Bayview Historical Society BAYVIEW, ID

dedicated to preserving the history of Bayview, Lakeview and other locations on Lake Pend Oreille

Frank, Lulu and Caro Lou Weber - Lakeview

Nineteen year old Frank Weber came to Lakeview in 1901 at the request of his uncle Fred Weber.  He worked as an assessor and bookkeeper for the Weber Mines (right).  He and Charlie Wyberg shared a cabin and alternated eating meals at the Weber Mine cook house or at the Keep Cool Mine, where Charlie worked.  In 1906 Frank bought the home which eventually housed his family's for $600.00 from the Preston's, employed by Standard Mining Company of Chicago, the company that made an attempt to buy the Weber complex.

Frank (left - portrait by Ed Fulwider) met Lulu through his uncle Fred.  She was also raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, and came to Lakeview one summer for a visit.  The two fell in love and were married in 1910.   They summered in Lakeview from the time they were married and wintered in California until their only child, Caroline Louise, was born in 1915.  Then they decided that living in Indianapolis during the coldest months and traveling to Lakeview for the warmer seasons was just fine.  During the First World War the family stayed in Lakeview throughout the year.  Frank wasn’t accepted by the draft, so worked at the mine and Lulu did Red Cross work with all the ladies of the community. 

It was quite a sight when the Weber family arrived in Lakeview.  They made the trek from Indiana by rail to Spokane and then took the Spokane International Railroad to Corbin Junction where they transferred to the train coming into Bayview.  All their baggage was transferred to either the Western or to the Weber's private steamer (right).  Once arriving in Lakeview Charlie Wyberg helped by loading all the gear onto a buggy pulled by his horse Jenny and pulling the load up the steep hill to their home near the top of Main Street.

Lulu decorated the home in a manner much like she was accustomed to in Indiana, complete with Victorian wallpaper in the dining room and bird's eye maple furniture in the bedroom.  Their home was a gathering place as Lulu loved to entertain.  She cooked on a wood stove with the assistance of a cook they brought with them from Indianapolis each summer.  It wasn't unusual for the family to entertain 18 or 20 guests under the huge white firs in the front yard.  A large tent could handle extra overnight guests.  If anybody needed a bed, whether she knew them or not, Lulu would take them in.  At one time they built a pool lined with rock from the mine.

Frank and his uncle Fred worked together operating the mines, along with Fred's partner Si Donnelly.  According to Caro Lou, Fred and her dad were always broke.  Every cent Fred had went back into the mine, but he was quite a gambler – billiards, only billiards.  Apparently he was quite a good player.  He and Frank would go into Spokane and they always stayed at the Spokane Hotel as did all the mining people.  One time Frank became involved in a hundred dollar game, where usually Fred go in with a dollar or two in his pocket which was all he had.  That day he bet a hundred dollars and won!

Young Caroline, called Caro Lou, began elementary school in a cabin located on the Weber property.  Although she was just four, she remembered her teacher Mrs. Frances Reynolds.  Reynolds had a degree from Heidelberg but she taught in little outlying places like Lakeview because she was so deaf that she wasn’t accepted in larger schools.  In later years Caro Lou (left - portrait by Katie Fulwider) noted, "She was a brilliant woman, beautifully educated, and on the little bit she made, whatever they were paying up here in those days, she saved enough to educate her sister who became a pianist.  A remarkable person!  Mother and Dad used to have her to dinner almost every night.  She didn’t think that was quite fair to not return the favor, so she asked if we’d like to study French.  The was a perfectly marvelous opportunity for me.  Father’s pronunciation was terrible but Mother’s was very good.  She let me good to school at the age of four in the little one-room school house with an old-fashioned organ in it.  There were seven classes (grades) and she let me sit there and listened to all the others recite and I picked up a great deal from them."

Caro Lou quickly made friends with neighboring children including Margaret Chalfant, Roberta and Holly Shanks, Robert Ford, Charles and Eleanor Wyberg, Lorinda and Ethel Kickbush and the Smith girls.  "We built forts out of mud pies and rolled in the pine needles and throw them at each other.  I remember one time when I ran around the corner at the Tabertford’s place and Robert (Ford) shot me with an arrow – didn’t do much damage.  Another time Roberta Shanks and I had a slide that was in a tree, coming down from a tree house and my father put paraffin and gasoline to make it slippery.  We called it the 'skooty board.'  Sometimes the paraffin would go and it would get splintery and Dr. Shanks said, 'Now Roberta, don’t you slide on that any more.'  Roberta did and she had to go home to Dr. Shanks and have all those splinters pulled out!  We’d take trips up to the Smith Ranch and the Kickbush Ranch.  We’d take the horse and buggy and go up to the Conjecture Mine and on up to the Weber.  There were times when it was running and times went it wasn’t, but you’d eat at the boarding houses along the way."

When Lulu died in 1938 Caro Lou took over the housekeeping chores and helped her dad run the mines. She was married to Garvin Bastian for a period of time but later divorced. She continued to live at the family home until shortly before her death in 1990.

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