“What kind of Finnish house did my family move from, and what kind of house did they move to in America?”
As a Genealogist, this was one of the first questions that I asked my immigrant family members, along with the typical “why did they leave Finland”? Wiktor Karra was our first family immigrant, who traveled alone to America in 1904. His intention was to send for his wife & daughter, once he was settled. As many of us know, Primogeniture dictated that only the eldest son could inherit the family property. The Karra property was a sprawling 200 Hectares farm, 2 1/2 hours North West of Helsinki. Since Wiktor was the fourth son, he gladly took his inheritance and planned his move to America, Land of Opportunity and of course, as every one knows, the streets were “paved with gold.”
Wiktor bought a new Boarding House off of busy Canal Street in Duluth, Minnesota, and then sent for his devoted wife, Ida Matilda, and daughter, Laimi Irene. Duluth was a bustling shipping port and the Boarding House was very successful, and soon they welcomed a daughter and a son. But the daily work was grueling. Laundry washed by hand, meals, children, and not speaking English made for long exhausting days. Wiktor and Ida asked their cousins from Kullaa to come and help with the Boarding House and to live in America. One of those cousins was my grandmother, Katri Maria & her sister Alexandra Kirra, from the next door farm, who then, after 10 years, moved to Waukegan, Illinois.
There are still Karra family descendants living in the Duluth area. Unfortunately, the pressures of the American dream and the assimilation responsibilities were too great for Wiktor. In 1915 he was diagnosed as a Paranoid schizophrenic and spent the rest of his life in the Douglas Co. Mental Hospital. Ida carried on the business and became very successful and even bought a large Duluth farm. Sometimes the “great American dream”...is just that...a dream....