsin. Ada recalled that her grandmother's birth date was August 9, 1825. This would have made her 25 in September of 1850 when the census was taken, as it is recorded thereon. From the age of their oldest child, we can reasonably estimate that She was married to James Schooley in about 1843, when she would have been eighteen years old. On the same 1850 census for Hocking County, I found under dwelling number 172, family number 174, John W. Schooley, age 26, and Priscilla, his wife age 19. He is listed as a physician. Mr. Raines had written that his great-grandfather had studied medicine at a college in Cincinnati. It is likely that James Schooley acquired a good deal of knowledge about medicine from his brother, and probably practiced medicine to some extent while living in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Aunt Ada said that they had visited her grandparents in Kansas in 1883. James Schooley gave her brother, Lee, a pair of red-topped boots, which he treasured so greatly that he put them under his pillow at night. Fern, her sister, coveted the boots and sneaked them out from under his pillow to wear before he woke up. James Schooley had an artificial leg at that time. He died, I believe, in the early 1890's."

In October of 1999, I came into contact with Connie Thaxton, a cousin of Roger Raines, the gentleman with whom Bampo had corresponded regarding the Schooley line. She sent me information on gathered by Mr. Raines that extended the Schooley line back to Bedfordshire, England in the late 16th century. She also advised me that a Mr. Scholey in England had determined that the Schooley surname originated from the descendants of Skuli, a son of Tostig of Northumbria. Tostig was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, after turning on his brother King Harold II and fighting on the side of the invading William of Normandy, thereafter called William I (the Conqueror).

Facts about this person:

Record Change October 15, 1999