Emily Oyler

Back in September 2015 I published Chapter 1 from my Gumpy's self-published book of stories called "That's Life...and then some" (2000). This chapter, titled School Days at Sugar Plains, 1925-1928, described my Gumpy's elementary school experience at Sugar Plains School in Boone County, Indiana. Gumpy dedicated this chapter to his Aunt Emily Oyler Couger, who was his teacher at Sugar Plains school. Emily was Alma Oyler's sister, and she appears in the Thorntown High School yearbook in the Class of 1914.

Source: Ancestry. 1914 Thorntown High School yearbook.

Emily provided the sketches that appear throughout the 1914 yearbook. My Gumpy must have picked up some of her style, as her sketches look a lot like my Gumpy's sketches in his book.

Sketch by Emily Oyler. Page 15, 1914 yearbook.

Sketch by Emily Oyler. Page 25, 1914 yearbook.

Sketch by Emily Oyler. Page 29, 1914 yearbook.

Sketch by Emily Oyler, Page 49. 1914 yearbook.

Sketch by Emily Oyler, Page 90. 1914 Thorntown yearbook.

Source: Ancestry. Page 71, 1914 Thorntown yearbook.

She was born Mary Emily Oyler, on 30 October 1895 in Boone County, Indiana. After graduating from Thorntown, Emily went to Winona Teachers College and later returned to Boone County to teach at Sugar Plains School. She married Walter Hamilton Couger on 24 May 1917.

Emily died on 17 February 1972 in Frankfort, Clinton County, Indiana.