FINNS IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA ORAL HISTORY PROJECT:

Collection is arranged alphabetically by interviewee's last name.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Finns in Northern Minnesota Oral History Project, Oral History Interviews of the Finns in Northern Minnesota Oral History Project. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Submaster Files:

Digital submasters are maintained on the Society's secure digital collections storage servers and are managed and preserved in accordance with archival best practices.

Accession Information:

Accession number: AV2014.25

Processing Information:

Processed by: Karen Obermeyer-Kolb, April 2017

Catalog ID number: 990087938440104294

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Biographical Information: Anna Ahonen was born in 1914 to a Finnish immigrant father and a Finnish American mother. Her family operated a boarding house in Winton, Minnesota. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1939 and taught high school.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include Grandparents’ initial immigration from Finland to Michigan; grandparents’ and mother’s life as pioneers in South Dakota (housing, farming, illness, schooling); father’s immigration from Finland; father’s leftist politics; mills in Winton, Minnesota; boarding house business in Winton; move to Texas and return to Minnesota; learning English in school; Finnish immigrants and education; Finnish community life in Winton and Finn Hall; interactions with people of different ethnicities; outdoor winter activities and childhood games; maintaining family connections; life in family’s Winton boarding house; public sauna; education at the University of Minnesota; life in the Twin Cities; her return to the rural Finnish community; and teaching in Embarrass, Minnesota.

Location

OH 151.1

Oral history interview with Anna Ahonen, December 9, 1975. 1 master audiocassette (1 hour 31 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (25 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Helmi Saari Dyhr was born in 1885 in northern Finland. Her parents emigrated with their children in 1893, coming to Ely, Minnesota. Her father mined and later homesteaded. Mrs. Dyhr grew up in the Ely area and later lived in Minneapolis.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; family’s immigration from Finland; farming on the homestead in Ely; Ely’s first school; education; relations with local American Indians (Ojibwe); Finnish and English language; marriage to John Dyhr (Finnish) and children; visit to Finland in 1950s; and recreation during her childhood.

Location

OH 151.2

Oral history interview with Helmi Dyhr, July 22, 1977. 1 master audiocassette (25 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (10 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Ida Porthan Erickson was born in 1894 to Finnish immigrant parents. She was one of twelve children. She grew up in Ely, attended Suomi College in Hancock, Michigan, and taught school for many years.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; parents’ immigration from Finland; Finnish Stock Company; education; Suomi College in Hancock, Michigan; social and home life; teaching in northern Minnesota; Finnish organizations and culture in Minnesota; medical care; childhood recreation; Finnish language and learning English; interactions with Slovenians; intermarriage with other ethnicities; children and grandchildren; loss of Finnish culture and revived interest; as well as family visits and relatives in Finland.

Location

OH 151.3

Oral history interview with Ida Erickson, February 26, 1976. 1 master audiocassette (29 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (19 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Helmi Gawboy was born in 1904 to Finnish immigrant parents. She taught school on the Vermillion Reservation. She married Robert Gawboy, an Ojibwe Indian, and lived on the reservation for fifteen years.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; parents’ immigration from Finland; homesteading and farming in northern Minnesota; birth and childhood in Ely; education; learning English in school; schools in the Ely area; family’s views on radical politics; first job teaching in Whiteface, Minnesota; teacher training and Duluth State Teacher’s College; fire at the farm; teaching on the reservation at Lake Vermillion; marriage to Robert Gawboy (Ojibwe); observation of Ojibwe customs and ceremonies; life on the reservation; federal regulations on the reservation; wild rice harvest; childbirth; and return to Ely homestead.

Location

OH 151.4

Oral history interview with Helmi Gawboy, December 6, 1975. 1 master audiocassette (1 hour 23 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (32 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Both of Kuitunen’s parents were originally from Kangas Niemi, Finland. They migrated independently to St. Petersburg, Russia where they met and married in 1894. Kuitunen was born there in 1895 and the family moved that same year to Viipuri (Viborg), Finland. Her father trained as a steelworker and her mother was a cook. Kuitunen’s father migrated to the US in 1900 to seek work, sending for his wife and daughter in 1901. Kuitunen attended school through eighth grade in Winton, Minnesota. She married in 1912. Her sons were born in 1914 and 1916. She and her husband lived with her parents in Winton and ran a boarding house and public sauna.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed on December 9, 1975 include parents’ lives in Finland and Russia; Kuitunen's birth; contrast of rural Finnish life to St. Petersburg, Russia; father’s immigration from Finland; father’s search for work in northern Minnesota; description of underground mining circa 1900; her voyage from Finland to the United States; Ellis Island; train ride from New York to Minnesota; boarding house and sauna in Winton, Minnesota; courtship and marriage; mother’s attitudes towards education and family size; and Finnish language.

Subjects discussed on December 6, 1976 included Winton, Minnesota 1910-1920; education; Winton mayors and city government; interactions between Finns and other nationalities; Finnish social organizations and social life; conflicts within the Finnish community; Winton lumber mills; logging industry; boarding houses; Winton schools; and Finn Hall.

Location

OH 151.5

Oral history interview with Cecilia Kuitunen, December 9, 1975. 1 master audiocassette (59 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3.

There is no transcript for this interview.

Digital version

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OH 151.6

Oral history interview with Cecilia Kuitunen, December 6, 1976. 1 master audiocassette (45 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (12 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Nick Kuitunen was born in Russia of Finnish parents. They immigrated to the United States in 1906 and settled in Winton, Minnesota. He was the manager of a clothing store in Winton for many years.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; family’s immigration from Finland; education; Baswood Lake; logging industry; diverse ethnic groups in Winton; trapping; and Winton in the early 1900s.

Location

OH 151.7

Oral history interview with Nick Kuitunen, November 12, 1975. 1 master audiocassette (25 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (10 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: The daughter of Finnish immigrants, Emily Maki was born in White Iron, Minnesota in 1904. She lived and taught school in White Iron for most of her life.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include parents’ immigration from Finland; father’s work in the mines; homesteading; family life (her father was a widower with eleven children); Finnish language; education in White Iron; social life in White Iron; efforts to Americanize while retaining Finnish culture; visit to Finland in later life; motivations for leaving Finland; Finnish saunas; and her brothers’ interest in baseball.

Location

OH 151.8

Oral history interview with Emily Maki, July 23, 1976. 1 master audiocassette (29 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (11 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Eino Norha was born in 1894 in Finland. He settled in the Embarrass area in Minnesota. Norha attended Valparaiso University in Indiana and studied English, American History, and English grammar. He was a farmer, veterinarian, and Watkins salesman.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; his immigration to Minnesota circa 1914; working as a laborer; Finnish immigrant community in Embarrass, St. Louis County; homesteading and farming; attending Valparaiso University; marriage to the daughter of Finnish immigrants; children and grandchildren; move to Michigan; economic struggles; the voyage from Finland to the United States; United States citizenship; Finnish language; churches around Embarass; various jobs as a farmer, lumberman, veterinarian, salesman; domestic life; medical practices; and veterinary techniques.

Location

OH 151.9

Oral history interview with Eino Norha, February 19, 1976. 1 master audiocassette (1 hour), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (16 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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Biographical Information: Lempi Wachsman was born in 1909 in a sod house in Wing, North Dakota to Finnish immigrant parents who had come to the United States around 1895. Her father worked winters logging in Deer River, Minnesota, and in 1911 the family moved there and then homesteaded in 1916 eighteen miles north of Nashwauk, Minnesota. In 1926 Lempi married an Ojibwe Indian from Ballclub and they had six children. They divorced in 1940 and Lempi remarried in 1952.

Scope and Content: Subjects discussed include family background; parents’ immigration from Finland; homesteading in North Dakota and Nashwauk, Itasca County; growing up on the farm; her marriage to an Ojibwe Indian; visit to Finland; Finnish saunas; children and Finnish identity; and Finnish background and values.

Location

OH 151.10

Oral history interview with Lemi Wachsman, August 8, 1976. 1 master audiocassette (49 minutes), 1 submaster audio file: WAV, and 1 user audio file: MP3. Transcript (18 pages).

Digital version

Digital version

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Emigration and immigration.

Finnish Americans -- Minnesota -- Social life and customs.

Finnish Americans -- Minnesota.

Immigrants -- Minnesota.

Persons:

Ahonen, Anna, interviewee.

Dyhr, Helmi, interviewee.

Erickson, Ida S., 1894-1983, interviewee.

Gawboy, Helmi Jarvinen, 1904-1985, interviewee.

Kuitunen, Cecilia, 1895-1984, interviewee.

Kuitunen, Nick, interviewee.

Laitala, Lynn Maria, 1947- interviewer.

Maki, Emily, interviewee.

Norha, Eino M., 1894- , interviewee.

Wachsman, Lempi, interviewee.

Document Types:

Audiocassettes.

Interviews.

Oral histories (document genres).

Sound recordings.

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