Schancher i USA

Etterkommere av Johan Garmann (1778-1840) og Else Sophie Schanche (1794-1878) i Tana.

I foranstående artikkel skrev jeg om Else Sophie (1794-1878), født Schøning Wahl, og Johan Garmann Schanche (1778-1840) i Tana. Johan Garmann Schanche var født i Avaldsnes på Karmøy, som sønn av sogneprest Carsten Henrik Schanche og Karen Maria Garmann, og var av Finvegårdslinjen av Schanche-ætten. Johan kom til Finnmark tidlig på 1800-tallet, hvor han til å begynne med var faktor i Kjøllefjord for så å etablere seg som handelsmann, gjestgiver og ”nessekonge” i Tana i 1810.

Johan og Else Sophie har en svært stor etterslekt i hele Norge, som har satt solide spor etter seg i alle deler av norsk samfunnsliv. I tillegg har de en rekke etterkommere i USA gjennom flere av sine 12 barn. Her skal omtales noen av etterkommerne, gjennom den nest eldste sønnen, Carsten Henrik Schanche.

Carsten Henrik Schanche var født på Gullholmen i Tana 5. juni 1814. Han giftet seg i Tana kirke 20. november 1853 med Marie Johanna Pellikä (1831-1920) fra Vojakkala i Nedertorneå. Carsten Henrik etablerte seg som handelsmann i Tana, men både han og broren Christopher (1817-59) døde ved en tragisk druknings-ulykke på Tanafjorden 18. april 1859. For Carsten Henriks vedkommende i en alder av 45 år og bare 6 år etter han hadde giftet seg. Foruten ett barn han hadde fra før ekteskapet (Carsten Henrik (1843-92)) hadde Carsten Henrik og Marie fått fire barn sammen, hvorav tre var i live og fra ett til fem år gamle, da hun ble enke. Marie giftet seg senere med Lars (Jules) Olsberg og emmigrerte til USA. Det gjorde også de tre barna . En av dem var Herman Garmann Schanche.

Herman Garmann Schanche ble født på Gullholmen i Tana 28. september 1857. Han var således bare to år da faren Carsten Henrik druknet. Han ble sendt til oppfostring hos onkelen Nils Johan Christian Vibe Stochflet Schanche (1833-1913), som i 1866 giftet seg med sin slektning Wenche Margrethe Schanche (1844-78). De hadde til sammen fire fosterbarn. Om Nils Johan, som senere ble stortingsmann, se min artikkel i jubileumsskriftet ved Skanke-foreningens 25-årsjubileum i 2007. Hermann ble sendt på skole til Bergen og senere til college i Frankrike. Fra Frankrike reiste han i 1879 direkte til USA, hvor hans mor, stefar og to søsken allerede bodde. Han var da 22 år gammel. Året før døde hans fostermor og fosterfaren, Nils Johan, som da var på Stortinget, ble slått konkurs og alle hans eiendommer ble solgt, angivelig hele 38 i tallet.

Herman Garmann Schanche slo seg ned i Yankton i South-Dakota. Først arbeidet han som bonde, men ganske snart og resten av livet virket han i en rekke offentlige stillinger i kommunen og i domstolen på stedet, mens kone og barn måtte ta seg av gårdsdriften. Den 2. november 1886 giftet Herman seg med Oline Rognstad (1866-1933). Sammen fikk de 8 barn. Herman Garmann Schanche døde i Yankton 16. juni 1927. Fra nekrologen i avisen dagen etter hans død klipper jeg inn:

"Born in Tana in Finnmark, Norway, September 28, 1857, Herman Schanche was educated in the schools of Bergen, Norway and also attended college in France. He came directly from his work in France to the United States, locating in Yankton in November, 1879. He was 22 at the time. Soon after his arrival he took up a pre-emption claim in Odessa Township which was the family home for many years. (Where his mother was living and had settled years before.)

Herman was married to Miss Oline Rongstad on November 2, 1886. The story goes that Herman got part of the farm land that his mother and stepfather, Jules Olsberg, owned in exchange for agreeing to care for his mother in her old age. The story also is that Herman prospered while Jules did not. There was friction between the two families. I was able to correspond with one of Jules daughters and she did not hesitate to fill me in on the problems. I found it fascinating! Have many pictures from her. She said that Herman had learned wiley ways in France and took advantage. I was delighted that she felt free to say what she thought to me. And she said Oline did not get along with her mother-in-law, Herman's mother.

Always taking an active part in community events Mr. Schanche had been serving almost continuously ina public capacity from the early 80's until his recent illness. He was employed as deputy county treasurer during the office of Joseph Pier. He served four years as county auditor and as register of deeds and for a long time was employed as clerk in the county treasurer's office. He also was at Pierre as clerk at legislative sessions. Mr. Schanche spoke five languages and in the early days was frequently called upon to act as interpreter for newly arrived immigrants.

After a period of ill health dating from February 10th Mr. Schanche was operated upon March 2, gaining only temporary relief, after which he weakened gradually physically and mentally until death came at 9 'o'clock last night at the hospital. He is survived by.........Funeral services will be held at 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon from the Trinity Lutheran church, with internment in Yankton cemetery."

Nekrologen er mottatt fra Herman Garman Schanches barnebarn, Dorothy Marie Schanche Hart i Des Moines, Iowa, datter av Arthur Norman Schanche.

Arthur Normann Schanche, som altså var oldebarn av Johan Garmann og Else Sophie Schanche i Tana, ble født i Yankton, South Dakota, 1. februar 1897. Han døde i Ames i Iowa den 24. april 1964. Den 12. august 1925 giftet han seg med Violet Agathe Hall (1900- 1936). Moren døde altså ett år før bildet ovenfor ble tatt. Barna var da fra tre til åtte år gamle. Året etter giftet Arthur Norman seg igjen med Aurora Katherine Scanlon Kundert (1900-1991). Arthur var gjennom hele sitt liv virksom i helsesektoren. Jeg klipper følgende fra datteren Dorothy Maries omtale av ham:

”Dad graduated from Yankton High School in 1919. Had stayed home for three years during the war to work on the farm, as he was too young to join the service, and his two older brothers were in the service leaving the farm work to Dad and his younger brothers. I never knew he had served until I received a letter from my brother in which he told of Dad being in the service and to "being shipped out." when the war ended and he was sent home.

Herman Garman Schanche og hustru Oline f. Rognstad med deres 8 barn i 1917. Fra venstre: Lester Franklin 12, Herman 60, Oline 51, Arthur Norman 20, Ida Karoline Henrietta 30, Lillian Marie 26, Clarence Oscar 23, Roy Sanford 17 og Joseph Adolph 29.

Dad never mentioned that he had been in the service. He must have immediately enrolled in pre-med at the University of S.Dak where he was enrolled for three years. He transferred to Washington University in St. Louis Mo. from where he graduated in 1925 . He then interned at Barnes Hospital in St Louis from 1925-1927 after which he engaged in private practice at Sioux Falls and Hills, Minn. He came to Ames in 1930 and was associated with the Iowa State University Hospital until 1942 when he began practice at the Fellows, Rosebrook and Schanche Clinic until 1959. In 1959 he went to the Veteran's Hospital in Knoxville, Iowa where he practiced until he retired in September 1963. Only to come home, back to Ames, a sick man, and died April 24, 1964.

Arthur Norman Schanche (1897-1964) med barna f.v. Arthur Farnham f. 1932, Dorothy Marie f. 1928, og Catherine Lonore f. 1933. Tampa, Florida, 1937.

He was a former member of Rotary Club, was faculty adviser to Delta Tau Delta fraternity for 25 years, and was a member of Phi Chi medical fraternity, Bethesda Lutheran Church and the Iowa and Story County Medical Societies. And somewhere in there he served as county coroner in Story County. Just long enough to have seen adolescents get killed while driving and therefore refused to let me get a driver's license. Had to get one the minute I graduated from college because my job required that I drive. And have driven ever since.

During World War II, all the physicians in Story County were called to serve and that left Dad and two other doctors behind. And he worked the clock around. To the hospital in the morning to see patients. Home for lunch and then to the office where he saw patients all afternoon. Home for dinner and then back to the hospital. He also made home visits to see patients and never had any free time to do all the things he loved doing. He never gave up his gardening however. And because he missed doing other things that was why he went to work at the Veteran's Hospital where he worked a 40 hour week. His training in psychiatry was a three month course in Minneapolis before he began his work at the Veteran's Hospital which served mentally ill veterans. And he really liked it. He also always said that if he had another choice rather than being a general practitioner he would have become a radiologist (which is what my brother chose to do).”

Dorothy Marie Schanche Hart, f. 28. mars 1928, med mannen John Thomas Hart, f. 20. april 1927, i Des Moines i Iowa, hvor de bor.

Arthur Normans datter, Dorothy Marie, f. 28. mars 1928, omtaler faren som en særdeles spesiell person med stort engasjement på en rekke områder også utenfor jobben. Alt fra matlaging og gartnervirksomhet til oljemaling og skreddervirksomhet, for å nevne noe. Hun skriver følgende om sin far fra oppveksten i Yankton:

”My father was a most amazing man. The most versatile man I have ever known. He grew up on a farm in South Dakota. His father, who had come to America from Norway, was not into farming but found a job at the Court House in Yankton, S.D. and left the farming to his wife, five sons and two daughters. Grandfather would take a horse and buggy ride every week end from town to farm. His children all attended a country school just across the river and up on a hill where the little one room school house could be seen from the front porch of the farm. When they graduated from the 8th grade country school they went to town with their father, who owned a second home just around the corner from my stepmother's family who lived just across the street from the high school. They dated in high school, both attended college, married others and both of their mates died. They had much in common, knew each other's families and had relatives all over Yankton, S.D. I couldn't stand my stepmother, but that is another story. The person my father admired the most as a young boy was the country doctor who called on the family in his horse and buggy. Dad went to college in Vermillion. S.D. finishing out at Washington U. in St.Louis. Met my mother in Vermillion. My father was a tailor - sewed many of the familiy's clothing,(tear apart on old suit of his and fashion it into a coat for one of us kids), was a painter - in oils, crocheted, knitted and tatted., made hooked rugs, had huge gardens both flowers and vegetables (I hated picking up the potatoes once he dug them up out of the ground), canned everything, could build anything. When we kids were little he fashioned a swing set out of old plumbing pipes taken out of a demolished building on the Iowa State campus. and made a real sled which we used to make slick using the wax on Colonial bread wrappers. Dad paid his way through college. He told me that he joined the ROTC so he would have pants to wear to class, cleaned out a Lutheran Church for extra money, played the piano in some college group for more money. And he was the Center on the college football team and basketball team as well! And I am bragging!

Dad loved his private practice in Ames, but was longing for free time to do other things and was not sure if he could ever achieve that. When my brother graduated from medical school, from Washington U. as well and had moved to California to do his practicum, my parents paid him a visit and Dad met former colleagues who were happily working for the V.A. and had a 40 hour work week. Dad thought that was heaven. He returned to Ames and began to investigate. Wanted to move to either Florida or California where he could garden year around but found that the requirements to pass the boards in either state were the most demanding in the nation and he was almost 60 years old. Further investigation led to his taking a position with the V.A. hospital in Knoxville, Iowa where all the patients were mentally ill veterans. The V.A. sent him to Minneapolis where he took a quick three month course in psychiatry, moved to Knoxville where he had an ENORMOUS garden behind his residence on the hospital grounds. And the V.A. paid the water bill and the patients mowed all the lawns. Life was good with hanging bags of onions in the garage and drying dill hanging there too. Dad only lived another five years - returned to Ames and died a few months later with a lymphatic cancer. My stepmother moved to Northcrest where she was very happy and extremely well cared for until she died at the age of 90 from a very advanced case of Alzheimers.”

Så langt Dorothy Marie. Mye tyder på at det er sterke Finnmarks- og skanke-gener som har gått videre til henne og hennes to søsken. Dorothy Marie Schanche Hart er 82 år og bor i Des Moines, Iowa. Broren Arthur Farnham Schanche, som er pensjonert lege og radiolog, er 78 år og bor i Los Angeles, California. Søsteren Catherine Schanche Sanders er 77 år og bor i Little Rock i Arkansas. De er alle svært oppegående og aktive pensjonister. Jeg kommuniserer med dem alle tre på FACEBOOK! De er alle særdeles stolte av sin norske bakgrunn og ikke minst av skanke-anene, som de har detaljert kunnskap om. De ber meg hilse til alle sine skanke-slektninger i Norge.

Arthur Farnham Schanche f. 1932 på terrassen i Los Angeles med hundene Lincoln og Violet.