Sirkeinen

1. As he trudged along the highway, a confusion of thoughts ran through the mind of young Jeremiah Rotjunov - dare I make a change in my way of life? If not, then will I be content to live the rest of my days here in Karelia? I am only 14 years old now and already must carry this heavy burden on my back, goods to buy and sell to eke out enough earnings for the barest means of existence.

2. No, surely there is a place on this God's earth where there is more freedom than here under the rule of the Czar! I will work and save enough money to go to the land called America, far away across the ocean, for I have heard told in many homes in Finland how many young men, women, and entire families have emigrated there where they can actually own land and raise crops which they can keep for their own survival. Here in Russian-ruled Karelia we own nothing, everything belongs to the government, Yes, I am determined to leave here, beautiful as this birthplace of mine is we know such poverty!

3. I will go first and perhaps brother Tobias can come later for he is younger but already has the spirit of adventure and desires a better life even as I do.

4. His load seemed lighter as he continued making plans, yet a sadness filled his heart for he knew that when he would leave this homeland he would never return here to see father, mother, sisters and brothers.

5. Father Peter Rotjunov was a salesman as were his sons after him. From Karelia to ST. Petersburg was a long trek especially on foot as they travelled, too poor to have a horse and cart. The sons, Otto, Jeremiah and Tobias along with the father, purchased their wares in St. Petersburg, packed them into two large leather sacks for each one, one sack was carried on the back and the other on the chest. After the return home from such a trek and a day's rest the father and sons would begin their journey into towns and country homes in Finland, each going a separate way; each had his own familiar route. Jeremiah was a great story teller as well as a news carrier, hence he was welcomed in each home by folks eager to hear news of other places than their own, they in turn told him of happenings in their countryside to add to his ever-growing collection of stories.

6. He received food and shelter in these homes and after his packs were empty of wares, back he went to his home and soon it was another trip to St. Petersburg for more with the money he had raised.

7. After five years he had saved enough to go to America. The year was 1883, Mother Rotjunov had put together a wardrobe of sorts for the young man about to leave home, she was a good woman, perhaps overly generous at times in helping the sickly and needy, as often her own family had to go hungry in her aid to others.

8. Mother Rotjunov was Finnish and Father Peter was Russian, besides the sons there were daughters Axenia and Olga, and Jeremiah lost all contact with his kinfolk except Otto in his later years in America. Wars and government controls made Communication with relatives practically impossible.

9. How the young man made his way to America is a guess, but it was not an easy journey. Alexander was the czar and it was a time of peace, leaving Karelia at that time posed no problem. The journey was through Finland, perhaps to the port of Hanko, from there to England and across the Atlantic to America, to New York and finally to Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the Finnish emigrants were ever increasing in numbers.

10. Jeremiah soon learned enough English to get by, so he got a job in a copper mine in the Calumet area. It was not to his liking - mining - for he wanted a piece of land on which to build a house and grow crops. But, first he wanted a wife to share his country life. Still the great talker, he was popular in all the homes of friends he soon made. One day, as he visited the home of Peter Hyypio in Swedetown, he became aware of the presence of a young maid quietly working about the house and it seemed he heard a message telling him to turn around and look over his shoulder, for there he would see the woman who would be his wife, and so it was.

11. Ida Susannan Hyypio was then 15 years old, mature for her years as she had experienced hardships and heart break. Born in Kemijärvi in northern Finland within the Arctic Circle, she emigrated with her father and mother to America at the age of nine. Her mother was a sickly frail woman who died at childbirth when Ida was only 11 years old. Her father remarried and as more children came along, her work load increased so she had to give up going to the public school where she was learning to speak English. When Jeremiah came into her life he had changed his name from Rotjunov to Peterson, for the reason that a Russian was not popular among the Finnish people. He spoke Finnish fluently and was accepted as a Finn. On November 23, 1889, Jeremiah Peterson and Ida Hyypio were joined in holy wedlock in Calumet and make their first home in a rented flat in Swedetown. Here their first child, a son Oscar, was born in November of 1891.

12. The desire to be a land owner was still in the heart of Jeremiah, especially now that he had a family. Already, his father-in-law had settled on the shore of a lake in the wilderness where fish and game were plentiful. Timberlands were there from which a man could cut and hew the logs for a sturdy, warm cabin. So it was to Otter Lake that Jeremiah brought his family, near the home of his father-in-law.

13. From Swedetown by horse and cart to the Chassell settlement, then upstream on the Sturgeon River by boat to Otter Lake was the route of travel. Their possessions were few, owning the barest necessities which they brought along with them. Until Jeremiah built his own long cabin, he and his little family shared the home of his father-in-law. A son, Waino, was born in their new home but died 24 hours after his birth, a preemie too frail to survive. Mortality rate was high among the newborn of the early settlers.

14. Life was full of hardships, but the hardy pioneers were prepared for it, having experienced even worse conditions in their native land from which they fled. Here they owned the land which they worked as homesteaders. Here was the freedom to plant, grow crops, own cattle, cut and sell timber, work in logging operations for the timber barons for wages which would buy them clothing and Staples.

15. A daughter was born to Ida and Jeremiah in March of 1895, followed by another daughter in June of 1897, Nelma and Esther.

16. Now Jeremiah had finally obtained the property he had always wanted, 3 forties of land on the hilltop a mile above Otter Lake, a homestead which was to be his free and clear after 5 years occupancy, and the building of a house in which to live. As he had hoped, his brother Tobias came to America too, so he gave him a forty-acre plot of his land and sold him another forty. This brought great happiness to the two Peterson families as there was a great tie between the children and the parents.

17. Work there was a-plenty for all members of families, but light-hearted fellowship could be enjoyed for a welcome break from the striving to make a living.

18. Jeremiah's concern for the future of the growing families was the need to provide AN EDUCATION. The children were taught to read Finnish in Sunday school, but the language of America was important as well as writing and arithmetic, so the arrangements were made to send a teacher and the log cabin of Jeremiah provided the first classroom. Children came from the settlement area of Askel as well as the Tapiola side of Otter Lake, in all sizes and ages, the first year of school being 1902.

19. A daughter had been born to Jeremiah and Ida in July of 1900 but she died in March of 1901 of pneumonia. In August of 1905, twins were born to Jeremiah and Ida, Niilo and Lyyli.

20. Now the schoolroom was transferred to the Askel settlement so children had to travel by skis in Winter and by boat across the lake and much walking. Many treacherous conditions were experienced, so it was decided to have separate schools. The log cabin of Jeremiah which was on the lake shore was not in use, so a temporary classroom was put into use at the home of another old settler, a cold cabin where classes were held only on weekends by the teacher who was a full-time instructor in Askel during the week.

21. In 1906, Jeremiah brought the log cabin from the lake shore to his hilltop home site and once more it became a full-time classroom until a modern school was built, centrally, in mid-Tapiola in 1910 with grades K-8, the innovation of a far-sighted educator and superintendent of Portage Township schools, John A. Doelle, a great admirer of the Finnish settlers.

22. In 1907 a daughter had been born to Jeremiah and Ida, Adelle, a son Axel in 1910, a daughter Lillian in 1913 and finally the last child, a daughter Ruth in 1915. Niilo's twin sister died of pneumonia in January of 1909. Father Jeremiah developed a heart condition and was quite disabled by his poor health in his early 50s. The oldest son Oscar, in his teens, was already gainfully employed at a logging camp, however, he married in May of 1916 and left home to make a life of his own. Esther married in 1915, Nelma left home and married in 1923. Jeremiah died suddenly of a heart attack in November of 1920, leaving Ida with five of the eight children to care for alone,

23. It was necessary for the widow to seek welfare aid since now there was no wage earner, and the small farm, now only 40 acres, provided only part of the family's needs for survival. After much investigation by the welfare authorities, aid was at first refused because the report was that the house she and her children lived in was too clean and that her children were clean and well clothed. The principal of the Doelle school at the time knew the plight of the family and spoke up in their behalf at the welfare office, explaining that just because the mother and children were not slovenly and lazy was no reason to believe they needed no financial assistance. After this intercession by Mr. Clare A. Rood, the principal, Ida Peterson received fifteen dollars a month. It is difficult to believe but, with this money she was able to buy shoes, yard goods, and staples which could not be grown on the farm. Used articles of clothing were given to the family by more affluent friends who lived in the Copper Country towns. Folks who came in the summers to pick the wild blueberries which grew in abundance in the swamp in Tapiola and who often spent nights at the widow's home in order to get a good amount of berries to bring home for canning. A few good cows on the farm provided the family with dairy foods, milk, butter, and cheese, A heifer was grown each year for meat, a few hens provided eggs, and rabbits also were grown for meat. A garden provided potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, and beets for Winter Storage in a root cellar. Other vegetables were eaten as they grew to maturity in the summer and fall, strawberries and rhubarb were grown and canned, besides the wild berries which grew abundantly in slashing areas after logging operations.

24. All children in the Peterson family had their work chores as did children in other families. One never heard a child or teenager whine "there's nothing to do"! Mother Ida could "reward" her children for their work with such a treat as fresh cinnamon rolls and delicious mugs of good hot coffee after a good cleansing hot sauna on a Saturday which always seemed to be the hardest work day of the week.

25. These were the days of wood-burning stoves for cooking and heating, kerosene lamps for night-time lighting. Wood bins had to be filled to heaping for the weekend, wood floors were scrubbed 'til they were white', the kitchen chairs without paint too had to be scrubbed clean, lamp and lantern chimneys were polished clean of soot, wicks cut and cleaned, replaced if too short to reach the oil, lamp bowls filled with kerosene. Lengths of homemade carpets were shook out and aired while the floors were scrubbed. These long carpets were washed every summer when they could be dried outdoors and washed near the well where the water was handiest for the many rinses Mother Ida insisted on. Running water into the house didn't come until years later, 1938, when electricity finally came to the country homes. All water until then was carried into the house in buckets, hoisted from the deep well by a bucket on the end of a rope.

26. The first modern convenience in the home came before electricity, a Maytag gasoline-motor powered washing machine, but clothes were still dried outdoors on lines in Winter and summer.

27. On June 24, 1924, Ida Peterson and Carl Olson were married in a garden ceremony. St. John's Day is observed by the Finns as a holy day and is the beginning of summer, so it seemed fit to have the wedding at this time. Carl was a widower with three grown daughters and five grown sons. It would seem Ida felt sorry for him and married him to give him a home. Her children were not happy about the union, Adelle at 17 was already working at the Douglass Hotel in Houghton, Niilo at 19 worked at lumber camps, Axel at 14 was in school and was an exceptionally bright student. Sad it was that he had to drop out of school in the 9th grade to find work. The step-father turned out to be more of a liability to Ida and her family as it soon became evident to them that he was more a talker than a doer. He was also in failing health with a heart disease. Four and a half years after the marriage, he died suddenly of a heart attack and Ida remained a widow until her own death at the age of 80.

28. Oscar and Mary Peterson had moved from Painesdale to Calumet, Oscar being a copper miner, working first for Copper Range and then for Calumet & Hecla until his retirement. They had 4 children: Reuben, Ruth, Ruby and Raymond.

29. Nelma married a widower with 5 sons and then had a son and daughter, Sylvia and Ernest, and made their home in Agate near Trout Creek.

30. Adelle went to Detroit in the twenties, worked as a maid and at Burroughs Corp., then coming back home and marrying Clyde (Toivo Alfred) Mänttä in 1930. Gerald David was born to them in 1932 and Adelle passed away after Clyde John's birth in 1934 at the age of 26.

31. Esther married Ralph Olsen in New York Mills, Minn. at age 18, divorced him nine years later. She lived in Hancock with two daughters, Mildred and Agnes, until she re-married, a bachelor Gust Mikkola, a Commercial fisherman at the Hancock Canal. A daughter, Margaret, was born of this union. Gust lived to the age of 87.

32. Lillian married Toivo Palonen in 1935, had one child, Shirley. The family moved to California in 1948.

33. Axel married Mae Karvonen in 1938, blessed with four daughters, Peggy, Judy, Susan and Sharon. Axel took over the original homestead farm and gave his mother and brother, Niilo, a home site until their demise.

34. Niilo, who was considered slow in learning but not retarded, supported his mother and gave her a home. A good worker, an avid hunter, good-natured, liked by all, developed heart disease and he died at age 62. His house became the home of Axel's daughter, Sharon, and her family, the Jerry Juntonen's.

35. Ruth was the only one of the Peterson children to have the opportunity to finish high school, but had to work her way through the last two years which were in Houghton, for these were depression years. After high school she went to Detroit to work, as did most young women at that time, first as a house maid and then as a factory worker in a Burroughs plant where she met her husband, Harold Lahti. They were wed in 1940, had a son, Stuart, and a daughter, Kathryn, while living in Detroit. In 1946, the family moved to Tapiola to improve Harold's health as he suffered the worst type of hay fever which was incurable. Only a change of environment could alleviate this ailment. And so it was, Harold never had any symptoms in the Copper Country.

36. His first job was with the Ford Motor Co. in L'Anse as a machinist, then after that closed, when old Henry Ford passed away, Harold's next job was with the Koski Repair Works in Keweenaw Bay. This operation folded and the family moved to Detroit for a year where Harold worked for the Vickers Corp. Stuart and Kathy attended a parochial school, Salem Lutheran, during this year in the city. The family moved back to Tapiola again to seek relief from Harold's old malady hay fever, A job with the Derocher Bros. At the old Koski shop lasted until a fire at the Pettibone plant cut the work orders, so once more the Lahti's moved to Detroit. This time Harold's job was at Precision Spring and Ruth worked during the Christmas shopping season at J.L. Hudson's Dept. store, and at the Henry Ford Hospital, in the diet kitchen as a food handler. The debts which had been accrued during the days of unemployment were soon paid up as the family worked together.

37. Stuart and Kathy had their chores while the parents worked, Stu was a 7th grader at Durfee, and Kathy a 5th grader at Winterhalter. But, the desire to go back to the Copper Country grew in the hearts of this family as Detroit was fast deteriorating into a slum city with crime ever on the increase. So they returned to the home in Tapiola permanently.

38. Father Harold got a job at the Houghton County Road Commission where he worked until retirement at age 62, as a machinist. Mother Ruth worked at various jobs outside the home, housecleaning, fishery work, and finally as a nurses aide at the Houghton County Medical Care Facility until a heart condition forced her to retire at the age of 56.

39. Son Stuart married Mary Jane Brazeau of L'Anse in 1962 and by 1969 they had 5 children, Stuart, George, Anne, Brian and Danyl. They made their home in Bovine near L'Anse. 40. Kathryn married John Perälä and bore 4 girls and 2 boys Elizabeth, Robert, Joan, Helen, Joye and Joseph. She became a step-mother to Ruth, John's daughter by his first wife. For a time this family lived in Highland Park, Hazel Park (Detroit area), Laurium and Sheboygan, Wis.

41. Relatives in the Hyypiö clan who were early settlers in the Otter Lake region included brothers of Ida Peterson Hyypiö: Axel and John Anselm and sisters Elizabeth Hyypiö Olsen and Emelia Hyypiö Herrala. Elizabeth made her home m New York Mills, Minn. The Lahtis emigrated from western Finland's Vaasanlaani to the Calumet area. Known in the homeland as Vikberg, the name was changed in America to the Finnish Lahti since they preferred to get along with the Finns. Friction existed between Swedes and Finns down through the ages.

42. The Lahtis had some Swedish heritage, also a bit of Dutch, but mostly Finnish which was their language. A Dutch sea captain foundered on the coast of Finland and remained in that country to many a young lass who was the great-grandmother of Harold and his brother Lauri, His name was Captain Soute. Harold's mother Aina Lehtinen and his father Oscar (Vikberg) Lahti were married in Finland before coming to America. They made their home in Mohawk where sons Harold and Lauri were born. Oscar worked in a copper mine as did most Finnish emigrants.

43. In 1913 there was a big strike by mine workers after which partakers in the strike were black-balled and were not hired back to work after the strike was over, so the Lahtis and other Finnish families went to Tonopah, Nevada for work in the silver mines. There they stayed for several years and returned to the Calumet area, but work was not to be found. Some families were making a move to Detroit in the lower peninsula of the state where the Ford Motor Company was manufacturing their Model T cars and men were hired to work on the first assembly line. Here it was that Oscar Lahti found employment and never returned to the copper mines again. Working in the copper and silver mines had damaged his lungs which brought him to an early grave, at age 50.

44. Harold, at age 13, entered the Henry Ford Trade School to learn a trade. He lived with an aunt and uncle, the Sam Jokipis in Detroit's Finnish sector in which the main Street was Woodrow Willson Avenue.

45. Harold's brother Lauri was on a farm in Bruce Crossing in the upper peninsula; their mother worked as a housekeeper for Dr. and Mrs. Greene. She remarried, to a bachelor farmer, Richard Lassila, from Panesville near Bruce Crossing. Farming was not profitable so they went to Detroit where Richard got a job as a carpenter at the Dodge plant of the Chrysler Corporation until his untimely death at age 49 of heart failure. Of this union in marriage were born twins Ruth and Ralph, as different as any two could be.

46. Ruth was petite with dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, a bright student all through her school years. In the prime of her youth, at age 18, the silent killer cancer ended her life. Six weeks after the first sign of illness, she died following surgery. This tragedy aged her mother all too rapidly, a loss which she never fully accepted nor recovered from.

47. Ralph was a blond, blue-eyed, easy-going lad. Dropping out of high school, he held odd jobs until he was called to the service of his country, where he served in the army medical corps in the Korean war. After his return home he made a living as a cab driver and shop worker and shared an apartment with his mother until her death at the age of 76.

48. Her son Lauri (Larry) married Helen Wayrynen and worked at Dodge's until his retirement. Emphysema disabled Larry so he and Helen moved to Arizona where the climate improved his health.

49. Ralph remained a bachelor (at least at this time of writing) but poor health forced him into retirement at age 48.

50. Harold was accepted as a son of the Sam Jolipi family in his early youth. At 18 he went to live with his mother and step-father and worked for the Ford Motor Company after seven years of trade school. He served a 6-month period at a Civilian Conservation Camp near Glenny, Michigan during the depression and from 1936 to 1946 was employed by Burroughs. Harold had an aunt in Detroit, Ida Moore, widowed at an early age. She had two daughters, Beverly Moore Cashmore and Ida Mae Moore.

51. Cousins of Harold in the Jokipi family included Heimo, Worner, Edwin, Francis, Eileen, Elenore and Beatrice, also Winifred.

52. On the Lahti side of the family was Uncle Henry who had children: Walter, Wilbert, Wilhart, Nelma, Mildred and Helen.

53. Walter and his family were closest to Harold and his family, with children Wally and Jennie. Walt and his wife retired in Copper Country's Askel community.

54. Victor Lahti, another uncle to Harold, had a son, Reino, and a daughter, Irma, who made their home in New York city.

55. Uncle August, who kept the name of Vikberg, was a hunchback. He was a tailor, living in Seattle, and never married.

56. Other relatives were in Finland: a cousin, Martta Orava, who lived near Rauma in southwestern Finland, corresponded with Ruth Lahti for several years.

57. A spinster aunt, Sanni, oldest sister of "Nanny" (Aina) Lahti Lassila was the housekeeper for a wealthy family in Orisberg, Finland, and when she died her estate was divided so nieces and nephews Harold, Larry, Ralph, Beverly and Ida Mae in America inherited the amount of $241 each.

58. Ruth (Peterson) Lahtis cousins are impossible to number, but the Tapiola relatives are worth mentioning as these were the folks she grew up with.

59. The John Anselm Hyypiö children were both first and second cousins as Ansi was Ruth's uncle and his wife, Olga (Tobias Peterson's daughter) was her first cousin. Their children included John, Peter, Carl, Tom, Paul, Rachel, Greta and Ida - (Rachel and Bill Grapentine, Greta and Dick Breyer, Ida and Stanley Michaelson).

60. Axel Hyypios had Hilia (Knuuttila), Martha (Siegfried), Edward and Kathryn (Manninen). A son, George, was killed in action in the Pacific theater of WWII.

61. In the Charles Herrala (and Aunt Emelia) family were Raymond, Einard, Ernest, Rueben, Werner (died in Muskegon, married, no children), Abner, Ingrid Schultz, Irene Mattson, Dagmar Brunette and Dorothy Timonen. Three (two boys and a girl) died in infancy, hence the Herralas had 13 children born to them.

62. The Tobias (and Greta) Peterson's had sons Arno, Wäinö, Helmer, Ted and Paul; daughters Olga Hyypiö, Selma McTeman and Irene.

63. Aunt Elizabeth Hyypiö Olson (Jalmer) had 14 children. Ones that come to memory are the sons Benjamin, Edmond, Rueben and Stanley; daughters Esther, Edna, Edith, Elma, Emily, Estella, Eldora, Elvira.