PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE EARLY EUROPEAN IMMIGRANT.
THE FINNS.
The Finns are not very well known in Saskatchewan as a whole and
as I knew the Finn colonists very well indeed, and have admiration for
them, I will deal with the Finn colony in some detail. There is no handier
or hardworking man than the Finn as will appear as I go on. The land
on the banks of Qu'Appelle valley allotted to these colonists was exceed-
ingly rough as a rule, being deeply cut with ravines, very rocky in places,
all bluffed more or less with small dense poplar and tough willow; in many
places very rocky; open spaces of any size capable of cultivation with-
out much labor of some kind were almost non-existent. Before roads were
made in some cases a man would have to go quite a way round to visit
a neighbor on the same section. The indomitable Finn has however now
conquered all these natural difficulties and it is a very pleasant and by
no means unpicturesque settlement today. To illustrate the condition
I may say that I revisited the settlement after it had been going some
ten years, and found one Jacob Haulm with forty acres under cultivation.
It was in five separate patches. On that occasion the friend with me
wanted a photograph of Jacob sitting on his binder, with the family. All
were quite willing, but the whole family insisted on putting on their best
raiment. Jacob is therefore represented in the picture as driving the
binder in his Sunday clothes.
The Finns came in at the end of the eighties or the beginning of the
nineties. The leading man among them was a Mr. Millimaki, who had a
homestead in the Sudbury country, New Ontario. When nickel was dis-
covered he sold his rocky holding for what was a very handsome sum in
those days; I believe it was ten thousand dollars. This enabled him to
make an excellent start in the Northwest Territories and his portion of
land in the colony, though fairly typical of the whole, was certainly one
of the best. The Finns were members of the Finnish Lutheran Church,
and the nearest pastor of that religious body resided in Michigan, U.S. A.
There was no Finnish Lutheran Church in Canada at that time. For some
years Mr. Millimaki was not only the "guide, philosopher and friend" of
his compatriots in things material; he was their spiritual chief. Not
being an ordained minister he was in the same position as Mr. Olson
of the Swedes (of whom more later on) and could not marry or baptise.
He held service and preached and did the duties of an elder and deacon;
that was all, but the whole business was irregular as it had no ecclesiastical
sanction. Marriages and baptisms had to be performed by other min-
isters.
I think it was in 1897 that a Finnish minister came up from Ironwood,
Michigan, to this Finn colony of ours and regularized the condition by
forming a legal church. I met him and had a long talk with him about his
people. He was about thirty-five years of age, blue-eyed, with a long blond
beard and moustache, and refined face. He came into Whitewood to reg-
ister the marriage of Mr. Millimaki's son. He told me that there were
two kinds of Finns of two different faiths and two different dispositions
Bibliography follows:
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