The Italian Hall Tragedy

When I visited Finlandia in November, Jim gave me the tour of the Heritage Center and I walked passed this:

It was an old friend from my childhood! This pump organ belonged to Suomi College originally and when they were done with it, it went to Pops Lehto -- my grandfather. At one point he gave it to my father, so it spent a few years in the Lehto Household. Along with my father playing it once in a while, the six boys would sometimes play on it. Notice the pedals -- the originals were resurfaces with linoleum (that's how I knew for sure it was the same organ.) Somewhere around 1980, my father gave it back to Suomi and it has resided there ever since. When I told Jim the story, he sat down and played a few notes. It sounds great -- especially for an almost hundred-year-old instrument.

Steve

I was running through some of the things I've gathered on my recent travels and I noticed that I had not posted this image yet.  It was something that Gary K over at Finlandia located for me -- but I didn't get it in time to squeeze it into the book.  At least I can use it in my presentations.

It pretty much speaks for itself, as to who the Finns thought was behind the tragedy.

Steve

I have been receiving many wonderful stories in both the email and regular mail (remember that?) from people who have read my book and want to share their family connections with me.  Ellen Stanton wrote to me this morning and told me of her connection to the Italian Hall story:

"My great-grandmother was Anna Kotajarvi, born Anna Kotila and married first to Henrik Oscar Rytilahti, who died in Finland in 1905. She had four children with Henrik Oscar Rytilahti: Hilja, Hilma, Emelie, and Heli. It was the latter two daughters who died in the Italian Hall. After the death of Rytilahti, Anna came back to America (I know she had been there previously because my Grandmother, Hilja Dagmar was born in America). As soon as she got to Calumet, she married Matt Kotajarvi (he was on the same boat coming over, and I assume they knew each other before they left Finland, but I don't know that for a fact). They had several children, including Anna, the one that died in the Italian Hall. Apparently Anna was one of a set of twins. The other twin was Arthur, and he survived, although I recall my mother telling me some story about him going missing for a day or so afterward, and finally being turned over to Matt Kotajarvi by some strange woman."

This is also another example of how confusing the event was, with people even disappearing and re-appearing in the days afterward.  Ellen passed along this photo of Anna with four of the Rytilahti daughters on the front porch.