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Origin of the Finns in the Western Reserve

John Ilmari Kolehmainen

(Evanston, Illinois, U. S. A.)

A study of the general overseas movement of Finns reveals a pattern of origin which has largely determined the composition of the Western Reserve settlements.¹ Finnish migration to the New World has been marked by the heavy preponderance of the Vaasa element. Out of the 334,873 Finns leaving Finland during the years 1893-1933, at least 156,851 - or one out of every two and a tenth emigrants - were from the province of Vaasa.² The dominance of the Vaasa element is likewise attested in the proportion of emigrants to the total number of inhabitants. In the period 1901-13 there were 139.3 emigrants per 10,000 inhabitants in Vaasa and only 51.8 for Finland as a whole. Thus a large majority of the immigrants in the Western Reserve, as generally throughout the United States, obviously came from Vaasa. Of the seventy pioneer Finns working on the railroads in and about Eastern Ohio during 1871-73, fifty-eight originated in Vaasa and the remainder almost without exception came from the adjoining province of Oulu.³ A census of the Finns residing in Ashtabula Harbour, taken in 1897, showed the following distribution of foreign-born Finns according to province of birth:⁴

A census of the Fairport and Painesville Finns taken in January 1911 by members of the Kasvi Raittiusseura (Temperance Society 'Growth') disclosed a similar apportionment:⁵

While no detailed enumerations are available for the Finnish settlements in Cleveland, Conneaut and Warren, it is possible to sample a fairly large and representative number through the membership rolls and marriage records of the religious institutions. Table 1 was compiled from the rolls of the Warren and Cleveland Lutheran (Suomi Synod) Churches and from the marriage records of the Synod's congregation in Conneaut:⁶

If the figures for Ashtabula Harbour, Fairport, Cleveland, Conneaut and Warren are now combined, the marked dominance of the Vaasa element is brought into clear relief:

In other words, there are nearly five times as many Finns from Vaasa in the Western Reserve as from the other provinces combined.

It is possible moreover to go beyond the province in defining the origin of the Finnish immigrants. The migration from Vaasa, as from the other provinces, was not uniform but spotted with heavy emigration from certain parishes and slight movement if any from others. In Vaasa, for example, the following fourteen out of a total of some eighty-seven rural parishes provided nearly forty per cent. of the province's total rural emigration during the years 1893-1902 and 1908-17:⁷

The distribution by parishes of the immigrants in the Western Reserve settlements naturally reflected the pattern of the Vaasa migration. The membership roll of the Finnish Congregational Church at Ashtabula Harbour for 1891-1936 showed the following distribution of Vaasa emigrants:

One each from the parishes of Viitasaari, Toholampi, Lohtaja, Alaveteli, Teuva, Alajärvi, Kivijärvi, and Himanka.

According to the Kasvi Raittiusseura's census of 1911 the classification of the Vaasa Finns in Fairport and Painesville was as follows:

One each from the parishes of Kivijärvi, Alavus, Saarijärvi, Kannus, Kauhajoki, Laukaa, Teuva, and the city of Vaasa.

The parishes of birth of a considerable number of Vaasa immigrants in Cleveland, taken from the records of the Suomi Synod church, were as follows:

One each from the parishes of Alajärvi, Jalasjärvi, Toivakka, Kortesjärvi, Ilmajoki, Uurainen, Alavus, Kauhajoki, Seinäjoki and Kuortane.

The marriage records of the Finnish Suomi Synod Church in Conneaut for the years 1900-28 indicated this distribution of the Vaasa Finns:

One each from the parishes of Alahärmä, Kaustinen, Kauhajoki, Kälviä, Kuortane, Konginkangas, Jyväskylä, Peräseinäjoki, Alajärvi ja Toivokka.

In Warren the same arrangement seemed to hold true. The parish distribution of the Vaasa emigrants, as revealed in the membership roll of the Suomi Synod church there, was as follows:

One each from the parishes of Kuortane, Toivakka, Seinäjoki, Petäjävesi, and Viitasaari.

It is clear from the above tables that the dominant elements in the Western Reserve settlements are the Isokyrö and Ylistaro emigrants. Out of the 978 Vaasa Finns used in the sampling, 398 or two out of every five came from these two parishes. The regional concentration of the migration stream from the province of Vaasa is further indicated by the fact that Isokyrö and Ylistaro, along with the parishes contiguous to them, namely Nurmo, Lapua, Ilmajoki, Laihia, Vähäkyrö, Vöyri, and Ylihärmä, furnished 557 out of the total of 978 Vaasa Finns in Ashtabula Harbour, Fairport, Cleveland, Conneaut, and Warren.

Generally speaking then, one out of every one and a fifth Finnish immigrants in the Western Reserve has come from the province of Vaasa; one out of thirteen from Oulu; one out of seventeen from Turu-Pori; and from the others, varying from one out of ninety-four from Kuopio to one out of 148 from Uusimaa. The parishes of Isokyrö and Ylistaro have furnished forty per cent. or more of the Vaasa emigrants to Northern Ohio; the largest number of recruits for the Oulu migration stream has come from the town of Raahe and the parishes of Haapavesi and Kalajoki. The other provinces have played minor roles in peopling the Western Reserve.

References

1 The historic Western Reserve of Connecticut comprises the Northern Ohio counties of Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Geauga, Huron, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Summit and Trumbull. The largest Finnish settlements are in Ashtabula (1,333 foreign-born Finns in 1930), Fairport (800 foreign-born), Conneaut (287 foreign-born), Cleveland (1,303 foreign-born), and Warren (495). The total Finnish foreign-born population in the Reserve in 1930 was 5,359: that of the State, 5,633.