paul
According to Paul Cooely, his family took three wagons "On the Way Home" to Missouri, with six horses and their little shepherd dog. Mr. and Mrs. Cooley both drove wagons; Paul and George drove the third wagon in turn. Paul remembered: "Mr. and Mrs. A.J. Wilder and their daughter Rose (just younger than George) travelled with us. They had one rather light wagon, covered, in which they cooked and slept."

Because Paul quit school in the fall of 1900 and left Mansfield for good in November the following year, it's hard for me to imagine a serious romance of any sorts between him and Rose Wilder, who would have been 14 at the time, and Paul, two years older.

In his diary, Paul does mention that his salary was paid by George Burney and that he learned telegraphy from Mr. Burney's daughter Ethel, and that they spent a lot of time together. When reading Rose's Diverging Roads - later reworked as Rose Wilder Lane: Her Story by Roger Lea MacBride - one can easily picture Paul and Ethel as characters in the story rather than Paul and Rose, as their lives and interests ran almost parallel.

Like Paul, Ethel became a station agent herself and was paid $50 per month. Mr. Burney wouldn't let Ethel spend her earnings so she bought bonds, which she didn't cash in until after she married Paul in 1957.

One of the most interesting things I learned about Paul was his interest in oil painting. He had learned to paint as a child in Mansfield, but gave it up while working and didn't return to painting until his retirement. Paul took lessons and painted many landscapes, but he often said that he wished he had captured some of his memories of the scenes from the trip his family and the Wilders made from De Smet to Mansfield. While the trip was said to be about 650 miles according to On the Way Home, Paul remembered it was measured at about 900 miles at the time, and that it seemed like 9000 miles by the time it was over!

The Laura Ingalls Wilder - Rose Wilder Lane Home and Museum has a couple of paintings by Paul. The one pictured here was given to curator Irene Lichty in 1962; it is of the Old Rock Bridge Mill in southern Missouri. I was recently given a painting of El Capitan mountain peak in Arizona, painted by Paul only a few years prior to his death.
- posted by pioneergirl at 9:57 PM