Frances Loraine (variant: Lorraine) Goetsch Schwantz was born on February 28, 1877 to Henry Goetsch and Louise Deuschli Goetsch in Watertown, Wisconsin. Her father worked at the family store, Goetsch Brothers & Company; sold sewing machines; and clerked at the Schempf Brothers store. Frances Goetsch graduated from Watertown High School in 1894, and taught for four years in district schools in Jefferson County, followed by four years in Watertown (1898-1902). In 1902, she married Theodore Frank Schwantz, who managed a general store in Juneau, Wisconsin. The couple lived in Juneau, and had two sons, Francis Walter Swantz, who was born July 7, 1903, and Ralph Willard Stevens, born July 20, 1909 (both sons later changed their surnames). Schwantz also raised her younger sister, Edith Verne Goetsch, who was a minor when their parents died. Edith Goetsch later attended Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin. Theodore Schwantz died in 1910. Frances Schwantz returned to Watertown and resided there from 1912 to 1920. She worked as a secretary for the Royal Neighbors of America, a fraternal organization; National Mutual Benefit insurance company in Watertown and its head office in Madison; and the State Board of Control. She lived in Madison from 1920 to 1937, and attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one year (1924-1925). In 1937, she moved to Pasadena, California, where she lived until her death on December 22, 1968.
Schwantz had five siblings. Her brother, Gustav Adolf, was a pharmacist, attended Rush Medical College, and became a doctor in Chicago, specializing in the treatment of skin cancer using radiation. He was married to Lillie Eilenberger. Schwantz's sister Alice attended the Women's Medical College in Chicago, and had a medical practice in California. Her sister Harriet taught school, and married Charles Marquis Smith, a professor at Purdue University. Another brother died in infancy. Her sister Edith taught high school, and later earned a nursing degree. Edith married George E. Blackwell; she and her husband were missionaries to Burma.
Son Francis Walter Swantz attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and taught engineering for 22 years, primarily at military officer schools, including Truax Field in Madison and the Officers Communication and Electronic School at Kessler Air Force Base in Mississippi. He was a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Instrument Society of America. He retired in 1965. Swantz died in California in 1980.
Ralph Willard Stevens attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and received his B.A. in 1930. He received his M.D. degree in 1933 from the University of Pennsylvania. He won a fellowship in the American College of Surgeons, and was a doctor in private practice in ophthalmology and otolaryngology in Walla Walla, Washington beginning in 1937. From 1942 to 1946, he was a flight surgeon of Troop Carrier Command at Indianapolis, Indiana. After his discharge, he was lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps, Air Force Reserve, until 1953.
A Genealogy of the Goetsch Family
Wilhelm Friedrich (Anglicized as William Frederick) Goetsch was born in 1820 in Maskow, Pomerania. He trained as a tailor, and while working in Germany, met and married Charlotte Maria Liermann of Farbezin. The couple emigrated from Germany to the town of Emmett, Dodge County, Wisconsin, east of Watertown, in August 1845. A son, Herman Carl Ludwig Goetsch, born in 1844, died in Albany, New York, in July 1845 on the journey to Wisconsin. Their son, Heinrich Wilhelm (Anglicized form: Henry William) Goetsch, was born in Lebanon, Wisconsin later that year. Initially, the family was Lutheran, but William and Charlotte Goetsch were among 16 early converts to the Baptist church on Christmas Day, 1849. They were baptized in 1850 by Reverend William Edward Grimm, who had emigrated from Prussia to Milwaukee in 1847. With others in this group, William Goetsch founded the Baptist church near Lebanon, and served as deacon there. He also helped found the Baptist church in Watertown, where he was deacon. In 1885, William and Charlotte Goetsch moved to Juneau to live with their daughter Martha and their son-in-law, August Buelke. William Goetsch died in 1902; Charlotte Goetsch in 1899.
The Goetsches were one of the largest Pomeranian families in the area. Wilhelm and Wilhelmina (William and Minnie) Krueger were another Pomeranian family who had settled in Emmet, Dodge County, in 1851. Their eldest son August married Mary Goetsch, and Mary's brother William married August's sister Bertha.
Not all spouses and children are shown on the following chart if they are not represented in the collection.
- Wilhelm Friedrich (William Frederick) Goetsch (1820-1902) m. Charlotte Maria Liermann (1819-1899)
- ch. Heinrich Wilhelm (Henry William) Goetsch (1845-1901) m. Johanne Louisa Magdalene (Louise) Deuschli (1845-1898) [see Deuschli family]
- ch. Gustav Adolf Goetsch (1869-1927) m. Lillie Eilenberger
- ch. Marguerite Juanita (Rita) Goetsch (b. 1901)
- ch. Dorothy Goetsch (b. 1904)
- ch. Alice Josephine Goetsch (1870-1938) m. ___ Fuller
- ch. Harriet (Hattie) Louise Goetsch (1871-1922) m. Charles Marquis Smith
- ch. Edward Baldwin Smith (b. 1908)
- ch. Edwin Hugo Goetsch (1873)
- ch. Frances Loraine Goetsch (1877-1968) m. Theodore Frank Schwantz (1861-1910)
- ch. Francis Walter Swantz (1903-1980)
- m. Alice Elizabeth Goetsch
- ch. Janet Elise Swantz (b. 1929)
- m. Dorothy Wells
- m. Wilna Morgan
- ch. Ralph Willard Stevens (1909- ) m. Bernice Hogenson
- ch. John Warren Stevens (b. 1935)
- ch. Karen Louise Stevens (b. 1937)
- ch. Richard Allen Stevens (1941-1978)
- ch. Paul Brian Stevens (b. 1944)
- ch. Edith Verne Goetsch (1889- ) m. George E. Blackwell
- ch. Anne Blackwell (b. 1922)
- ch. Robert Blackwell (b. 1925)
- ch. Ernst Wilhelm Friedrich (also known as William E.) Goetsch (1848-1935) m. Bertha Krueger
- ch. Herman Friedrich Goetsch (1850-1925) m. Ottillia Buelke
- ch. Maria (Mary) Elisabeth Goetsch (1852-1922) m. August Krueger (1845-1923)
- ch. Alexander (Alex) Krueger (1872-1948) m. Florentina Will
- ch. Edgar Krueger (b. 1899)
- ch. Jennie Krueger (b. 1899)
- ch. Saraphine (Sarah) Krueger (b. 1875)
- ch. Martha Sara Goetsch (1854-1929) m. August Buelke
- ch. Willie Buelke (b. 1877)
- ch. Ernie Buelke (b. 1885)
- ch. Ida Buelke (b. circa 1875) m. Henry Fischer
- ch. Dorothy Fischer
- ch. Edith Fischer
- ch. Lydia Hanna Goetsch (1856-1937)
- m. Ferdinand Volkman
- m. Gottlieb Blatter
- ch. Ernst Samuel Goetsch (1858-1940) m. Annie Schumacher
- ch. Ernstina Elisabeth Goetsch (1860-1940) m. Emil Bigalk
- ch. Hanna Helena Goetsch (1862-1936) m. Otto Gericke
- ch. Albert August Goetsch (1864-1921) m. Matilda Voth
A Genealogy of the Schwantz family
Theodore Schwantz's father, August Friedrich Schwantz, was born in northeast Prussia in 1828. After he was drafted for the Prussian army, he was chosen and trained for Kaiser Emperor William's body guard. In 1856, he married Henrietta Krueger, who was born in Zaehaeck, Brandenburg, Germany, in 1833. That year, they emigrated from Germany to join relatives in Wisconsin, and settled on a farm between Horicon and Mayville, in Dodge County. They had nine children, four of whom survived to adulthood. In 1885, they moved to a farm in Oak Grove, just south of Juneau, until 1893, when they moved to Juneau. August Friedrich Schwantz died in 1921; Henrietta Schwantz in 1910.
Not all children are shown in the following chart.
- August Friedrich Schwantz (1828-1921) m. Henrietta Krueger (1833-1910)
- ch. Linna Schwantz (1859-1943) m. Charles Fehling
- ch. Theodore Frank Schwantz (1861-1910) m. Frances Loraine Goetsch (1877-1968) [see Goetsch family]
- ch. Otto Schwantz (1865-1952) m. Pauline Johanna Raabe (1869-1958)
- ch. Enah M. Schwantz (b. 1896) m. George Stone
- ch. Mildred A. Schwantz (b. 1900) m. George Johnson
- ch. Emma Schwantz (1869-1916)
A Genealogy of the Deuschli family
George Deuschli's father was one of the few soldiers who survived Napoleon's march to Moscow, which the Russians had abandoned and burned down. George Deuschli was born circa 1820, in Wurtemberg, Germany. He trained as a veterinarian, and arrived in Wisconsin in 1856, with his family. His wife Magdalena Deuschli died in 1877; George Deuschli remarried; his second wife died in 1889. George Deuschli died circa 1901.
Not all children or spouses are shown in the following chart.
- George Deuschli (circa 1820-1901) m. Magdalena Bendt (d. 1877)
- ch. John Deuschli (1843-1860)
- ch. Louisa Magdalene (Louise) Deuschli (1845-1898) m. Heinrich Wilhelm Goetsch (1845-1901) [see Goetsch family]
- ch. Katrina (Kate) Deuschli (1848-1930) m. Gottlieb Thiele
- ch. George Deuschli (1850-1899)
