Front page of Tyomies, issue of April 19, 1912, featuring coverage of the Titanic.

MARQUETTE – From the mid-1800s until the early 1910s, Finnish immigrants settled in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by the thousands. These Finns packed up their entire lives and brought not only their personal belongings, but their culture, ideas, and politics.

By 1910, there were 130,000 Finnish people in the United States and many of them worked as laborers, often in Midwestern mines. Though many Finns already politically leaned left due to the popularity of socialism in their homeland, the tough working conditions they endured pushed them to organize and unionize.

One organization started by Finnish immigrants was the Tyomies, which translates to “the Worker.” This Finnish language, socialist newspaper published its first edition on July 20, 1903. The goal of this newspaper was to give a unifying voice to Finnish workers, and promote prosperity, and progress amongst the Finnish people.

The Tyomies had a brief stint in the Upper Peninsula, prior to its more official opening in 1903. From 1889 to 1892, the paper was printed and published in Ishpeming prior to an eleven-year hiatus. This period of the Tyomies seems to be a bit of lost history. Though there is record of the dates the newspaper existed in Ishpeming, there is almost no further information available. Its time in Ishpeming appears to be more of a soft-opening, leading up to the more official establishment.

In the early 1900s a group of Finnish-Americans in Worcester, Massachusetts, began dreaming up a way to spread their ideas of socialism and unity to other Finns in the States. These people created a newspaper under the name Amerikan Suomalainen Tyomies, which translates to Finnish American Workingman. The newspaper was spearheaded by Finnish Lutherans, but in August 1903, Vihtori Kosenen, a devout Marxist, became the editor. He had a much less inclusive view on religion and intended to distance the newspapers ties with the Lutheran faith, advocating for a move to Hancock, Michigan, where he could start fresh.

Kosenen saw Hancock as a better location to promote the newspaper and align themselves with the American Socialist Party. His proposal was successful and on August 4, 1904, the newspaper and its $999.00 worth of assets were moved to Hancock. Houghton County historically acted as a landing place for many Finnish migrants. As of 1900, over 42% of Houghton County residents were immigrants, and over a quarter of them alone were Finnish; making the area the perfect home for a Finnish language newspaper.

After several years of editorial changes and consistent growth, Tyomies reached its maturity in the early 1910s. This peak coincided with the pinnacle of the American Socialist Party between 1910 and 1913. Around that time, the Tyomies expanded into three buildings on Franklin Street in Hancock, putting 8,500 publications into circulation to their twelve-thousand annual subscribers, with a yearly subscription cost of $2.75. As the Tyomies continued to expand, they began publishing many different periodicals and books for Finnish language speakers. According to a 1912 financial report, the Tyomies now had assets worth $49,006.14; compared to just eight years prior, when the company was not even worth $1.000.

The Tyomies played a major role in the Copper Strike of 1913 and 1914. During this strike, the Western Federation of Miners, a miners union, advocated for better working conditions and wages for the laborers in the Copper Country. Full-on violent class warfare ensued between the mine bosses, with help of local law enforcement and the strikers. There were many bloody encounters, including the Italian Hall Disaster, which saw the death of 73 people, including 59 children.

The Western Federation of Miners teamed up with the Tyomies to get their side of the story out. Using the Tyomies’ facilities, the Federation began printing their own newspaper, outlining the horrors the miners and their families were enduring. The mine companies had their own sides of the story published in local newspapers, and not surprisingly, those recollections were vastly different.

The editor of the Tyomies at the time had a strong connection to Marquette County. Frank Aaltonen, a Finnish-Swede who immigrated to the United States in 1905, and quickly began working in Midwestern mines. He was a known social agitator and unionist, who worked as the organizer of the Negaunee Miners Union, and was a leading member of the Finnish Socialist Branch of Negaunee. He later moved to the Copper Country where he was was an organizer for the Western Miners Federation during the Copper Country Strike.

The Tyomies later moved to Superior, Wisconsin, following a split in the Finnish Socialist Federation, thus ending the publications relationship with the Upper Peninsula. There the Tyomies would remain until its final printing in 1998.