FRANCESTOWN — Years ago, Francestown resident Sirkka Holm contacted the University Minnesota to see if they would accept her documented histories of Finnish immigrants in the United States. At the time, the university archives were full.

The university’s research center, which preserves the documentation of immigrant and refugee life in America, later found room. Holm is now in the process of preparing her personal histories of Finnish immigrants collected over the years for the archives.

The university is collecting her oral histories, along with photographs and negatives that Holm had gathered herself over the years. A friend has brought much of the material to the university, where it is now part of the Immigrant History Research Center archive.

At 90, Holm is finishing up typing her oral histories for the archive. She laughed as she said, “I don’t have a computer. I rely on my typewriter,” explaining that it takes a long time to type everything up, especially because the oral histories are in both English and Finnish.

Holm’s family has a rich and interesting history of its own. Holm’s father, Werner Tuomi, and Holm’s mother, Fanny Tuomi, both immigrated to America from Finland for economic reasons, like so many other Finnish immigrants who came to America in the 1900s. Holm’s father immigrated in 1908 and her mother in 1912. Their stories are just one example of the histories that Holm has collected.

Life for the early immigrants

Both of her parents came from interesting backgrounds that would eventually bring them together in America. When her father got to the U.S. he went directly to Minnesota to become an iron ore miner.

Her mother immigrated to the U.S by ship and ended up in Massachusetts, where one of her sisters was living.

Her mother eventually went to Minnesota, where she met her future husband at a Finnish Hall. “Socialists built halls ... all over the country,” Holms said. The halls were used for religion and many types of art, including theater, poetry reading, men’s choruses, women’s choruses, mixed choruses, and music. “Wherever you had a bunch of Finns, there was a theater group. They loved the stage; they loved to perform,” Holms said.

Holm was born in Virginia, Minn., in 1920 and acquired her parent’s love for performing. “I was always involved in plays,” Holms said. “At six months I was in a cradle on the stage.”

When Holm was six years old, her family moved to Warren, Ohio, where her father worked in a steel mill. When workers’ pay was cut in half, her father went on strike with the other workers. The strike failed and Holm’s father was blacklisted. He couldn’t find any work in the area, so they moved to Baltimore when Holm was 13.

Holm’s love for theater grew, and she studied at the Peabody Conservative in Baltimore because she wanted to become an actress. “I always helped with makeup, and I directed some plays,” Holm said. “I went to New York to get into show business, but I came back to Baltimore to work as a secretary.” Although Holm’s experience in New York didn’t develop into a life in show business, she explained, “I was always working on theater work in the evenings on my own time.”

A love of history

In the 1970’s, her love of history blossomed. She befriended Vinnie Scarpaci, a professor of history in Baltimore, who’s parent’s were Italian immigrants. Scarpaci had written a book about Italian immigrants and encouraged Holm to document Finnish histories.

“I got about 30 histories of people,” Holm said. Some people didn’t want their voice to be recorded, so Holm would document their history by hand. Some histories were told in English and others in Finnish. These are the stories now preserved in the University of Minnesota Immigrant History Research Center archives.

Holm visited Finland in 1979 to see one of her aunts, and upon her return wrote an article for a Finnish-American newspaper. Her future husband, Tai Holm, then living in Gardner, Mass., wrote to her requesting more details on the trip. After some time, letters turned into phone calls, phone calls turned into visits, and visits turned into marriage. When they married he was 60 and she was 59.

They moved to Baltimore, vacationed in Maine and New Hampshire, and eventually bought a home in Francestown. Holm’s husband died last year.

Holm still writes for the Finnish-American Reporter and has been for 25 years now. Her column focuses on Finnish immigration, customs, cultural events and foods. She is also involved in a group called “Tuesday Academy” in Hancock, with a focus on history.
Because of people like Holm, future generations will be able to read the stories and see photos from a bygone era of American immigration.

“I just wanted to preserve their history,” she said. It’s very rich and interesting. It makes me feel good; it helps the people live all over again.”

This article was originally published in the July 28, 2011 edition of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript.