Finnish Newspapers in America, part three: Sankarin Maine

As we read earlier, had  Matts Fredd moved Sven Tuuva from Houghton to Hancock in October, 1878. In the beginning of next year he also changed  the name of his paper to Sankarin Maine = The Fame of a Hero. The very last copy of  Sven Tuuva was published on January 3, 1879. And the first copy of Sankarin Maine was delivered seven days later, on January 10, 1879. The paper was larger in size than it had been with Sven Tuuva.

The life of Sankarin Maine was also quite short. The paper's slogan was now "Long live Sankarin Maine". The content of Sankarin Maine was colourful but diversified. The editor tried  to keep readers up-to-date on world news and on matters affecting the Finns on the Copper Country. The hard and colourful competition between Fredd's Sankarin Maine and Aleksander Leinonen's Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti forced Fredd stop publishing his paper in April, 1881. After the closing Matts Fredd returned to his painting and decorating business.

Finnish Newspapers in America, part two: Sven Tuuva

The life of Amerikan Suomalainen Lehti was quite short. Next effort started year and a half later. This paper  - Sven Tuuva -was first published in Houghton and moved later to Hancock.

Sven Tuuva (or Swen Tuuwa) began publishing on Jan. 4, 1878 by Matti Fredd. Matti or Matts Fredd was born in Vaasa (Ilmonen writes in Amerikan Suomalaisten sivistyshistoria on page 22 that he was born in Kokkola). His native language was actually Swedish, so he studied at the local Swedish elementary school.  Later he learned to be a professional painter. As a journeyman painter he traveled to Turku, St Petersburg in Russia and Sweden. According to Ilmonen he moved to Kuivaniemi, which belongs to a Finnish speaking area. There he learned speak and write some Finnish. Holmio (p. 368) writes it happened in Oulu. He received his master's papers in Raahe

Matts Fredd moved to America in 1871 and started his own painting and decorating business in Hancock in 1876. Finnish immigrants flooded to Copper Country mines in big numbers at that time. When the need for a Finnish newspaper was increasing, Matts Fredd decided to meet the demand.

The first paper came out on January 4, 1878. It was a small three-column paper with motto: Sinulle Suomalainen puhun sanan harvaan vainen / To you, Finn, I say just a few words. On October 1878 it was moved to Hancock and in the beginning of next year Fredd changed its title to Sankarin Maine. Some opposition developed to Fredd's paper. It was caused by his outspoken way of writing. Fredd called his opposition with the word "league".