Tails of memories by Elaine Schochenmaier

Below I'd like to repost what Elaine Robin (née Schochenmaier) commented on Ancestry and Facebook about one very interesting photo. It seems to be that Elaine is one of the oldest Schochenmaiers among the living ones. Her tails of memories are very precious for us.

Elaine Muriel Schochenmaier was born in 1945 from Paul Schochenmaier (1897-1973) and Esther Scott (1905-1977). Paul is the 9th child of Jacob Schochenmaier (1861-1923) and Barbara Martin (1860-1944), who had been born in the South Russia (today's Ukraine) and had immigrated to the New World in the 1880s.

Here is the picture:

                                 

Here is the list of those who are to be found on the picture:

Here is the text of Elaine with my notes and dates:

Hi, My name is Elaine Robin. I was Elaine Schochenmaier. My Uncle was Jacob Schochenmaier (1887-1975, husband of Margret Hochhalter) . My Dad was Paul Schochenmaier born in Nebraska in 1896. His parents(my Grandparents) were Jacob and Barbara Schochenmaier. They came to the Fleet area in the spring of 1907, traveling from Lacombe from the train, across the prairies until they came to the Homestead that Jacob had gotten the year before. I remember my Dad saying that they had five wagon loads of things, animals, machinery, and supplies, my Grandmother gave away a lot of things on the trail out as they kept running across some very hungry people who had settled the year before and had just ran out of food. I have lots of stories from my Dad and as I am one of the youngest of all of those cousins I probably know quite a lot. This all took place in Alberta. My Dad died 1973.

Now some words concerning the picture:

This is my Dad.. Paul (on the right, back row), mom Esther, holding Leonard (born in 1936) , in front...sister Clara (Clara May, 1931-????, wife of John Howden), brother Clarence (Clarence Roy, 1926-1998, husband of Dorene Hayden). This was taken with Grandma Schochenmaier with Uncle Sam (Samuel Schochenmaier, 1897-1966, married to Phyllis Jones) and Aunt Phyllis and their children (Joan Gray, Earl Thomas and Winnifred Barbara). This was just before they sold out and tried to go back to the US. They were not able to enter because of Grandma so both brothers ended up on Vancouver Is. Dad and Uncle Sam managed to get a job In a logging camp by Port Alberni for over the fall and winter, Mom and kids stayed in an auto court, as did Phyllis and kids. Think Clarence and the older kids went to some school there. In the spring Dad and Mom drove back to the old homestead as it wasn't sold. Mom said they had 29 cents in their pocket when they arrived home, they then had to start all over again,the other families here gave them livestock and it went from there. This was in 1936 and 1937. Clara went to look for her doll that she hide under the bed when she left as she couldn't take it with her, but....some bad neighbourhood hoodlums had raided the house and smashed the doll behind the house. The dirty 30's were cruel in many ways.

Plus two comments from Elaine Evans:

Evidently Sam's father came to B.C. in a horse pulled wagon. Don't remember what year, all he had to eat was flat bread. I was told his horse and wagon rolled into Princeton B.C. carrying him after he had passed away.

Was just trying to locate the school they all went to on Vancouver island which I have been to many times decades ago. It was on Westholme Road... Or very close. They lived on Westholme Road,
just outside Chemainus B.C. on the Island.
There is a Westholme School Society... now waiting for a reply on whether or not it is the school they went to or a new school in the neighbourhood.

All these memoirs can be confirmed by documents. For example, the arrival of Paul Schochenmaier to Idaho in 1936 (in two versions):

You can see that Paul was farmer, he was born in Nebraska and he was in the U.S.: from the birth to 1907 in Nebraska, then in Canada (Alberta), from 1922 to 1927 in Washington and finally from 1927 to 1936 in Canada again. He paid himself 700 dollars, arrived by auto and he had got brown hair and blue eyes.  And below you may find Paul's signature: