sign in sign up
<<
Home , Finnish Americans

Publisher:

Siirtolaisuusinstituutti – Institute of Migration

Eerikinkatu 34 20100 Turku

http://www.migrationinstitute.fi Over the Atlantic An Overview of the Emigration from Finland to North America

Siirtolaisuusinstituutti Institute of Migration Edition and layout: Krister Björklund

Siirtolaisuusinstituutti – Institute of Migration Eerikinkatu 34, FI-20100 Turku, Finland http://www.migrationinstitute.fi

Printed version:

ISBN 951-9266-82-8

TEMA-TEAM 1070-05 Turku, Finland 2005

Hinta 10 € Price 10 US$ Introduction The mass migration to North America started from Great Britain and Central in the beginning of the 19th century. In that great fl ood of immigration over the Atlantic the Finns formed only a small fraction. When the big exodus from Finland started around 1900, they arrived on the average over a generation later than the other Scandinavians. There was no longer free land handed out, and many Finns had to take on the tough- est jobs in the forests and the mines. Their situation improved gradually through hard work – By the 1930’s only ten per cent of those who had migrated prior to World War I were working as miners, whereas one third of them had either a farm or a business of their own. The Finnish emigrants and their descendants have done well for themselves in America and many have achieved positions of prominence in different walks of life. As Finland has changed from an emigration country to an immigration country, the experiences of the emigrants in America is proving valuable to present-day Finns in dealing with their own world.

1 Early settlers The Finns have a long background of migration, and were among the fi rst colonists in the new world. The documented Finnish presence in America starts with the “New ” colony, which was established at the mouth of the in 1638. That colony was the fi rst permanent white settlement in the Delaware river Valley. The Swedes and the Finns founded the fi rst towns, constructed the fi rst churches and schools, established the fi rst law courts and built the fi rst roads in the Delaware Valley. The Finns were one of the four nationalities to settle the original thirteen States of the Union together with the English, the Dutch and the Swedes. Their number was small, only one per cent of the total number of Europeans on the American East coast, but their contribution was surely bigger than that: farming by burn-beating, a new way to build log-cabins, and the art of living at peace with Indians. Not much is known about the Finnish emigration to North America from the time of this early settlement until the middle of the 19th century. There were cer- tainly Finns living in America in this period, but most of them have been forgotten. One exception is Charles Linn (Carl Sjödahl), who migrated to the already in the 1830’s. He built Birmingham’s fi rst industry, Birmingham Car & Foundry Co. (Linn Iron Works), the fi rst bank, The National Bank of Birming- ham and the city’s fi rst park, called Linn Park. Linn took more than 50 Finnish emigrants to Alabama in 1869. An old map of “”.

2 A log cabin built by the early settlers in Delaware in the 17th century.

3 Sailors and prospectors Finnish seamen were the pioneers of Finnish emi- grants all over the world. Sailors sometimes decided to stay ashore in and other American ports. In the middle of the 19th century several hundred Finnish sailors deserted their ships in American har- bor towns. A number of these returned to Finland and spread news about America. The Californian gold rush increased emigration among this group. In the 1850’s many sailors applied for passport to America already at the time they sailed from Finland and thus entered the United States legally. A few hundred Finns joined the gold rush starting the Finnish settle- ments on the Pacifi c Coast. By the 1860’s connections with America no longer depended solely on sailors.

Alaska An early notable immigration of Finns appeared in America in an entirely different direction, that is in Alaska. When this territory belonged to Russia it was used mainly for trading purposes. The Russian merchant marine of those days was rather insig- nifi cant, and what there was of it was dependent to a great extent on the help of the Finns, who were more experienced in navigation. Arvid Adolf Etholen, a Finn, who was Governor of Alaska, led the Finnish immigration to Alaska. Several hundred Finns arrived there, mainly between 1835 and 1865, and formed the majority among the Europeans who had moved there as free immigrants during the Russian rule. Gold in Alaska.

4 The emigration fever rises The Finnish settlers of the Arctic Norwegian prov- ince of Finnmark were the fi rst to respond to the temptation of the copper mines and to the promise of free land proffered by the Homestead Act signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. From the tide of emigration spread down south. In the 1870’s, a few so-called emigrant recruiters trav- eled around in northern Finland. Their main aim was to obtain labor for the mines of northern Michigan, which to some extent they succeeded in doing. The important position of Michigan as the destination area of Finnish emigration was probably partly due to this recruitment activity. In the 1870’s the “America Fever” took hold in Southern Ostrobothnia in western Finland, becoming a mass movement in the following decade. It resulted in about 21,000 Finns migrating overseas before 1887. The Finnish emigrants to America originated mainly from western Finland. Half of them came from the province of Vaasa. The reasons leaving were mainly economic and social. Distilling tar had, along with agriculture, been the mainstay of the economy in the Ostrobothnian regions. When the era of sailing ships began to dwindle after the mid-1800s, the de- mand for tar declined. Another reason was the rapid increase of population. The farms were small and nearly every household was bursting at the seams with children. The Finns going to America were at their prime, around 20 years of age. Over 60 per cent were men, the majority of the emigrants unmarried.

Sailors on a ship to USA. The man to the left is the Finn Emil Rantanen.

5 The Journey Most of the Finns emigrated to North America by the way of England. Only a small part of the Finnish Emigration went through Germany. It was also possible to travel directly to America through Norway, a possibility that many emigrants from North Finland used. Some Finnish emigrants chose to board an ocean liner in Copenhagen. In the 1920’s a great many Finns took the route from Gothenburg in Sweden directly to New York. The journey from Finland started in the 19th century at fi rst with coastal vessels to Sweden, mainly to Stockholm, from where it was pos- sible to take a ship directly to Eng- land or Germany. The most popular option, however, was to take the train to Gothenburg and continue with a ship to England. It was also possible to board a ship in Malmö. The travel route changed substan- tially at the end of the 1880’s when the German shipbrokers Nordde- utscher Loyd and HAPAG started traffi cking from Hanko (Hangö), the southernmost harbor in Finland, to Stockholm, Copenhagen and Lü- beck and further to Hull in England.

The steamer Urania leaving Finland with 509 emigrants on board in the spring of 1893.

6 In the autumn of 1891 the Finland Steamship Com- pany (F.Å.A.) started regular traffi c between Hanko and Hull. The company also made an agreement with the companies running the ocean liners from England to America. From the beginning of the 20th century most of the emigrants from Finland trav- eled with the Finland Steamship company. During World War I 1914–1920 no ships went from Hanko and the emigrants had to leave through Sweden. In England the Finns arrived in Hull and contin- ued by train to Liverpool, Southampton or Glasgow. They continued their journey with ocean liners to North America, arriving in New York, , Balti- more, Philadelphia or Portland. In the arrival ports were Halifax, Quebeck, Montreal and St. John. The ticket offi ce at Ellis Island around 1900.

The journey to the port of Hanko in Finland was long and the emigrants often had to wait several days for their ship at the emigrant hotel.

7 Emigration gains momentum The emigration from Finland overseas boomed be- tween 1899 and 1914, when the number of emigrants amounted to around 230,000. The crest of the wave was reached in 1902 when more than 23,000 Finns left their home country. Emigration continued on a large scale until the outbreak of World War I. When the U.S. Government began to restrict the admis- sion of immigrants in the 1920s, Finnish emigration shifted to Canada and Australia. The total number of Finnish emigrants to North America between 1870 and 1929 was around 350,000. Most of them went to the United States. The emigration to Canada peaked in the 1920’s when almost 34,000 Finns ar- rived there. In the 1950’s there was a similar peak.

The steamer “Arcturus” took emigrants from Hanko to Hull.

8 Helmi and Klaus Ruotsalainen’s fi rst home in Rock, Michigan 1914.

9 Mining and logging To the average emigrant leaving at the beginning of the 20th century, the most essential feature in America was the high wages, of which letters from America and returning emigrants had spread information. The attraction of America was not the same from decade to decade, though. When many Finnish emigrants in the 1880’s embarked on their journey with the dream of obtaining a farm, the dominating attrac- tion shifted two decades later to the possibilities for employment offered by the American industry. Work was available for men in mines, lumber camps, factories and railroad . Employers regard- ed Finns as good and reliable workers. The homes of wealthy offered employment to women, and Finnish servant girls were in considerable demand. Also a very large proportion of the emigrants had made shorter trips in search of employment before leaving for America and had already broken the ties to their home district. For them, emigration was basically an employment-seeking trip that was longer than usual. A very great portion of Finns just arrived in Amer- ica worked at fi rst in mines. The most important of these mines were the copper and iron mines of Up- per Michigan and later especially the iron mines on the Vermillion and Mesaba Ranges of . Besides the iron and copper mines, Finns were also found employed in the coal mines of , Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and . In win- ter thousands of Finnish miners in Minnesota and Michigan went to the woods and worked in logging.

The miner Heikki Haavisto in 1916.

10 Finns working in the woods of the Midwest.

11 To farms and factories A great portion of Finns moved from mines and American industrial centers to farms. Usually, the farms owned by Finns were small and diffi cult to cultivate. In 1920, there were altogether about 15,000 farms in the USA owned by Finns. About 90 per cent of the farms in St. Louis County, Minnesota, and in Houghton, Baraga, and Alger counties, Michigan, have been owned once by Finnish immigrants. Finns have been found as farmers also in , , , Wis- consin, Maine, New York and . The farms owned by Finnish immigrants in eastern states have been on the so-called rundown lands. In addition to the mining, logging and farm- ing, a great number of Finns has worked in textile mills and different kinds of factories of , in the steel mills of Ohio Chandler Machine Co. where many Finns worked. and later in the car industry of Michigan.

The Kallioniemi smithery in Clinton, Indiana.

12 A Finnish homestead.

13 Women at work

Of the emigrants from Finland between 1869 and 1914 35 per cent were women. Finnish immigrant women were substantially concentrated in major urban centres. Already in the 1890’s Finnish women were being drawn to employment as domestics in larger cities, especially in the East. Work as domestics was available to recently arrived immigrants unable to speak English. It was assumed that a knowledge of English and elementary facts of life in America would be learned on the job. Although domestic work ranked low in social status among non-immigrants, Finnish women employed as domestics enjoyed a high status in the Finnish immigrant community. Their earnings compared favourably with those of men in the com- munity. Economic independence and free time off the job, limited as it was, meant opportunities for personal enjoyment and social life beyond the confi nes of the immigrant community. Finnish women were in great demand as domestic servants in such communities as Manhattan, where they outnumbered Finnish men two to one, and a dozen employment agencies competed for the profi table privilege of placing them in jobs. The disadvantages of domestic work were evi- dent, though. Household work seven days a week at the mercy of the employer was not in accor- dance with the saying that America was “a hell for men and horses and a paradise for women”.

Martha Kujanpää (left), Toronto 1915.

14 Advertisment in Finnish for Domestics in 1911.

A millionare’s kitchen, where Elisa Josefi na Niemi worked in the 1920’s.

15 From coast to coast Michigan and Minnesota were home to largest num- bers of American Finns, with about 34 percent of the total United States population born in Finland evenly divided between each state. Elsewhere, Finnish-Amer- ican settlements could be found in Oulu, ; Frederick (Savo), South Dakota; Waukegan and De Kalb, Illinois and Ashtabula (Iloinen) Harbor and Cleveland, Ohio. On the East Coast, Massachusetts quarries provided employment, as did the industry and other businesses of Boston. New York City was home to Finnish-Americans, particularly ’s 10,000-strong “Finntown.” Thousands of Finns also settled in , Washington and Oregon. A dis- tinct correlation could be found between the areas of emigration in Finland and of immigration in the United States, as people from certain Finnish localities pre- ferred to settle in particular areas of the United States. In Canada, about 60 per cent of the Finnish population lived in Ontario, especially in Toronto, Sudbury and present Thunder Bay. Many Finns settled also on the West Coast, but relatively few in prairie territories or the French-speaking areas. Although the Finns formed less than one percent of European immigration to North America their concentration eg. in Michigan in the US and in Thun- The Finnish trade union activist Aarne der Bay in Canada had a considerable impact on the Luoto. Port Arthur, Ontario 1932. local population. In mining in Upper Michigan the Finns were quite visible, especially in the industrial strikes. A study made at Northern Michigan Univer- sity drew the conclusion that the American Finns had infl uenced the English spoken in northern Michigan.

16 A map published in the “Eteenpäin”-newspaper in 1947 depicting the Finnish settlements and occupations.

17 Halls and churches Most Finnish immigrants intended to stay in Amer- ica for only a few years, but once the diffi culties were overcome and the immigrant had married and established a home, the idea of returning to Fin- land was gradually abandoned. As the immigrants looked for their place in the American society, various social groupings emerged. About one third of the immigrants were “Church People” and one third were involved in political activity or the la- bor movement. One third kept outside all groups. A typical feature was also the division within the groups, e.g. the church groups were divided into Laestadians, Synodists and those supporting the Nationalists Associations. was, how- ever, a feature common to all of them. At the turn of the century there were some 100 Finnish congre- gations in the United States and a few in Canada. Temperance societies were started since the 1880’s and soon there were so many of them that a Finnish central organization was set up. These soci- eties were a central part of Finnish-American social life until the 1920’s, when they lost importance as a result of general disinterest in the cause, dwindling immigration and quarrels between the organizations. The labor movement began to spread in the 1890’s, and by 1913 the Finnish Socialist Federa- tion could boast 260 local branches. The causes of the union and political radicalism of the Finns were the poor working conditions and the hard work they had to do. The activities concentrated around the lo- cal meeting halls, in called haali.

18 The Finnish church in Frederick, North Dakota.

19 Cultural activities The ideological and social divisions of the Finns did not prevent them from being culturally active. In every Finn Town there were brass bands, cho- ruses, theater guilds, gymnastics groups, and most of them had its own newspaper. Cul- tural life was important for the immigrants. It helped them to adapt to their new circumstances and it kept alive the ethnic Finnish identity of the community. Finns have been active publishers ever since the fi rst newspaper in Finnish language, Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti, was published in Hancock in 1876. Hundreds of newspapers have been published, some of them appearing only for a couple of issues. At the turn of the century there were more Finn- ish language newspapers in America than in Fin- land. Many were short-lived, but they played an important role giving information about the old and new homelands. In the beginning newspapers were printed in Finnish, and later almost entirely in English.

The accordion player Sylvia Polso.

20 Recent emigration The US census 2000 number for those claiming Finnish ancestry was 624,000. The number of fi rst generation emigrants born in Finland was according to the same census around 20,000. Of these, 8,000 have arrived after the year 1990. Since the year 2000 53 per cent of the Finnish emigrants to the USA have been women. These new emigrants generally have a very good education and are often specialists and professionals. The most common professions according to a recent survey by the Institute of Migration were senior man- ager, product marketing manager, business develop- ment manager, engineer and researcher. Their main employment was within industry, logistics and trade. Most of the Finnish population in the US lives in Michigan and Minnesota, but the new immigrants mostly settle in San Diego and San Francisco. Cali- fornia nowadays ranks third in Finnish population. The location of big companies are important for where Finnish immigrants settle, e.g. Nokia in Dallas, . FinnFest participants have traditionally been fi rst and sec- Including later generations there are around ond generation Finnish Americans, with third generation a million people of Finnish extraction in North participants rapidly increasing. Will the third, fourth and America – a substantial contribution to the ethnic fi fth generation Finnish Americans carry forward their cul- and cultural mosaic of the United States and Canada. ture and traditions? What is the future of Finnish culture there? Will the third, fourth and fi fth generation Finnish Americans carry forward their culture and traditions? Will the small number of highly educated newcomers and tem- porary residents integrate with them and fi nd mean- ingful activities of common interest? The future will be in their hands, carrying on the traditions together.

21 Literature

Kero, Reino. Migration from Finland to North America in the Years between the United States Civil War and the First World War. Migration Studies C 1. Institute of Migra- tion, Turku 1974.

Kero, Reino. Suureen länteen. Siirtolaisuus Suomesta Pohjois-Amerikkaan. Suomalaisen siirtolaisuuden historia 1. Siirtolaisuusinstituutti, Turku 1996.

Koivukangas, Olavi. Delaware 350. The Beginning of Finnish Migration to the New World. Exhibition catalogue. Institute of Migration, Turku 1988.

Koivukangas, Olavi. Finns Abroad. http://www.migrationinstitute.fi /db/articles/art.php?artid=4. 2005.

Ross, Carl. Servant Girls: Community Leaders. Finnish American Women in Transition (1910-1920). In Ross, C and Wargelin Brown, KM (eds.) Women who Dared. The History of Finnish American Women. Immigration History Research Center. St. Paul, Minnesota 1986.

Westerberg, Norman. The Changing Finnish Americana. http://www.migrationinstitute.fi /db/articles/art.php?artid=78. 2005.

Illustrations

All photograps and illustrations © Institute of Migration. Picture on page 2 courtesy of the the Swedish Emigrant Institute and on page 7 courtesy of Hanko Museum.

22 23