The Tombstone has a message, Part 1

On the west coast of the United States, in the state of Washington, in a locality called Naselle, there is a small cemetery called Peaceful Hill Cemetery. The names engraved on the tombstones say that most of those buried there have Finnish roots. I visited that cemetery in the summer of 2005, but at the time I didn’t notice a tombstone that bore MARTYR on the back. About a week ago, a friend of mine who lives nearby posted a picture of that tombstone. As I saw the picture, I remembered that I had read newspaper articles about a sad event in which the Finnish-born Pentecostal evangelist Antti Lajunen had died.

As always, the special destinies of life aroused my interest and I began to find out the course of Antti Lajunen's life path, the final stop of which was the above-mentioned cemetery. Antti Lajunen was born on August 1, 1877 in the village of Karmala in Sortavala (Karmala no. 5) to the family of farmer Jaakko Henrikinpoika Lajunen (May 24, 1832 - July 7, 1911) and Brita Antintytär Ijäs (November 8, 1841 - October 23, 1902). [1] Antti's parents were married on 12 August 1860 and a total of seven children were born in the family: Henrik (16.3.1863-28.2.1918), Anna (2.6.1867), Helena (11.2.1871), Jakob (7.3.1874), Antti, whose first name is in the book of baptism in the form Anders (1.8.1877), Maria 18.10.1880 and Brita (27.2.1884). [2]

According to Church books, Antti's parents Jaakko and Brita Lajunen have been very diligent in attending communion. And, according to Church books, Antti's father Jaakko has worked as a Sunday school teacher for the local Evangelical Lutheran Church. In the records of the eldest of Antti's siblings, Henrik, there is an indication of "weak-minded", and he never started a family. The eldest of the daughters, Anna, married Matti Pulkkinen, a peasant son from the village of Riekkala in Sortavala on October 21, 1887. [3] The marriage gave birth to six children, but Anna died on the birth of her youngest child on February 21, 1902. The next of Antti's siblings, Helena, took the migration book to Helsinki on March 27, 1900, and after that I have no information about her. The fourth of the family's children, Jaakko (Jakob), married Maria Ollintytär Luostarinen (July 14, 1881-) from Sortavala's Heikkurinsaari on March 6, 1903. [4] Jaakko died at the age of 52 at his home in Sortavala's Karmala on April 12, 1926. In addition to the wife, five children, three sons and two daughters were left to mourn. Antti's sister Maria was married on January 4, 1907 to Juhana Antinpoika Haatanen (4.8.1882-), who was from the same village. [5] Riitta (Brita), the youngest of Antti Lajunen's siblings, was born in 1884 and, like Antti, never married.

Antti Lajunen experienced a spiritual awakening within the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and religious activation can be seen in the busy communion visits in 1898-1903, after which they completely cease. He moved to the Baptists in the early 20th century, and on the basis of communion visits, the  could be dated to 1903-1904. Antti Lajunen received adult baptism and performed as a spiritual speaker at Baptist events. An additional pencil entry, Baptist, has been made in communion  book of the Sortavala rural parish 1900-1909. The clergy of the Lutheran congregation tried to persuade Antti to give up activities without either success. Antti Lajunen remained a formal member of the Evangelical Lutheran congregation until 1912.

In 1903-1912, Antti Lajunen toured in his hometown area in Karelia to hold spiritual meetings with, among others, the elementary school teacher, the evangelist Pekka Lattu. Lattu has in his book
"Expensively Purchased Freedom" described Antti Lajunen's activities as follows [appendixes in square brackets to improve the comprehensibility of the text]:

Texts engraved on Antti Lajunen's memorial translated from Finnish to English (Bible text: King James Version)

Martyr, Evangelist Antti Lajunen, born in Finland in 1877, died May 9, 1929 Portland Oregon USA.
"I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." Revelation 6:9.
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." Psalm 116:15.

“In August 1903 I moved to Sortavala; there I met Brother Antti Lajunen, who had woken up but was afraid of sectarianism, as he himself said. At a meeting with Brother V. Malin, he then said he understood free grace. Immediately after reading the Bible in his home, he was delighted with the Room. 5: 1 so much that [Antti Lajunen's] father noticed it and started warning about the wrong. He was later taken to Pastor Jalkanen of Ruskeala to correct for a false doctrine. But Antti Lajunen wanted to follow the teachings of the Bible and was baptized soon after.

Since then, we have held joint meetings with Brother Antti Lajunen in the countryside, but the pastor of the [Lutheran congregation] announced in the church that [us] should not be given a meeting room. So some of the hosts fearfully closed their doors, but others opened and received the word with joy. Once in the village of Karmala, Antti Lajunen had asked for a room for a meeting, and he go a permission, and then asked me to speak. The crowd had arrived in abundance, but before the meeting began, one farmer, a village elder and a Sunday school teacher, came and frightened the owner of the house with periodic penalty payments, citing a church proclamation. The host then apologized to us for not having to hold the meeting now. I asked then if the host was afraid we were teaching the wrong doctrine. He replied that he did not know what was right and what was wrong, but he would not start paying the fine once it was forbidden.

That’s when I said that once a meeting isn’t allowed, it’s not held. But the Bible explains what is wrong to learn and what are false prophets. Don't you, the host and the assembled people, want to hear, then I read a little from the Bible. Everyone agreed, saying that at least it won’t be a fine if you read the Bible. So I read of true and false prophets, and the people listened and marveled. The master of the house broke down in tears and said, ‘Now I know who is right and who is wrong. I am no longer afraid of threats; these men are allowed to speak in my house, and let him who is afraid go away. '' Those three words against the above went out, the audience stayed to listen, and we continued the meeting. "[6]

Officially, the separation from the Lutheran Church took place on May 15, 1912, when he transferred his church books to the Tampere Baptist Church/Congregation, as there was no parish for the Baptists in Sortavala. [7] At the same time, Lajunen became acquainted with the Pentecostal movement, whose message also inspired him. In the next section, I will talk about Lajunen's work as an evangelist for the Pentecostal movement.

Each tombstone has its own story - Vilhelm Broända

William Broenda's gravestone at Greenwood cemetery in Astoria, Oregon. Picture: Jan Anderson

One of my hobbies when visiting another locality is walking in the local cemetery if there’s even a little time left. In addition to looking for relatives and characters, I am looking to find both aesthetic beauty and peace of mind. Cemeteries are soothing and stopping oases in the middle of a noisy, dusty and restless city. Tombstones and the names written and carved on them tell about the history of the region, the power structures of the past, the linguistic and religious division, and the spectrum of surnames of the region. Every person listed on the tombstone has their own life story, sometimes very colorful.

A few days ago, I received a photo of a tombstone off the west coast of the United States in Astoria. Astoria is a city at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon. This city, which lived on salmon fishing, became one of the significant destinations and bases of Finnish immigrants from the 1880s onwards. The tombstone tells of the deceased being born in my hometown of Lappeenranta. The image of that tombstone erected 113 years ago on my screen invited, even outright demanded, to tell the story of the deceased buried in the caches of the archives. 

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Picture: Jan Anderson

Vilhelm Broända was born in Lappeenranta, southeastern Finland, in 1853. Although his date of birth is marked on March 26, 1853 in church records, there is no complete certainty about the date of birth. Namely, his name cannot be found in the list of those born and baptized in Lappeenranta from 1852-1853. Vilhelmi's parents were Erik Broända (laborer, born 28.10.1826) and Anna Helena Kemppi (2.1.1814 - 27.3.1871). Anna Helena and Erik were married on April 12, 1852 and the wife was thus 12 years older than her husband. The marriage was Anna Helena's second. Her first husband Anders Kemppi had died at the age of 49 on May 10, 1850 from diphtheria. Would the absence of Vilhelm's name from the list of births and baptisms be explained by the fact that the parents were in another place at the time of the child's birth and baptism was performed there? 

Vilhelm lived in Lappeenranta until 1875. On May 2, 1875, he applied to the priest of the Lutheran congregation for a certificate of migration with the intention of moving to St. Petersburg, the then capital of Russia. At that time, there was a practice in Finland according to which every migrant had to apply to the authorities of his or her home area for a certificate of migration, which recorded the most important personal information such as date of birth and marital status, literacy and possible vaccination. This paper was then presented to the authority both on the way to the new locality and at check-in to the authorities of the new home area. If the traveler could not find a certificate of migration, he/she could be arrested for detachment and patched up in his former home area once it had been found out. 

The exact date of Vilhelmi's move to St. Petersburg is not known, but he registered as a member of the Finnish Lutheran congregation there on November 13, 1876 and at the same time presented his certificate of migration he had brought from Lappeenranta. Enrollment as a permanent resident of St. Petersburg was accelerated by a planned marriage. Vilhelm had apparently met a young lady, Maria Mathilda Eskola, in St. Petersburg. Maria had moved to the city at the beginning of August 1875 at the latest. Maria, born on September 30, 1852 in Oulainen, Ostrobotnia, had taken her certificate of migration from Vihanti, where she lived at the time, to Vyborg in southeastern Finland on September 21 1872. The certificate paper of migration contains entries about the stay in the Kivennapa on Karelian isthmus (October 12, 1873) and in Siestarjoki in Ingria (February 19, 1874). The wedding of Mary and Wilhelm was celebrated in St. Petersburg on December 26, 1876. 

The newly married couple stayed in St. Petersburg for about fourteen years. Vilhelm's profession is listed in the church book (in German) Arbeiter, but there is no mention of Mary's possible professions or work. Apparently the marriage was childless. In the 1890s, American fever had also taken over many Finns in St. Petersburg. It also grabbed Broända’s couple. They applied for a certificate of migration on February 8, 1891 and their destination was the United States. At the same time, it was the last mention of them in the documents of the Finnish Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg. Vilhelm Broända, who then turned into William Broenda, pops up on the west coast of the United States in the city of Astoria in the summer of 1899. In a local newspaper, he advertises his Russian baths, or maybe we should say in Finnish, his sauna.  

More than eight years later, William's life ends in the city of Astoria at a fairly young age, as he was only 54 years old when he died on November 21, 1907. William is buried there in Greenwood Cemetery. Instead, his wife Maria lived for a long time and married Anton Johnson (1853 - 1935). Maria's life ended in Astoria at the age of 84 on September 13, 1937.

Winter War, the Finnish Relief Fund and the Midwestern town of Lead, South Dakota

Well-known artist Jon Corbino presenting a check to former President Herbert Hoover for the Hoover Committee for Finnish Relief 1940. Photo sourced from http://leecorbinogalleries.com/Daddy&Hoover.jpg

Lead Daily Call, January 25, 1940

Tomorrow, on 13^th March, 2017, 77 years have passed since the end of the Winter War. Almost everywhere a small country’s battle against the much larger aggressor aroused compassion and plenty of volunteer activities. This happened also all over in the USA. Most active were, of course, Finnish Americans and people with other Scandinavian background. The Finns, however, were supported in every level in the U.S. society. There was only one exception, Communists.

 Lead Daily Call, January 29, 1940

A number of organizations were created in the USA to help the Finns. The most significant of them was The Finnish Relief Fund. It was a humanitarian aid organization initiated by former United States President Herbert Hoover in December 1939, after Soviet Union had invaded Finland on 30^th November, 1939. The war ended with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13^th  March, 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack

The local Finnish Sauna supported Finnish Relief Fund, too.
Lead Daily Call, December 13, 1939

illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. The Soviet Union had intended to conquer all of Finland and established a puppet Finnish Communist government in Terijoki, Carelia.  Despite of the fact, that the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks, they failed. 

President Herbert Hoover himself wrote later, how his initiative started (An American Epic, Volume IV)

 Lead Daily Call, January 10, 1940

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On December 3, the Finnish Minister to the United States, Hjalmar J. Procope, through my old associate, Lewis L. Strauss, asked if our group would undertake to organize relief for Finland as we were already doing for Poland. Before replying, I again, as in the case of Poland, urged Norman Davis, Chairman of the American Red Cross, that this relief be undertaken by that organization. I proposed that our group would serve under him if he wished. He decided the Red Cross would limit its services to medical aid and would collect garments through its chapters. However, Finland's most critical need was food.

Lead daily Call, January 10, 1940

Our old colleagues incorporated the Finnish Relief Fund, Inc., under the laws of Delaware on December 6, 1939. Except for part of the clerical help, this American organization consisted entirely of volunteers. The following officers were elected: Herbert Hoover, Chairman; Edgar Richard, President; Lewis L. Strauss, Vice-President; John Jay Hopkins, Vice-Chairman and Director of Organization. Additional Directors: Perrin C. Galpin, Frank C. Page, Raymond Sawtelle, Edwin P. Shattuck, John L. Simpson, H. Alexander Smith, Clare M. Torrey...

On December 7, I made the following address on Finnish relief:

Lead Daily Call, March 25, 1940

Lead Daily Call, December 18, 1939

America has a duty to do its part in the relief of the hideous suffering of the Finnish people. Our people should have an outlet in which to express their individual and practical sympathy. I have consented to organize a nation-wide Finnish Relief Fund for this purpose. I appeal to the American people for its support. Finland is not a rich country. The people have little reserve for emergency. They are making a heroic defense. Air attacks have compelled the evacuation of civilians from their towns and cities. Hundreds of thousands of women and children have been driven from their homes in the middle of northern winter...Others are without adequate shelter, clothing, and food. This Fund is for the purpose of serving these broad needs. The American Red Cross has appealed for funds to furnish medicines, hospital supplies, and many garments will be provided through their chapters. They should be supported. The two funds will cooperate fully...
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By March 1940, The Finnish Relief Fund had raised 2.5 million US dollars. Altogether the sum was over 3,5 million dollars.

President Hoover sent a telegram to the publishers of America's leading newspapers, asking whether they would receive contributions, report the donors in their columns, and remit the money to the Relief Fund. Hoover's campaign was advertised in 1,400 newspapers across the United States. The largest contributions came from private donors ($1.9 million), newspaper ads ($652,869), industrial companies ($318,188) and labor unions ($27,294).

The Finnish Relief Fund was very active in the Black Hills area, too. The local newspaper, Lead Daily Call, gave plenty of column inches to Relief Fund’s notifications, events and collections. The City of Lead in South Dakota, were a few hundred Finns

Lead Daily Call, January 30, 1940

lived, proclaimed a Finnish Relief Fund week in December. In the end of January, 1940, Lead had contributed already $2402 to the Finnish Relief Fund.

I gathered the attached newspaper clippings to find out how this small Midwestern town supported the Finns in their battle against overwhelming aggressor.

Copper Country Finns were organizing militia for the Russo-Japanese War in 1904

I found this interesting clip in Detroit Free Press, published March 20, 1904. Finland was under a harsh Russian pressure at that time. Russian Tsarist administration was planning to Russify Finland and its autonomy was intended to gradually eliminate. Thousands of young Finnish men fled to North America in order to avoid the Russian military conscription. At the same time (February 8, 1904) began the Russo-Japanese War. Many Finns hoped the winner would be Japan. In Michigan's Copper Country Finns were so eager, they were organizing militia and purchasing rifles. Their intention seems to have been to go up to help Japanese troops.

Immigrants journey from Finland to America in 1883

I've retyped a Finland to Upper Michigan travelogue published in the American Finnish Journal in July, 1883. In the article Reverend Johan (Juho) Takkinen, a layman in the Calumet Finnish Apostolic Lutheran Congregation, describes his return journey from Europe to the current residence in Northern Michigan's Copper Country. Finnish immigration to America was in the early 1880s just getting up to speed and shipping companies had not yet organized direct travel links from Finland. The Finnish migration had begun in the mid-1860s, first among Finns living in Northern Norway, from where the "American fever" gradually spread, first to Lapland and Northern Ostrobothnia. Migrants' route at that time passed through either the Norwegian or Swedish ports to Hull on the west coast of England. From there, the journey continued along the railway across the UK to Liverpool, where the Atlantic crossing started. Takkinen’s description clearly demonstrates how the migration already employed lots of people at that stage. Ship companies had agents and interpreters at journey’s every stage, who took care of the success of the monolingual immigrants’ trips. Except shipping and railroad companies, travelling immigrants maintained thousands of hotels, guesthouses, restaurant owners and their staff at European ports and rail hubs. In the past I often wondered, how almost illiterate boys and girls, maids and grooms from remote villages and without language survived the long journey to the unfamiliar kind of conditions.  Johan Takkinen’s writing opened my eyes to see that when purchasing their ticket the immigrants got in a sense a complete travel package with instructions.

National Line's advertisment in Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti

The ship ticket price from Germany over the Atlantic at the time was about $ 30 and only $ 26 from England. The ticket price from Finland has remained unclear for me. I guess the author of this report has got full travel package at the remarkably low price, which is probably the reason for the National Line-glorification report. For the Shipping Company, a widely known religious leader was a great advertiser. In this case, he was the leader of the largest religious group among Finnish immigrants – at that time. He was presumed to be more honest than other advertisers. Takkinen’s credibility was further increased by the fact that he had already made several trips between the former homeland and the new residence in Northern Michigan.

Memoirs of a journey [1]

Castle Garden in 1888

Since I have now traveled on the National line [2] back and forth between Europa and America and I have gotten in every way a good treatment, I'm obliged to rule on the said company my sincere thanks, and also to give some information and instructions to the people who are traveling this line.

We were 24 Finns ready to set off last April 20 to travel on National lines from Throndhjem (Trondheim in Norway) to America. The National line’s agent in that city is a very polite man, Karl Johansen, who provided us on a journey as well as he could.  With a steamboat called "Hers" we began roll on the waves of the North Sea towards England. There isn't any particular service on this route, since different shipping lines' migrants travel on the same route, and they do not belong to the ocean steamlines. Every Thursday a ship from Throndhjem to Hull departs, and every Friday from Gothenburg to Hull, where it always arrives on Sunday. There (in Hull) are agents of each Steam Line Company taking care of immigrants. When you come to the wharf, you must take care of your stuff and show your tickets to the agent. Then comes the customs officer, who will check your stuff. Once the goods have been cleared through customs and marked, Steam Line agent delivers them to the wagons and takes the passengers to National Lines hotel, where there was passably good care. In the morning, we left the hotel to the train station, where you have to change railway tickets at the office, the agent submitted the immigrants to the railway wagons at the right time and so we went on a journey across England to Liverpool. The steam trains are excellent fast and the scenery charming on that route. In the same evening, we arrived in Liverpool, which is a glorious big city and a well-known large seaport. From here almost all of ocean steam ships depart for America, from which much could be told. At the Liverpool railway station we had again a National Line’s agent welcoming us, who took us to the Company hotel. It can accommodate several hundred people at the same time to eat and the service there had no need to criticize. Here you should also give your ticket, which was changed at the company's office. On departure day each passenger is given their ticket, but then it must be concluded that it has the correct name, as the Finnish interpreter does not exist there, and when you come on board, all passengers will be checked. On the 25^th of April, we went, a big group of immigrants, with shipping company’s agent from hotel to company’s wharf. It was supposed to show your ticket there to the company's agent, which carried us with a little steam boat to the National Line’s ship. The ship was named England [3], it was reaching 4800 tons and seems to be a giant ship, and was so well equipped in every aspect for the immigrants, you might think there was nothing missing. However, England was like a chip on the ocean waves. When we got onboard we had all go to the doctor to be vaccinated, except for those who had former [vaccination] proof visible. The doctor then gave testimony, which was supposed to be retained. When you arrive in New York, a doctor is supposed to come onboard, and will verify the certificate.

 

Charles Frederic Ulrich's painting In the Land of Promise. 
Inside view of Castle Garden in 1884.

We arrived happily to New York on 7^th of May, when we said goodbye to the ship England and its staff. Here too was the company staff welcoming us and we went to the wonderful Castle Garden[4], which has been for decades the first place to lodge to many millions of migrants, as also a place of refuge against crooks. This old large stone building was so well equipped inside, that it does not lack anything a traveler needs. There was a currency exchange, bills exchange, post office, telegram and employment offices if one’s destination is not beyond the New York City. Jobs all the way to the west were offered, and where you wanted to go was up to you
 There is information about work possibilities, but you don’t need to start, if one has an opportunity to go farther. In the same building there are a wide range of shops, so-called clothing stores and groceries, but from the outside it is a terrible looking old castle, especially because there are groups of crooks and thieves outside the building, trying to get an opportunity to cheat the newly arrived immigrants. When we got into Castle Garden, at first all goods were cleared through customs, and after that we all had to walk through an alley, where every ones name was written in the book. When it was done, so we were taken to Captain R. E. Jeanson’s office, where there was a Finnish agent, who would guide us into wagons with goods. From there we took a train to the west and came to the city of Buffalo, where we went aboard to the Great Lakes. National Line company gave us a free of charge stay at the hotel in Buffalo; In New York we got a special meal ticket.

To those who intend to enter this country, I can testify with my 24 comrades, that the National Line’s transport and food service on board is, without boosting, praiseworthy. Every third day the hold was opened, so that the people were allowed to visit their chest for taking what they needed, which was quite a good thing, especially for those who have children with, so they could change clothes. it is necessary to get a brass token of your goods in New York, before you get wagons. Caretaking of immigrant’s goods was excellent, but when lot of Finns travel this line, so lack of language skills may cause [to some] trouble and harm. For Norwegians and Swedes there are interpreters all over the place, but there are sections where none of the shipping lines have Finnish-language interpreters. National line has a Finnish-speaking agent in Stockholm, Göteborg and New York, but aboard on the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea ships have not yet acquired the Finnish interpreter, which, however, would be so necessary for such a large number of Finnish immigrants.

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[1] Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti 29/ 07.20.1883.

[2] See  http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/gb~hfn.html#natline

[3] See http://www.norwayheritage.com/p_ship.asp?sh=engl1 ja http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/lines/national.shtml

[4] See https://www.nps.gov/cacl/index.htm