History of the Finns in Michigan (Great Lakes Books)

A history of the Finnish people in Michigan published in English for the first time. Michigan's Upper Peninsula was a major destination for Finns during the peak years of migration in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. Several Upper Peninsula communities had large Finnish populations and Finnish churches, lodges, co-operative stores, and temperance societies. Ishpeming and Hancock, especially, were important nationally as Finnish cultural centers, with Finnish newspapers, publishing houses, and fraternal and insurance societies, as well as Suomi College and the seminary and administrative offices of the Suomi Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Originally published in Finnish in 1967 by Armas K. E. Holmio, History of the Finns in Michigan, translated into English by Ellen M. Ryynanen, brings the story of the contribution of Finnish immigrants into the mainstream of Michigan history. Holmio combines firsthand experience and personal contact with the first generation of Finnish immigrants with research in Finnish-language sources to create an important and compelling story of an immigrant group and its role in the development of Michigan. History of the Finns in Michigan is a fascinating story for historians interested in Finnish history, Michigan history, immigration studies, and nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century Great Lakes history.