While the majority of Irish immigrants came to the Lake Superior mining region largely to escape the British government’s policies in Ireland, another contributing factor was the potato famine that began in 1846. With the Cornish, a large reason for their immigration was economics. Cornwall’s economy was strongly based on tin and copper mining. As mining began developing elsewhere, particularly in the Americas, the Cornish mining industry was negatively impacted, and many Cornish migrated to other regions for employment.

The issues facing the German emigrants were largely political, and extended all the way back to Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy Roman Empire, later referred to as the “First Reich,” (reich being German for empire) got on well enough until the early 1800s when it collapsed under pressure from Napoleon.

Thomas Childers, Ph.D. of the University of Pennsylvania stated in his lecture series “A History of Hitler’s Empire,” 2nd Edition, that:

“It was not until 1871 that Germany was unified by Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor of Prussia. The united nation-state lacked common traditions; it lacked shared political norms. In fact, ‘German Central Europe’ is the term one ought to use–not ‘Germany’–until 1871.”

Putting it simply, the former Holy Roman Empire, from the time it collapsed, suffered political and military upheavals that many of the average German citizens felt compelled to flee. Even after the 1871 unification, there was no automatic acceptance by the German people.

Unification, Childers continued, had been supported not by the proverbial man and woman in the street, but by the commercial and industrial elites of Germany. They couldn’t compete with English or French goods, and there was no common currency, weights, or measures and so on. They wanted a united Germany.”

As Childers explained, Bismarck unified Germany under Prussian auspices through successful wars: against Denmark in 1864; against Austria in 1866, which excluded the Habsburgs, the traditional dynastic family of Germany; and then finally in 1870-71, with the defeat of France. This was a unification without territories that had traditionally been seen as part of the old Holy Roman Empire.

Bismarck was perfectly happy with the united Germany, as long as it was under Prussian control, Childers continued. His task, as he saw it, was to deliver a Germany that would be based on traditional elites, monarchy, the army, bureaucracy–all supported by the old aristocracy.

As Childers was pointing out, Bismark had set the stage for the political elements that led to World War I. This was all during Germany’s rapid industrialization, which only caused more problems.

While Finland did not experience the negative impact of an industrial revolution, it did experience being sandwiched between Sweden and Russia, where Finland had been under Swedish control for centuries.

At about the same time The First Reich was collapsing, Russia conquered Finland in the 1808-09 war with Sweden. Under Sweden, Finland was no more than a group of provinces, and not a national entity. Under Tsar Alexander I, however, Finland became an independent duchy of Russia. Alexander, whose title included Grand Duke of Finland, made Finland a state by 1825.

An article appearing on the website, This is Finland, states: “The Finnish national movement gained momentum during the Russian period. The Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, created by Elias Lönnrot, was published in 1835.

“The Language Decree issued in 1863 by Alexander II marked the beginning of the process through which Finnish became an official administrative language,” the website states. “Although only one-seventh of the Finnish population spoke Swedish as its first language, Swedish retained its dominant position until the beginning of the 20th century.”

It was during the 1860s that the Quincy Mining Company recruited the first Finnish and Norwegian immigrants, experienced mine workers from the Finnmark area of Norway.

Walfrid John Jokinen’s 1955 Louisiana State University’s dissertation and thesis, “The Finns in the United States: a Sociological Interpretation.” stated that what began as 20 or so Norwegian and Finnish miners recruited by the Quincy Mining Company became what could be compared to a a mass migration.

An Interior Ellis Island’s online essay, Keweenaw Ethnic Groups: the Finns agreed with Jokinen, saying: “By the 1870’s some 3,000 Finns had left Scandinavia, and from 1880 to 1886 alone, 21,000 emigrated. By about the mid-1880’s, more were emigrating from provinces in the Duchy of Finland itself. From then until 1893, 40,000 more left and in that year alone an additional 9,000 departed, most to the United States. Although the next four years would see a steady rate with 16,000 additional applicants, the year of the February Manifesto’s introduction in 1899 brought a record application for passports, 12,000, a number that would grow to a climax of 23,152 applicants in 1902. The 1893 to 1920 total number of emigrants was 274,000 people, most prior to 1914 and a small minority being Swedish-Finns.”

The same website goes on to say: “Although the first Finns arrived in Hancock for Quincy Mining Company employment during the U.S. Civil War, it was the rising star of Calumet & Hecla Mining Company who would begin to offer the greatest opportunities for employment both in the mine and in surrounding business. By 1880, in the mine’s settlement area around the Village of Red Jacket Finns made up approximately one in five residents or 1,800 of 9,000 persons. Finnish-American historical geographer Arne R. Alanen with Suzanna E. Raker made astonishing findings regarding Finnish institutions by this same year: ‘Despite relatively small numbers, Finnish immigrants quickly established several ethnic institutions in Calumet, the community that emerged as their earliest pesapaikka, or “nesting place,” in America. By 1880, Calumet’s Finns supported a newspaper, two churches, a mutual aid society, a literary society, a printing company, a lending library, a land company and two mining companies. Finns also operated a general store, a watchmaker-shop, nine public saunas, and a saloon in Calumet.'”

The rapid increase in Finnish immigration to the Lake Superior copper region was not the only development. With the opening of more and more mines in the western states, the Michigan copper mines were facing stiffer competition at the same time their production costs were increasing as their copper content was starting to diminish. In order to prolong their lives, the mining companies would have to seek the benefits that the industrial revolution was presenting to the mining industry. The companies must either modernize or shut down.

Air-powered rock drills had evolved rapidly since they were first introduced to the Michigan copper mines in the 1860s. The mine managers of the Lake Superior mining region were prepared to introduce the new technology in their mines. Replacing hand drillers with machines would drastically increase production. Coupled with the use of dynamite, rather than black powder, management was optimistic that the Lake Superior copper mines could remain competitive with those of the western states. These technologies would have to be tested first, but management was ready to test them, and invest tens of thousands of dollars in purchasing drills, erecting air compressors, running airlines down the shafts and through the mine drifts to the stopes, and teaching select mining teams how use the new drills.

In the transition of the region from the “Lake Superior Copper Mining Region” to the “Copper Country,” the region was transitioning, too. Mines became larger, requiring more and more workers. The days when everybody from the agent down to the trammer knew each other, and all lived huddled together in a small mining location were gone now. Alexander Agassiz, president of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, from his home in Boston, grew increasingly distrustful with his workforce, creating an atmosphere in which the workforce, in turn began to distrust the corporation, as well.

Tensions were beginning as changes in policies, and the creation of new policies, left many of the older residents feeling as though the companies were creating an “Us and Them” mentality. As time moved forward, it would not get any better.

Graham Jaehnig has a BA of Social Science/History from Michigan Technological University, and an MA in English/Creative Nonfiction Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. He is internationally known for his writing on Cornish immigration to the United States mining districts.