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π 181 Epilogue So, what became of some other major “players” in the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionist saga? It can be deduced that the vestiges of the Finnish immigrant socialists and the members of the Finnish-American labor movement in Hancock continued to congregate at the Kansankoti Hall, though likely on a smaller organizational scale and certainly never as unified as when Työmies had its headquarters in Hancock. The Kansankoti Hall became the home of the communistic Finnish Americans, who supported revolutionary, “dictatorship of the proletarian” political actions. While many of the major “players” in the early socialist-unionist movement left the area, some die-hard socialist-unionist elements from the TPC’s days in Hancock remained. Men such as Herman Louko and John Nummivuori, both members of the publishing company while in Hancock, stayed to manage, respectively, the Kansankoti Hall and the Farmer’s Co-op Trading Company, which sold groceries, farm implements, and a full line of general merchandise.1 The Farmer’s Co-op and Trading Company took over the mercantile space that the Työmies Publishing Company once occupied at 201–203 Franklin Street.2 Research has not indicated how long the Kansankoti Hall was in 182 π Epilogue operation, but people were still living in apartments there as of 1917. The hall underwent demolition sometime between 1917 and 1938, and the store with frontage at 201–203 Franklin was demolished sometime after 1938.3 At the site once known as the Finnish socialist-unionist cultural center of the Midwest, there is now Neil’s Taxicab stand. Leo Laukki maintained his close association with the Work People’s College . After he became head of the Finnish American wing of the IWW, he was imprisoned as part of the IWW’s Chicago 166 in 1918. Jail changed his ideological views, and Laukki came out of jail a Communist and escaped to Russia in 1921. He rose to prominence in Soviet Russia, but died during a Stalinist purge.4 V. S. Alanne, capable but bourgeois-branded editor of Työmies, went on to a rather stellar career educating, managing, organizing, and writing in the Finnish American cooperative movement. Alanne was also a respected editor and translator of books. He continued to work on his Finnish-English dictionary, adding to its voluminous size. Alanne seems to have continued his efforts in the workers’ movement, but never again claimed affiliation with any particular group.5 Martin Hendrickson, socialist orator and original Apostle of Finnish Socialism , continued in the Finnish American labor-political movement. Hendrickson bought into the ill-fated Russian policy to populate the Soviet Republic of Karelia in the mid to late 1930s with Finnish North Americans and Finnish nationals. Hendrickson left for Karelia, just across the border from northeastern Finland, and was never heard from again. He likely died in the Stalinist purges of 1938, known as the horrifying “Karelian Finns’ year of terror.”6 John Välimäki continued to work in the Finnish immigrant socialist-unionist movement. After the split, Välimäki moved east and joined the staff of the Raivaaja Publishing Company in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In the split, many of the eastern U.S. Finnish Socialist Federation locals sided with the Socialist Party of America. Apparently, Välimäki stayed with the socialists and was a lifelong member. His years as an organizer appeared to have ended when the Western Federation of Miners folded.7 Evert Björklund, type composer for the Työmies Publishing Company, followed the company to Superior in 1914. His wife Laina (Ollila) Björklund attempted to keep the family together while Evert was away. The family, now Epilogue π 183 composed of three children, alternated homes between Superior and Hancock. Libby Koski-Björklund, oral history subject for this book, was born in 1919—which was also the last year Laina made the attempt to move back and forth between households. For a time, Evert maintained contact with his family, sending postcards and the occasional money order. During the early 1920s, Laina and the children moved from Hancock to a farm near Oskar Bay in the small Finnish American agricultural community of Heinola. According to Libby, after the early to mid-1920s Evert seldom made trips back to the Copper Country. When he did, he would stay in a cabin away from his wife and children on the family’s property near Oskar Bay along the Portage Lake Canal. Laina and the children had to perform the daily tasks...

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