In my mother’s album there was a black and white photo of a house, about 5×7 cm, with more than a dozen people on the front terrace and balcony. Under the photo she had written “Herman’s house in Port Arthur”.
When I started to find out about my relatives who had emigrated to Canada and when, it took a while before I was able to get to the point where I could focus on this picture and investigate which house it was and when the picture might have been taken.
Surprisingly, the image allowed some zooming, and in the foreground it is easy to recognize my great uncle Herman Mesimäki, who emigrated from Ähtäri, in the middle with his watch, and his wife Wilhelmina Virtala, with her head typically tilted slightly. Counting the children, it becomes clear that Naimi, Vilho and Jaarli Maki are on the stairs, and the little boy sitting on the railing is Paul Maki, who was born in 1912. The youngest child, Mauri Maki, was not born until 1914 in Nolalu.
So the image was probably taken in 1913, perhaps even from Herman and the family’s farewell party before moving to Nolalu. The others in the image are probably unidentified relatives and neighbors. At that time, several families from Ähtäri lived on Rowand Street.
The 1911 census revealed that Herman and his family were living in Fort William at 120 Rowand Street. Canadian relatives knew that the address was right in the core of the old Finnish community, close to both the Lutheran church and the Socialist Hall. So next, I went to Google Maps and took a street view drive northwest along Rowand Street, and isn’t there a similar attic window protruding on the left? Just to be on the safe side, I posted the original photo to the Thunder Bay Then and Now group on Facebook, and a friendly local stopped by to take a recent photo of the house. It’s the same, even though the balcony and front porch are gone by now.
Dis Herman build the house or not? There are no hard facts about the origin of the house. Judging by the architecture, it was not very old at the time of the photograph. We know that Herman emigrated in 1901, and in 1905 he went back to Ähtäri to marry Wilhelmina. The house could have been finished as early as 1905, or built immediately afterwards. The first certain information is in Wilho Maki’s birth certificate in 1909. Already at the time of the birth of daughter Naimi in 1907 the family lived on the same street, but the number is not mentioned in the birth certificate. The house resembles the mail order houses that the American Sears department store chain sold widely, and the Canadian Eatons also did the same. The heyday of these was in the 1910s and 1920s, and I am not sure whether house packages were sold this early. More likely, the plan was from a local builder, because there are other similar houses in the city.
Herman and his family purchased a homestead in the southern part of Nolalu and had probably moved there no later than 1914. The later residents of the house can be researched from census data (1921, 1931) and voter lists from 1935 to 1974. The voter lists are not comprehensive sources, as not all immigrant residents were eligible to vote, and only adults are mentioned.
The 1921 census lists Alarick Hendrickson, a railway worker, his wife Wiivi and their children Uuno, Eino, Aili, Waino and Evelyn as residents. Hendrickson was a typical patronymic surname. Alarick was originally Heikki Alarik Heikinpoika Sorvo, who was born the son of a sailor in Raahe in 1885 and came to Fort William in 1907. His wife Wiivi was a widower and the four eldest children were from a previous marriage to Karl Eklund. Karl was from Karijoki and the couple came to Fort William as early as 1901. Wiivi was originally from Sivula, Jalasjärvi.
In 1931 Census, Wiivi is registered with the first name Mary, but since the children are listed with their real surnames, we can believe that it is the same family. Alarik had died in 1927 and “Mary” is again a widow, head of household, and the property is worth $2,500. In addition to the children, the house is also home to 35-year-old laborer William Peltomaa, 52-year-old “Wailio Hallio,” 33-year-old Emil Hirvonen, 45-year-old Gustave Kiviranta, and Henry Bell, a Canadian.
In the 1935 voter list, Wiivi appears with the surname Eklund. The tenants are not mentioned, but for example, the Finnish tenants of 1931 were Finnish citizens, so at least some of them may well have still been there.
In 1940 Wiivi is no longer on the voter list, she died in September of that year. The house is occupied by Edward Perkio, originally Edvard Perkiömäki. He was from Sapsalampi, Alavus, born in 1884. No trace of his and his spouse’s earlier immigrant days has been found so far, but he died in Fort William in 1941. The death certificate mentions him as a widower, but the name of his wife is not mentioned as the informant was a hospital clerk who would not know.
The next piece of information is from the 1949 voter list. The resident at the address was a pensioner named “Mat Wenio”. It is not possible to be certain, but most likely he was Matti Vainionpää, born in 1887, who emigrated from Lapväärtti with his family. The family first lived in Manitoba, where their youngest daughter Elin was born. Wife Fiina soon returned to Lapväärtti, where she died in 1940. Matti appeared at various addresses in Fort William in the 1950s, sometimes also with Elin. He died under the name Matt Wainio in 1963.
In 1953, no one eligible to vote lived at the address, but in 1957, Arthur and Mrs. Eino Ponka show up on the voter list. Arthur Ponka was the son of Matti Artturi Pönkä and Lydia Knuuttila, who had emigrated from Alavus. The family homesteaded in Pearson Township, southeast of Nolalu. Arthur’s wife was Aino Paavola, who had come with her family from Säkylä as a child. Aino died at the age of 31 in 1958, and this couple were the last Finns to be found at this address in available sources. The entire Finnish history in this house again testifies to the dominance of Ostrobothnians among the Finnish immigrants.
From 1962 to 1974, the house was inhabited by a group of people whose surnames indicate Italian, Ukrainian and Slovak origin.
A few years ago, I found historical information about the house in a local realtor’s website. According to the information, it was last sold in the late 1990s for 164,000 CAD. By now this information has also disappeared, and the house continues its own life well-maintained, as the photographs prove.
When I shared the information I had found about the house with my Canadian relatives, one of Naimi Mesimäki’s grandsons said that he had rented a room in that house as a student in the 1990s. At the time he could not imagine that he may have been sleeping in his grandmother’s nursery.
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