Sunniva ScheieThe Scheie family (continued)
Sunniva Scheie
Sunniva and Ingeman AasengSunniva
After attending high school in McIntosh, Sunniva studied music at a school in Red Wing, then
attended the Lutheran Ladies Normal School in Sioux Falls. She taught piano in McIntosh for
many years.
She married Ingeman Aaseng on June 19, 1913. Ingeman had worked at Bovey on the Iron
Range before coming to McIntosh where he was employed at a hardware store and then at the
bank.
They had three children: Ingvar, Helen and Rolf. When Ingeman retired in 1952, he and Sunniva
traveled to Glendale, California, to spend the winter with daughter Helen. There Ingeman was
struck by a car and died December 18, 1952. Sunniva remained with Helen until her death
March 5, 1972, at the age of 87. Both she and Ingeman are buried at St. Luke's Cemetery in
McIntosh.
Ingvar Aaseng
Helen AasengIngvar, born July 11, 1915, became an accountant in Minneapolis. On November 26, 1944,
he married Vivian Johnson. They had a daughter, Patricia Jean, born June 24, 1950,
in Minneapolis and died October 1, 1995.
Ingvar and Vivian were divorced and Ingvar died January 29, 2002.
Helen, born September 28, 1919, served as a teacher in California Lutheran schools.
Rolf and Vi AasengRolf, born November 28, 1923, graduated from Concordia College and Luther Seminary and became a Lutheran pastor.
He married Viola Anderson March 19, 1948, and they had five children.
Lenore Astrid July 25, 1949
Norman Edward December 14, 1951
Nathan Karl July 7, 1953
Grant Luther January 22, 1956
Scott Dana July 27, 1961
Rolf spent much of his career as an editor of the Lutheran Herald and its successors. About 1990, he served as professor at the
Lutheran seminary in Namibia, Africa.
Amanda ScheieAmanda
Amanda graduated from the Lutheran Normal School in Sioux Falls in 1906, then taught in Decorah, Bode, and Callender, Iowa, and Wittenberg, Wisconsin. She attended summer schools at the University of Iowa and University of Colorado and the normal school in Valley City, North Dakota, for one year, then taught in Fargo from 1917 to 1951.
On retirement, she returned to Minneapolis and joined the household of her mother and sisters Jennie and Agnes. She volunteered at Fairview
Hospital and helped in the school for the retarded at Our Savior's Lutheran Church where she was active.
Amanda died of lung cancer February 15, 1973 at the age of 86. She is buried at Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis.
Johanna
Johanna attended high school for two years in McIntosh and two years at the Lutheran Normal School in Sioux Falls. Her first teaching jobs were in Hill River and in the Uggen and Birkeland schools, which are probably country schools, near McIntosh.
She taught two years at the children's home in Wittenberg, Wisconsin, (possibly while Amanda was there). She taught in Beltrami, Minnesota, gave piano lessons in McIntosh and then resumed teaching in Cooperstown, North Dakota. For a year she attended the normal school in Valley City, North Dakota (again possibly while Amanda was there).
During this period, Agnes notes, Johanna "was to have been
married to Ole Hovas, a cousin of Peter Husby's" in 1918 and
the invitations were sent out. But, Agnes wrote, Ole broke the
engagement because he thought his mother would live with them and he did not want that.
He reportedly informed Johanna by telegram that he wanted a postponement, but never offered a
further explanation. After his mother died, Ole married another woman--and later became a General in the U. S. Army.
.jpg)
Johanna ScheieAfter the broken engagement, Johanna stayed home and taught music in the McIntosh school. In 1924, she moved to Albert Lea, Minnesota, where she taught sixth grade for the next thirty years, retiring in 1954.
During those years, she earned a degree attending summer sessions at the University of Minnesota.
At least for a time during her years in Albert Lea, Johanna lived with a Mrs. Morreim, whose son Alan later became a teacher of French at St. Olaf College. My parents and I visited her at the Morreim home in Albert Lea during our years in Iowa.
When Johanna retired, she, too, returned to Minneapolis and joined the household which by then included mother Marie, Jennie, Amanda and Agnes. Agnes reports Johanna cooked for them--even though Aggie was the professional cook.
Johanna organized the library at Our Savior's Church and was active in circles, book club and Friendship Club.
She moved to the Ebenezer home in January of 1976, and died there October 19, 1981, of hardening of the arteries at the age of 93.
Olga ScheieOlga
Olga, who was twelve when the family moved to
McIntosh, entered high school there but did not finish
due to what Aggie called a "paralysis of the face." It
was not a disabling affliction, however, as she traveled
to Madison, Wisconsin, to learn dressmaking from
mother Marie's cousins, Serene and Marie Hove.
Olga returned to McIntosh and did sewing until she
became ill with a stomach ulcer.
She married Peter Husby of McIntosh June 5, 1917,
when she was 26 and he was 34. For their honeymoon,
they took their mothers with them to Minneapolis to
attend the merger of the Synod, United and Hauge
churches into the Norwegian Lutheran Church in
America.
The Husbys: (L to R) Margaret, Peter, Harold Olga, Gertrude (Toots)They lived on a farm about a mile northwest of McIntosh and tended a sizeable dairy herd. I
remember hearing that other dairymen in the area were angry with Peter because he refused to
charge more than 5 cents a quart for his milk. He was a hearty, generous man and very
strong--the kind who, in local lore, could lift heavy machinery and horses.
In the summer of 1942, Olga was seriously injured at the farm when a milk truck accidentally
backed into her as she sat on the steps. Both legs were crushed and one had to be amputated.
Olga wore an artificial limb and was a semi-invalid for the rest of her life.
Peter died September 14, 1970, at the age of 87. Olga died November 2, 1980, at 90.
.jpg)
Leo and Toots Johnson
Peter and Olga had three children.
Gertrude or “Toots,” born May 3, 1919, was the
oldest. She married McIntosh farmer Leo Johnson
July 21, 1940, at which Lodver Scheie officiated.
Toots loved farming and after her parents died, she
and Leo moved onto the Husby home place.
They had four children:
Kenneth Leo June 24, 1941
Donald Peter March 12, 1943
Robert Allen October 16, 1944
Donna Kay May 3, 1961
Peter and Olga’s second child, Margaret Lenore, was born March 23, 1921. She married Ray Brokke
on June 8, 1944, and lived most her life in the Grand Forks area.
She and Ray had four children:
Duane Ray April 12, 1945 died 1952
Jerry Arnold March 22, 1947
Roger James July 14, 1955
Sharon Elaine February 20, 1957
Peter and Olga’s youngest child, Harold Oswald, was born July 14, 1922. On May 5, 1944, he
married Jean Vaatveit of McIntosh, the great granddaughter of Erik Nubsen Oppegaard and the
granddaughter of Edvard Carl Oppegaard, my grandfather John’s brother. She is, therefore, my
second cousin.
Harold attended Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis and worked as an Estimator and Contract
Manager for a Kansas City electrical construction company until retiring to Grand Marais,
Minnesota. Jean has written at least one book on life among Norwegian immigrants in
northwestern Minnesota.
Harold and Jean had four children:
Scott Harold January 26, 1946
Timothy John May 6, 1947
Carolyn Marie April 15, 1950
Peter Gene September 20, 1957
Jennie Scheie at 23, in LaCrosseJennie
Jennie attended high school in McIntosh and
Park Region Lutheran College in Fergus Falls
for one year.
She taught at the Iverson School, perhaps a
rural school near McIntosh, for a year, then
entered nurse's training at Lutheran Hospital
in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. After graduating,
she became head surgical nurse for Dr.
Gunderson, the founder of the Gunderson
Clinic in LaCrosse. During that time she
traveled to New York with the family to be a
companion for Mrs. Gunderson.
In about 1922, Jennie moved to Minneapolis
to stay with her mother. She worked first for
the student health service at the University of
Minnesota and later did private nursing both
in Minneapolis and Rochester and taught
nursing at Northwestern Hospital.
For many years, she was supervisor of the
South Station of the Minneapolis Public
Health Department until her retirement in
1956.
Jennie was the only one of the Scheie girls who could drive a car. She used it in her work and
chauffeured her sisters on summer vacation trips.
Jennie cared for her mother, Sunniva, Amanda, Marie and Johanna in their final illnesses.
Along with Johanna and Aggie, she became an Ebenezer resident in her last years. Jennie lived
the longest in this long-lived family. She was 100 years and 4 months old when she died April 9,
1993.
Agnes
Agnes was born on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1895. She was confirmed by Rev. L. J. Njus at St.
Luke's Lutheran Church in McIntosh October 30, 1910.
She taught in rural schools near Hill River, Big Falls and Lockhart from 1914 to 1917 and
attended the Lutheran Normal School in Sioux Falls during the 1917-18 school year,
graduating June 1, 1918.
Agnes ScheieAgnes taught in rural schools near Starbuck for two years, then returned to McIntosh where she and her mother "boarded" teachers.
In 1922, she left for Minneapolis and began a career in housework and cooking. Aside from one year in Miami with the John McMichaels family, she remained in the Cities with six families, including those of A. W. Leslie, J. V. Dobson, a Weyerhaeuser, and one of the Daytons.
From 1939 to 1942, she worked for three families in Seattle, then returned to stay with her mother in Minneapolis.
In 1955, she began a six-year stint doing kitchen work at the Minneapolis Lutheran Bible Institute. Thereafter, she remained in the Cities, except for working summers at Birchmont resort near Bemidji, at a camp in St. Paul, Luther Seminary and at the Mount Carmel Bible Camp.
In her later years, Agnes lived with her sisters on Chicago Avenue, then,
as they had done, moved to Ebenezer. She died there December 24, 1993.
Olaf ScheieOlaf
Olaf was six when the family arrived in
McIntosh. He started school there and
graduated in 1916, then entered Park Region
Lutheran College in Fergus Falls in the fall.
The following year, that school merged with
Concordia College in Moorhead and Olaf
enrolled there. He was drafted in October of
1918, then mustered out shortly after the war
ended in November.
On returning home, he returned to Concordia.
His mother, Amanda, Johanna, Jennie and
Agnes loaned him money to pay expenses
which he repaid at ten percent. He graduated
in 1921 and embarked on a career in education.
Olaf taught school in Herman, Villard and
Middle River before becoming principal at Trail in 1926.
In 1927, he moved to Gonvick and became the
first superintendent of the new four-year high school.
On June 10, 1931, he married Selma Varhus, one of the four teachers he had worked with at Trail.
Their two sons were born during this time: Paul Olaf arrived June 24, 1933, at his grandparents’
home in Marietta and Carl Edward at the Fosston hospital July 14, 1938.
Olaf and Selma Scheie in 1989Later they moved to Raymond, Minnesota, where Olaf served as superintendent until he "retired" in 1963, then became Kandiyohi County Superintendent until all such county positions were eliminated in 1971.
Olaf died July 26, 1991, at the age of 93, eight days short of his 94th birthday.
Selma passed away August 18, 1995 at 89.
Paul and Mary Anna Scheie in 2003Paul graduated from St. Olaf College in 1955 and
got his Ph. D. in physics from Penn State. He was
a Professor of Physics at Texas Lutheran
University until his retirement.
He married Mary Anna Harrison May 18, 1963,
and they have two children:
Eric Olaf May 24, 1964
Maren Hannah June 27, 1970
Paul and Mary Anna now live in Bethany,
Oklahoma.
.jpg)
Carl and Mary Scheie in 2003Carl graduated from Concordia College and also earned a Ph. D. He married Mary Elizabeth Grover in Lee, Illinois, August 29, 1959. They lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Appleton, Wisconsin and the Chicago area where he worked for Wilson Sporting Goods until his retirement about 2002. They now reside in northern Wisconsin in the summer and in Arizona in the winter.
They have three sons:
Daniel Paul June 18,1961
Timothy Jon January 14, 1963
Andrew Jay May 2, 1968
Lodver ScheieLodver
The first recorded fact about Lodver after his
birth is that he was cared for by Johanna
during the train trip from Whitewater to
Flandreau. She was also his first grade
teacher--at home. He stayed out of school
during his senior year in high school "because
of the war," probably to await the draft. He
was drafted in mid-1918, put into uniform and
taken as far as Fort Snelling, near
Minneapolis, when the war ended. Back in
McIntosh, he graduated from high school with
Marie's class in 1920.
Lodver entered Concordia with Marie, joining Olaf
who was already there. He played varsity basketball
along with Olaf, was elected student
body president and graduated in 1924.
After college he enrolled at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, teaching parochial school during the
summers. He graduated and was ordained in 1927 and married Ellen Rosine Oppegaard June 7,
1927, at Our Savior's church in McIntosh. They were married by Rev. Daniel J. Borge, Lodver’s
cousin. The attendants were Ellen’s sister Dagny and Lodver’s brother Olaf.
His first call was to a four-congregation parish in Lily, South Dakota. David Luther was born (in
the hospital in nearby Webster) December 30, 1928.
Lodver and Ellen ScheieIn late 1933, they moved to Joice, Iowa. Sometime around 1940, Ellen's mother, Dorthea Oppegaard, was moved from her home on the east side of McIntosh and came to live with them. They remained in Joice until Lodver accepted a call to Jewell, Iowa, in 1951. The prospect of a move touched off a period of depression in Ellen and she never really adjusted to the new town. After a year in Jewell, Lodver accepted a call to Russell Avenue Lutheran Church in north Minneapolis. After about five years at Russell Avenue, he was called as Visitation Pastor at Central Lutheran Church and remained there until retiring in 1979.
Dorthea remained part of their household until Ellen could no longer care for her. She moved to Ebenezer and remained there, bedridden and unaware, in the final years of her life. Ellen was a
daily visitor and caregiver.
After leaving the Russell Avenue church, Lodver and Ellen lived in the 4800 block of Oakland Avenue until their home was heavily damaged by a fire set by a vandal, then moved to 5536 Knox Avenue South where they remained until moving to Ebenezer in the early 1990s.
Lodver died January 12, 1993, at the age of 93. Ellen died of breast cancer June 2, 1994, at the
age of 94. Both are buried, along with her mother Dorthea, Lodver's mother Marie and five of his
sisters, at Crystal Lake Cemetery in Minneapolis.
David graduated from Joice High School in1946 and from St. Olaf College in 1950. There he met
Margery Ostrom who graduated in 1952. They married August, 30, 1952, and had four children:
Margaret Ellen Januar y 25, 1954
David Mark Novem ber 8, 1955
Peter Michael April 6, 1962
Jenny Marie Decem ber 10, 1965
.jpg)
Marge and Dave ScheieAfter working for St. Olaf in 1950- 51, he attended graduate school at the University of Minnesota and Luther Seminary.
He had worked at part-time WCAL at St. Olaf and at KSTP and KUOM in Minneapolis while a student. In 1953, broadcasting became his full-time career, first at KOB in Albuquerque, then at WOW in Omaha starting in 1954, and at WMT, which became KGAN, in Cedar Rapids in 1959. Most of his work was as a television anchorman. He retired in 1993.
In 2007, he and Marge relocated from Cedar Rapids to Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Ingeborg Marie ScheieMarie
Marie was a tiny baby when the family left
Whitewater for Flandreau. Like Lodver, she
graduated from McIntosh High School in1920 and
from Concordia College in1924.She taught school
in Petersburg, North Dakota,for two years and in
Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, for one year.
A course in library work at the University of
Minnesota started
her in a new direction which she followed the rest
of her life.
She first worked at St. Scholastica College in
Duluth. In 1929,she became the first cataloger at
the Marquette University Library in Milwaukee
until losing her job during World War II. Marie
did housework for a family named Lathrop in St.
Paul fora year, then got her master's degree in
library science from the University of Michigan.
She worked in the libraries of Wartburg College,
Waverly, Iowa; Oregon State University, Corvallis,
Oregon; and finally at Bucknell University,
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she retired.
When she became ill, Gertrude (“Toots”) Husby Johnson, and Margaret Husby Brakke, Margaret's
son Jerry and his wife Kathy drove to Lewisburg and brought Marie and her possessions to Minneapolis.
Aggie wrote that Marie was ill with a rare disease, "carcadosis." I cannot find that word in references but
she could have meant sarcoidosis which is described as a rare, multi-system, auto-immune disease.
Symptoms vary but may include inflammation of the organs, joints and skin..
Marie died August 16, 1976, at the age of 75. She, too, is buried at Crystal Lake Cemetery in
Minneapolis.
-0-
THE SCHYES
Three of Ole Lodversen and Anne Halvorsdatter Scheie’s sons–Ole, Lodver and Hans--settled in
the Chicago area and changed their family name to Schye–and Lodver changed his first name to
Louis. We do not know what contact Ole, Louis and Hans had with each other, but Sunniva has
written of visits by the Louis Schye family to visit Iver and his family in Whitewater. We know of
no contact with any of the Schyes after Iver and his family left Whitewater in 1902.
In an effort to learn more about the Schyes, I sent letters to six people with that name in Chicago
suburbs on May 16, 2000.
On May 18, I received the following e-mail message.
Hi David,
Thanks for the letter. My grandfather's name was Louis. He was born Louis Martin
Schye on November 29, 1874 in Chicago. According to research done by a cousin
of mine his father was Louis Olsen Schjeie, born Sep. 27, 1841 in Christiana (sic),
Norway. He married Anna Halvorson Sehelstad; born 1807 in Gudbrandsdal,
Norway He died April 26, 1915 in Chicago. His father, Ole Schjeie was born 1791
in Gudbrandsdal, Norway; he died there in 1884. I realize the spelling is different -
but, could there be a connection? I'm going to forward your letter to my cousin
who has been doing the genealogical research. If you would like to call me my
home phone is —. Or you can call me at my office.
Tim Schye
The names and dates he cited made it clear that we were indeed related. I immediately e-mailed a
longer reply showing other areas where our data corresponded and invited a further response
from him or his unnamed cousin.
On January 18, 2001, I received the following e-mail:
Dear Dave,
This is really a thrill to be able to write to another genealogist looking for the same
family as I have been looking. My cousin Tim just sent me your letter with the
information that you have gathered. I will try to give you a little bit of where we
are....I know we are related....too many coinsidences (sic) not to be. Jack Schye
lives in Montana. He is the son of Theodore Nels Schye, he was born 8/8/1913 in
Ismay, Montana. Theodore was the son of Ole Lodverson Schjeie who was the son
of Ole Torgeson Schjeie. Virginia Schye, age 94 lives in Sun City West AZ. She is
the daughter of Iver Thomas Schye, son of Louis (or Lodver) Olsen Schye and
Paulina Martina Christensen. My mother, Isabelle Ann Schye Coates is the
daughter of Louis Martin Schye, also L. O. Schye's son. She also lives here in
Phoenix, AZ. but was born in Brookfield, Illinois. Louis Martin was born in Chicago.
He had the four brothers and two sisters
(I have a formal picture of the entire family) I will send you copies of this
stuff....(^_^) I am also in contact with a few other Schye relatives....in California
and in LaCrosse, WI Check out...Ancestry.com for Schye also my family.com I
will send you a password and you can see the pictures I have.....especially of
ANNA Halvorsen Sejelstad. Hope to hear from you soon
Colleen Coates Massey
Back row, L to R: Iver, Charles, Louis, VictorFront row: Annie, Louis, Paulina, Oliver, Minnie
In the months that followed, Paul Scheie and I exchanged a great deal of information with Colleen
Massey and Virginia Schye. Among other things, they provided an annotated tree of their branch
of the family and several pictures.
They also directed us to the Schye/Schjeie pages in the My Family website:
http://www.myfamily.com/isapi.dll?c=site&htx=main&siteid=vBiG&newsite=Y&onok=
It had several pictures of their family. Paul and I contributed some from our side.
We learned that many Louis Schye’s descendants had spent much of their lives in the Chicago
area, but a number of the older ones had moved to Arizona in the 1980s or 1990s.
While the dates and names in their family tree were similar to ours, there were some differences.
In the spelling of some names, for example:
We use They use
Ole Torgersen Ole Torgeson
Marie Pedersdatter Marie Pedersdatter Hansen
Ole Lodversen Skeie Ole Lodversen Schjeie
Anne Halvorsdatter Anne Halvorson Sejelstad
They had thought that Ole Lodversen and Anne Halvorsdatter had returned to Norway and died
there.
One point on which our data disagreed with theirs was the birth date of Hans Olsen Skeie, the son
of Ole Lodversen and Anne Halvorsdatter. Our information was that Hans was born September
20, 1844; the Schyes believed he was born February 25, 1834.
It seemed likely, at least to Paul and me, that our date fit better with the spacing of the other
children's known birth dates.
Birth date
Mari Olsdatter June 27, 1830
Anna Olsdatter February 2, 1833
Hans Olsen February 25, 1834 ??
Marit Olsdatter October 5, 1835
Ole Olsen September 8, 1838
Lodver Olsen September 27, 1841
or Hans Olsen September 20, 1844
Iver Olsen December 31, 1847
Anne (or Ahne) Olsdatter April 18, 1851
Seeking an answer to this and other questions, I wrote to six people named Schye in southwest
Wisconsin on May 9, 2001.
I soon received replies from Kathy Schye Claussen of LaCrosse and Rosalie Schye of Westby
who said they were descendants of Hans Olsen Schye.
Both said he was born February 25, 1834 and died March 15, 1890. Kathy said her dates came
from his tombstone.
Hans SchyeRosalie also sent a copy of a picture of Hans. It was
a copy several generations removed from the original,
but this Hans did not physically resemble other
members of our family.
Seeking to resolve the birth date question, we looked
at the Norwegian census data posted on the Internet.
It showed that in Sondre Fron in 1865 there were
TWO Ole Lodversens: one then 75 years old, married
to Anne Halvorsdatter, 59, and with children Iver, 20
and Ahne, 15; also a son, Ole, 28; his wife Ahne
Jakobsdatter, 25, and their son Ole, 2. That was
obviously our family.
The other Ole Lodversen was then 61, was married to
Anne Hansdatter, 62, and had children Hans, 32, and and Ahne, 19.
The names and dates were not those shown in our family records.
Significantly, the 32 year old Hans in this latter family would have
been born in 1833 or 1834--as the Schyes had believed.
We concluded that the latter Hans was almost surely the Hans Schye buried in Wisconsin, the
ancestor of Kathy and Rosalie, who was regarded as a relative by the descendants of Louis Schye.
We don’t know how the Louis Schye descendants came to regard the 1834 Hans as Louis’s
brother. Perhaps Louis treated him as one. Could he be a cousin? or perhaps merely a neighbor
who may have even come from the same farm and thus would have the same name even though
he might not be related by blood.
We have found no trace of “our” Hans, the one born in 1844, nor of Ole.