Swedish American Genealogist Volume 26 | Number 2 Article 5 6-1-2006 The miE gration from the Tornio Valley Sture Torikka Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag Part of the Genealogy Commons, and the Scandinavian Studies Commons Recommended Citation Torikka, Sture (2006) "The miE gration from the Tornio Valley," Swedish American Genealogist: Vol. 26 : No. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/swensonsag/vol26/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center at Augustana Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Swedish American Genealogist by an authorized editor of Augustana Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The emigration from the Tornio Valley (Tornedalen) People left Sweden from all parts of the country, even the far north BY STURE TORIKKA The emigration to North America Stranded sailors of Norrbotten have for centuries from Norrbotten, in northern-most It happened sometimes: some people walked or skied to northern Norway Sweden, started in earnest during traveled to and fro and found it dif- in times of poverty. They had open the latter half of the 1870s. In the ficult to settle in one place. As early harbors without ice there, which Tornio River Valley (Tornedalen/ as 1858 the sailor Peter Tumber arri- made life easier than at home. When Tornionlaakso) the emigration per- ved in the port of New York, where the copper works started at Kåfjord haps did not start in earnest until the he mustered out and stayed when his in Northern Norway in the 1820s this 1880s. This article focuses on the first ship continued. His real name is said gave work opportunities for a grow- emigrants from the Tornio Valley, to have been Tornberg and he was ing population in the river valleys who left their homes in the summers born in Nedertorneå. In contrast to and along the coast. This is true not of 1865 and 1866. Mansten, he stayed in the U.S. only for the Tornio Valley but also for At times it happened that men Perhaps he was the first person from large parts of northern Sweden and from the Tornio Valley found em- the Tornio Valley to settle in the U.S.? northern Finland. People even did ployment as sailors, and it is easy to Peter Tumber found work on move there from as far away as Da- imagine that some of them arrived American ships and travelled along larna. One of the first men from Tor- at various ports in America and the Mississippi river and around the nio Valley was the fisherman Mickel mustered out and stayed behind Gulf of Mexico. During the Civil War Harnesk and his family from Över- when their ship set sail again. he served in the Union navy and took torneå who arrived in Kåfjord as From the village of Niemis (pre- part in several sea battles. In 1867 early as 1827. sent day name: Luppio) in Hieta- he moved to the harbor city of Erie, niemi parish we find the share- Pennsylvania, and spent the rest of Miners as emigrants cropper’s son Emanuel Mansten who his life as a farm owner. The copper works in Kåfjord suffered went to sea first in 1853. He came During the Crimean War (1854- decline in both production and econ- home for short periods and found 1856) a number of Finnish sailors omy from the end of the 1860s. In time to get married and father child- were stranded in some of the larger 1866 the English investors wanted ren. He left again but came home American ports, and some of them to close down the whole operation. regularly. In 1860 he is recorded as stayed on in the U.S. There are The economic situation for the Kå- “sailor, sailing in foreign waters.” In sources that claim that about a hund- fjord Copper Works was problematic. the court records from Nedertorneå red Finnish sailors served in the There had not been any emigra- District Court in 1883 concerning Union navy during the Civil War. tion from Finnmarken before then, some unrelated matters, he tells that but in 1864 there were 20 emigrants “he had made several journeys to Many reasons for to America from Alta. Most of them America.” Emanuel Mansten, later travelled by way of Tromsø, where known as a photographer in Hapa- emigration two ships from Bergen were boarded randa under the name of Andersson, As in Norrbotten, the major wave of by 200-300 emigrants. Among those emigrated in 1875 without his certi- emigration to the U.S. did not start who left because of the bad times at ficate of moving out (utflyttnings- in Finland until some decades later. Kåfjord were a large number of kvän- betyg), and this was his first actual Reasons and backgrounds for migra- er (Finnish-speaking people). As the emigration. His other travels to and tion are numerous, and that is why Civil War was going on in the U.S. at from America were when he was a the phenomenon of migration has that time, it was a good time for the sailor. He came home a year later, but existed among our ancestors at all American copper works. At the same did not stay. Instead he made an- times. The Finnish-speaking people time many men were joining the other journey to and from America. Swedish American Genealogist 2006:2 9 Hammerfest NORWAY *Kåfjord Tromsö RUSSIA FINLAND SWEDEN Torneå/Tornio Union army, and there was a lack of Three early emigrants emigrated to Norway in 1853 and in skilled miners. The agents that had Thus the first wave of the Tornio 1864 to North America. He settled in been sent to northern Norway by the Valley people left from northern Franklin, Minnesota. Rovainen was Quincy Mining Company of Michigan Norway during the spring and sum- a farmer’s son from Haapakylä, who promised the kväner in the Nor- mer of 1864. Who exactly these came to Norway in 1858 and went wegian mines prepaid tickets. This emigrants were has not been stated. on to the U.S. later. He is said to have was a big help and an enticement for The emigrants were born on both started a new settlement in Frank- the Tornio Valley and the Finnish shores of the Tornio river with indi- lin, Minnesota, already in 1865. In people there, as they had never viduals from the Swedish parishes of that area a little colony of Finns was before received such a good offer. One Nedertorneå, Karl Gustaf, Hieta- established. Anders was the father might guess that the Tornio Valley niemi, and Övertorneå, as well as of Johan Abraham Rovainen, born in people did not hesitate long before from Karunki and Alkkula (Ylitornio) 1865, whose tombstone states that they started on their second emigra- on the Finnish side of the river. he was the first Finnish baby born tion, this time for North America. On the first emigrant vessels in in Minnesota. Finally, Mickel Heikka During the next two decades between 1864 were found, among others, An- 700 and 1,000 “Finns” arrived in the ders Rovainen, who was born in U.S. Övertorneå, Petter Lahti, born in Nedertorneå, and Mickel Heikka from Finnish Övertorneå. Lahti was a farmer’s son who 10 Swedish American Genealogist 2006:2 group of travellers direct emigrant from the Tornio went on to Quebec and Valley, arriving in New York in Sep- from there to Chicago tember 1865, the total travelling and finally reached St. time from the moment they left their Peter in Minnesota home until landing in New York was after many weeks on one month and two days. Rova and the road. Lahti also his family travelled on a steamship. functioned as a link It is more difficult to say how long a for the later Finnish- voyage by sailing ship took, as it speaking immigrants depended on the weather. A typical to the U.S. He was time for the crossing was between also recruited as a twelve and eighteen days, if you went soldier for the Union on the older type of ship that com- army, an event which bined sail and steam. Those ships happened during the were more susceptible to bad weath- fall of 1864. He was a er than the next generation of pure soldier for about ten steamships, which normally took months until the eight days for the crossing. But in the peace was concluded total travelling time one must also the following year. count the time used for land travel. According to other So Rova’s 32 days can function as a sources, it says that median time for the Tornio Valley Anders Rovainen did emigrants during the latter half of not arrive until 1865. the 1860s, at least for the ones travelling by steamships. Three phases of emigration The pioneers from the To sum up: we first Tornio Valley have sailors from the Rumors about the possibilities in “the Tornio Valley who promised land” of America reached jumped ship or stayed people back home amazingly quickly. behind and settled in The first man from the Valley who the U.S. Then we have asked for a moving certificate [flytt- the miners from the ningsbetyg] to go to America did so Tornio Valley who left in the beginning of April 1865. Some- from northern Nor- thing had happened in Lappträsk way. In the third wave village of Karl Gustaf parish – we have the emi- “America Fever” had hit.