ATDTDA (3) Dynamitic mania, 80-86

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Wow, thanks for that!  

(couple three odd notes on Finns:  in Neuromancer, the Finn is a shady figure, expert in computers; Linus Torvalds, of course, is a Finn; I don't think Huck Finn or Mickey Finn were Finns though.  ok, I'm finished...)

Bekah wrote: 
   
    I'm not Heikki but my grandmother's maiden name was Hilma Rantala,  a good Finnish name, and she immigrated  from the area of Pori in 1901.    My grandfather, Oscar Lindroos, was from the Aland Islands, in the Bay of Bothnia.

    The Tsar's  decision of compulsory military service for all Finnish men (a violation of their Duchy agreement)  went into effect in 1901.  Service would be for four years. 

    My grandmother's first husband,  Anton Anderson (Swedish name from the occupation)  immigrated from Pori at about that time and directly because of the intensified Russification.    (One dark night,  he and his brothers swiped a Russian flag from atop a government building and brought it home where their mother tore it into strips and used it in  a little rag rug.  When the Russian authorities came  investigating and looking for it,  they walked on it.  This was a big joke in the family for years;  the Russians walked on their own flag. )  The Russians had helped Finland set up a  reasonable constitutional democracy,  but then had proceeded to overrule it.   The increasing nationalism in both countries resulted in difficulties.

    And my grandmother, Hilma Rantala, followed Anton (her sweetheart) to Duluth,  Minnesota a year later where they bought land right on the Mississippi River near Jacobsen, cleared it and started a farm.  They had 4 children and Anton died in about 1916 (the time of the iron ore mining strike but I don't think he was involved).

    Anyway,  my grandfather, a seaman, theologian and author had immigrated in about 1913 and moved straight to Wyoming for the mining.    After a few years there,  probably in the coal mines,   Grandpa Oscar  moved to Minnesota (1919?)  where there were lots of good Finlanders living in a place called Jacobsen,  near Hill City and Hibbing near the Masabi iron ore RANGE.   (and Bobby Dylan)

    My grandmother was a widow by that time with  4 children and a farm so Oscar and  Hilma married and had 3 more (including my dad).    Oscar took to farming the land and being a custodian at the high school (I think).   He and my grandmother were  very religious in an atheist/ socialist community but splits like that were fairly common in the Finnish communities of the day.    There was a co-op in Jacobsen which served as a socialist meeting hall but it was very difficult to do any union organizing there because for a long time the mining bosses ruled the iron mines and forcibly prevented the miners from forming unions by any and all means,  no matter what the nationality (new groups).
     
    Although individuals Finns had come to the Colonies and Canada since the 17th century,  most Finns immigrated  between the years 1890 and 1920.  Those who came prior to 1890 were religious and conservative and started Lutheran churches.  Most of these were farmers and seamen.    Some of this immigration was the result of "recruiting" efforts of US companies.  My grandparents were both religious and conservative - although he came after 1900,   Oscar was a seaman and a published author of theological books.  Besides,  he was from Aland Is. and I don't know what their relationship with the Tsar was.

    Those who came after 1890 were mostly unskilled laborers  and they tended to be at least somewhat socialist (of the Utopian, not Scientific, variety - not Marxist),  and started Socialist Clubs.   The temperance societies were also very political and powerful ( many Finn in Finland and the US thought that a major problem for immigrants was the saloon.)   There were two Temperance groups,  one semi-affiliated with the Lutheran Church and one distinctly not.   In 1913 there were four  daily (!) Finnish Socialist  newspapers which kept members informed.  (A couple of them were around well into the 1960s;  my dad worked with them.  I think there is only one monthly  left and it's in English.)


    In the Minnesota mines,  when the bosses got rid of the questionable workers,  more were shipped in from the East Coast in box cars or cattle cars.  (Reminded me of Veikko's tale in AtD.)   The new workers were new immigrants from Eastern Europe  chosen because they would not to be able to communicate with the potential unionists.  Finns had a very difficult time learning English and nobody ever learns Finnish unless they grew up with it. (probably a joke)


    Finns were important in many ways in Teluride in the 1900s.  <http://www.multi.fi/~olimex/read_more/klippiga_bergen.htm>  These folks came over earlier (1870s?) due to a massive crop failure in central Finland.

    In 1905 there was a large strike in Michigan (socialist and temperance groups joined up)  in which several Finns were accused of murder.  This made the national headlines.

    In Hanna, Wyoming a couple years later,  The Mountain Rose Temperance Society (Vuoriston Ruusu Raitusseura) a very important,  progressive, reform group (because alcohol was a huge! problem)   together with the Finnish Kalevala Brotherhood,  had been holding secret meetings in a run-down saloon  for miners who worked in the Union Pacific coal mines.  After a series of strikes,  the company recognized the union.  "Hurratkaa, pojat!"


    *************
    Some good resources:

    _Blueberry God: The Education of a Finnish American_ by Reino Nikkoli Hannula (out of print?)  Excellent.  This is the story of the Finnish socialist movement in the US. 

    _The Journal of Otto Peltonen_ by William Durbin  (This is a fictionalized young adult book but it's got the history right.)

    Finnish Immigrant Culture in America by Reino Kero Ph.D., University of Turku, Turku
    <http://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article266e.htm>

    Library of Congress Country Studies  <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html>  (and do a search)

    **

    Bekah
    Photos of my own  Finlander connection:  <http://homepage.mac.com/bekker2/PhotoAlbum77.html>
    Trip to FInland a few summers ago:  <http://homepage.mac.com/bekker2/PhotoAlbum27.html> (scroll down)