i W “'4' “’3?“ "Q-. ' . __ _ . 15‘ 3 :32: ., 1 -, ’7‘. a” .- r“",\ 5 ‘ 1.x. .- . 752-121 -.-'-" 4: 93w I} 4“ i-I .. '\ .' ‘ - \ I‘ z ‘ '7 I ~ . ~ & ‘ : .. , , ' a“ ‘J ‘41) :4) w u: l..- f .m,._,4mm” f ‘. 9:1, m l. v A" '3 . This is to certify that the thesis entitled IMMIGRANTS TO MICHIGAN'S WESTERN UPPER PENNINSULA 1890 - 1915 presented by Debra Lynn Duckworth has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for M.A. History degree in gem» Qé/tfllé7Q/r Major professor James W. Soltow Date 2‘; ‘Z‘réi fl?!) 9 0.7639 MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution . Illllllllllllllllllllllllllll 31293 000 1924 )V1531.J RETURNING MATERIALS: Place in book drop to L15RARJES remove this checkout from ”In. your record. FINES will be charged if book is returned after the date stamped below. MAE 2 2004 K £03 '92 " ”3 019;?“ .‘ . ‘ul3" miss. 'Q‘Bb“ a 19H%§003 JMY 1 9 13;; 95300067 W fingiigyzin’; MAY 0 62002 050102 its;— IMMIGRANTS TO MICHIGAN'S WESTERN UPPER PENNINSULA 1890 - 1915 BY Debra Lynn Duckworth A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of History 1983 ABSTRACT IMMIGRANTS TO MICHIGAN'S WESTERN UPPER PENNINSULA 1890 - 1915 BY Debra Lynn Duckworth Studies of immigrants to the United States often focus on those immigrants who settled in cities and pro— blems unique to that environment. But not all immigrants chose the city life; many settled in smaller communities. Through the use of demographic sources of annual re- ports, reports of the Commission on Immigration, contem- porary articles, and especially, oral history, this study examines the lives of immigrants to Michigan's Upper Penninsula mining locations between 1890 and 1915. For these immigrants, adjusting to a new life meant struggles with the English language and with the languages of other ethnic groups settled there. It meant exhausting workdays spent underground, constant fear of death or accident in the mine, company paternalism, and few job opportunities for women. Despite the drawbacks, however, many immigrants still felt America was the pro- mised land, a land to which Europe could not compare. To my grandparents ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have very much appreciated the comments and sug- gestions from all who have assisted me in this project. Those whom I interviewed were very helpful and the after- noons spent with them were enjoyable. My husband has been especially patient, always willing to provide a listening ear and help sort out con- fused notes. Thanks also to the rest of my family and to Professor James Soltow for advice, criticism, and en- couragement throughout the long process of putting this thesis together. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES INTRODUCTION I. BEGINNINGS: ARRIVING IN MICHIGAN II. WORK: THE REASON THEY CAME Laboring in the Mines Accidents and Death and Medical Benefits Labor Organization Opportunities for Self-Employment in a Mining Community Women At Work III. ADJUSTMENT TO AMERICAN LIFE The Community and The Language The Company Housing Spare Time Returning to Europe or Staying in America? IV. CONCLUSION NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY iv 18 18 36 49 55 59 69 69 76 91 94 99 102 112 TABLE 1. TABLE 2. TABLE 3. TABLE 4. TABLE 5. Occupation of Before Coming Occupation of Coming to the Occupation of Coming to the LIST OF TABLES Foreign-born Male Employees to the United States Foreign-born Females Before United States Foreign-born Females Before United States Percent of Male Employees Earning Each Specified Amount by Week Number of Fatal Accidents for Selected Years 11 13 13 33 37 INTRODUCTION Studies of immigrants to the United States often fo- cus on those immigrants who settled in the cities and the problems unique to such an environment. But not all immi- grants chose the city life; many settled in rural areas or in small towns or even began new communities across the United States. This study focuses on Italians, Slovaks, Finns, Poles and other ethnic groups who settled and worked in the mining fields of Michigan's Upper Penninsula, exploring their experiences in becoming a part of America's indus- trial society between 1890 and 1915. For immigrants who both shaped and were shaped by Ameri- can society in the Upper Penninsula, adjusting to a new life meant struggling with the English language as well as learning to get along with languages spoken by people of other nations also settled here. It meant dealing with company paternalism, poor housing conditions, and exhaus- ting work during a twelve hour day spent under the ground. Mine accidents were common and labor organization poor but many immigrants nevertheless found life in the Upper Penninsula far better than life in Europe. Despite the drawbacks, America was still, as John DeRosso would em- phasize to his children, a "land of promise " and l 2 opportunity, to which his native Italy could not compare. Because of such sentiments among immigrants, Michigan's Upper Penninsula population grew and its economy flour- ished, providing the immigrants with the jobs they came to America to find. I. Beginnings: Arriving in Michigan In 1905 John DeRosso left Vela D'Astico, a small village in northern Italy to join his brother Bertallo at a logging camp in Michigan's Upper Penninsula. Bertallo had sent John good reports of employment along with passage money for the trip to America. He added only one stipulation: John was to work in the woods with him until he paid back his passage money. For fifteen-year-old John, who wasn't enthusiastic about either lumbering or paying back Bertallo, this took about two years. After that he "was a roamer" but eventually settled down to work in the major industry of the Upper Pennin- sula: mining. For John and other immigrants arriving in the Upper Penninsula between 1890 and 1915, the need for their labor had been determined years earlier with the discovery of the rich natural resources of the Upper Penninsula. Under the forests of white pine were lodes of copper and iron. John DeRosso worked first as a logger but he was cutting maple and hemlock; pine had been stripped away by about 1894. The copper regions of Keweenaw, Houghton, and Ontonogan counties were surveyed by Douglas Houghton in 1830 and the first miners, skilled coal miners recruited from Cornwall, arrived about 1844, followed by German and Irish immigrants seeking work. Although copper was highly valued in the mar- ketplace, large profits from copper mines were not realized until better techniques and equipment were developed after the Civil War. Iron being neither as accessible nor as valuable as 3 4 copper, its mining even more than copper mining needed better technologies to be profitable. Its veins were mined only in small amounts until about 1874 when the Menominee Range open- ed. The Marquette Range opened in 1876 and the Gogebic Range in 1884. The iron mines first drew on the supply of skilled Cornish, German, Irish, and Swedish mine workers already set- tled in the Upper Penninsula. Around 1890, however, some changes within the mining industry made such skilled workers, already in short supply on the copper and iron ranges, no longer necessary. Along with technical improvements of ma- chinery, mines began using the method of shaft mining and added smelting to their surface Operations. Many of the older mines were also being consolidated into fewer hands at this time. These changes made mining operations more pro- fitable, especially because unskilled workers could now be used to extract the ore. The 1911 Report of the Commission on Immigration found that the English, Irish, Germans, and Swedes began leaving the mines (usually heading for the wes- tern mines) "due to the change in the methods of mining requiring less skill and to a consequent lowering of the prices paid for mining."2 It also became clear to both the iron and copper mine operators that the supply of available workers in the Upper Penninsula could not meet their demands. Even as late as 1898, Michigan Miner reported a shortage of iron mine workers which was causing higher wages to be paid on those ranges. This shortage, however, was apparently because 5 experienced miners were heading for better pay in the copper mines, whose Operators were advertising desperately for work- ers.3 With this shortage of labor and a lessened need for skilled workers, mine owners realized they ought to do some recruiting. They began their campaigns for unskilled labor from Finland, northern Italy and other southeastern European countries much earlier than 1898 though.4 Finns could be found in mines by 1883 and North Italians, by 1887.} But the bulk of these immigrants arrived in the later 18905. The census of the State of Michigan for 1904 shows that between 1894 and 1904, while the number of Canadians, Irish, English, Germans, and Swedes either remained steady or decreased slightly, the number of immigrants from Austria, Poland, Italy, and in particular, Finland, increased greatly.5 Copper and iron companies also encouraged immigrants settled elsewhere in the United States to come to their mines. The Report of the Commission on Immigration stated in 1911 that, for the Michigan copper mines, "the greater number of foreign-born employees had worked elsewhere in this coun- try before coming to the Lake Superior region." Neverthe- less, of 4,519 men interviewed by the Commission, 44.9% of them had been in the United States less than five years and only 20.9% of them had been here for more than five but less than nine years. If these men are grouped according to nationality, one finds that the overwhelming number of Croa- tian, Finnish, North Italian, Magyar, Polish, and Slovenian immigrants had, by 1911, been in the United States for nine 6 or fewer years. In contrast, Canadian, English, and German copper miners show larger numbers of workers having been in the United States ten or more years. The figures become even more contrasting for twenty or more years spent in the United States.6 Most of the immigrants who arrived after 1890 were either Finnish or south European and no matter where his first job was -- Chicago, Detroit, Pennsylvania -- the immi- grant probably had not been in the United States too long before taking up iron or copper mining. Besides recruitment, mine owners found that once an immi- grant arrived, they could depend on his letters home to insure a steady and growing supply of labor. Although he didn't mince words when describing his homesickness and the sometimes painful work and life in America, an immigrant's first letters were hopeful. A Finn wrote home in 1902 that "' . . . one does work like a machine at first such a work fever seems a little strange . . . but now it goes natural- ly'" and another Finn breathed a sigh of relief in his letter when he wrote that "'Things are certainly better here than in Finland things were difficult for me in Finland.”7 The immigrants arriving in Michigan's Upper Penninsula usually had relatives waiting for them, as did John DeRosso. This meant that members of the same village in Europe often settled in communities together once in Michigan. A Jewish community in Iron Mountain, for example, had lived in the same village in Europe and most of them were related to the Cohades clan. There seems to be no evidence, however, that whole European villages picked up and sailed to the Upper 7 Penninsula as a rule. They often shared the same communities once here, but they usually arrived as individuals or small family groups. The 1220 family in Italy heard from a cousin already in America and two of its sons crossed the ocean to join him in 1890; they in turn, eventually sent for their mother and brothers and sisters, though not all at once.8 Bertallo DeRosso sent passage money not just for John, but for each of his brothers to join him in the United States and also settled his mother, father, and sisters here. Ludmilla Darovich's father, from Austria-Hungary, surely would have written a convincing letter to his relatives as he "'would praise this country, where you could come with only a bundle of clothes, and, if you worked hard, you could own your house in a few years.”9 Darovich was, no doubt, a great optimist! Industry could also count on political and religious unrest in Finland to keep Finns coming. Many Finns objected to the requirements of the State Church of Finland, feel- ings which were brought to the United States when suppor- ters of the State Church re-established the church here. A much greater reason to leave Finland, however, was present- ed by Russia which ruled Finland since 1809 (indeed, Finns were counted as Russians in the 1890 census). Russian rule was made less tolerable by Czar Nicholas II's 1899 manifesto curtailing Finnish freedoms and, in 1901, requiring Finns to serve in the Russian army. Even before the 1901 require- ment, however, Finns chose to leave the homeland rather than join the Russians. Herman Kallungi's father traveled to the 8 Upper Penninsula in 1897 to escape the draft, leaving his wife and young son in Finland until 1903.10 Once in the United States, Finns did not forget what they had left in Finland, besides home and family. The Sault News of Sault St. Marie, in 1901 reported that "the Finnish National Society of the City ordered fancy cuspidors with a picture of Nicholas Brobrikof, governor-general of Finland, in the bottom. His name will be printed in gold around the picture, so that there will be no mistake as to who will be spit upon."11 A lack of interest in the attractions of army life also led Nick Poprovich to arrive in the Upper Penninsula from Yugoslavia and many Italians also shared his sentiments. Some North Italians also objected to the Roman Catholic Church in the late nineteenth century and were glad to leave that religion behind.12 But the strongest force pulling immigrants toward the United States was poverty and the promise of a better life in America. When asked why her father came to America, pos- sibly arriving in "corduroy trousers of ample dimensions 13 Delia Johnson acted surprised [and] a bright colored sash," that one should even need to ask. Her father, John DeRosso, was one of seven children and his parents "had a little land and lived off of the soil, they were very poor, didn't have very much food to feed his family." Her mother's parents sent the children begging "for cornmeal to make polenta their meal. And they'd go to different homes, and they'd get a little handful of cornmeal and when they got enough to make 9 polenta, then they'd go home."14 Poverty was probably true of most south European immi- grants to the Upper Penninsula. The main reason they came to the United States was more basic than political or religious reasons. In Eur0pe they had very little chance of ever own- ing a farm or working a job that paid wages enough to live. America was "the land of opportunity" as Delia Johnson said, and promised an abundant life. Families often scraped and saved to send at least one member to the land of opportunity. Anna Dulan's Yugoslavian parents took out a loan for a $40 ticket allowing her to cross the ocean to America in the ship's steerage and Alida Henning's grandparents borrowed money to sent their sixteen-year-old daughter to Michigan, putting their "little old shack as a bond for if she didn't pay within a certain time, well, then they would lose their home." It was obviously crucial that their daughters go to the United States.15 Consequently, geography had little to do with the immi- grants choice to settle in northern Michigan. Both southern Europe and Finland bear a few similarities to the climate and terrain but dissimilarities are more common. Obviously, groups from such contrasting geographies in Europe could hardly have bgth found a home-like geography in the Upper Penninsula. Aileen Jacobson, daughter of Finnish immigrants, rejected the notion that her parents settled in Michigan because of compar— able terrain and climate. "Actually the reason why is be- cause there were jobs at that time. It just happened that 16 the geography was about the same." Immigrants settled 10 the Upper Penninsula primarily because it offered them jobs and good wages. Paltry as those wages may have appeared to social work- ers of the time who knew better of America and recorded and protested such things, the Annual Report in 1892 of the Michigan Department of Labor and Industrial Statistics re- ported great differences between wages paid in Europe and those earned in the Michigan mines. The average per month wage paid to Englishmen was $16.61 in England and $48.76 in Michigan; to Finns, $10.24 in Finland and $45.99 in Michigan; Germans earned $13.81 at home and $44.79 in Mi- chigan. Polish immigrants averaged $12.70 in Poland and $46.33 in Michigan mines and the Italian received $6.43 in Italy but $50.11 in Michigan. The report concluded this section with the comment, "Have these figures been sent over to Europe? If so, it is no wonder the Italians and Poles and Prussians, are flocking to The United States by the hun- 17 Those specific earnings may not have dreds of thousands." been sent to Europe but those immigrants already here no doubt conveyed the message in their letters home! The English miners from Cornwall, however, worked in familiar circumstances in the mines to earn their good American wages where most of the immigrants after 1890 drawn to the copper and iron mines were new to the work. In Table l, the 1911 figures of the Immigration Commission for copper and iron ore mining indicate that, with the excep- tion of the English, the occupation most commonly held by all races before arrival in the United States was farming Pl .mmomonEo How mousmfim mcflcflfi some can Hommoo pmcflneoo 4 mam ma owe ham aao.n pom mms mam.m Hmooe e in H w mm m m mm amanpmsd m N Am m HHH w m Aha cmwco>on N I: m ma ms h n maa xm>on ma H mm mm mom ma em omm nmflaom m I- m m we m G Am “mamas m in h m vm H OH mm .m .GMHHmuH Ne m moa mmH Hem mm om mvm .z .cwflamuH m II on m mm ma ma mm cmEuow mma m em mmH NHVH Ho ow mmma nmflccwm on m as me mm mm awe mom smaamam mm H we mm Goa ha it mmm amapmcmu am it mm me «mm NH mm mom cmflumouo Hmnuo mowummson mopmua muouonmq mcflfiumm .mscmz mcflcflz mcwuuomom comm It CH pommmcm mums 0:3 Honesz Honfisz mH.mMB¢Bm DMBHZD HEB OB UZHEOU mmommm «WHMMOAQZM mq<2 zmoleOHmmom m0 ZOHBGADUUO .H Eémde 12 (48.1%). Further, three-quarters of the foreign-born in the Upper Penninsula mines had come unskilled in mining methods. Even the North Italians from Italy's primary industrial lo- cations of the North (which received the bulk of government contracts) were unskilled and came to the Upper Penninsula as farmers. Skilled workers would probably have settled elsewhere in the United States where their skills would be useful. Those who emigrated to Michigan did so because farming in Europe did not pay well, but mining in the Upper Penninsula Sig pay well. Clearly, new technology meant ex— perienced miners and the wages they expected could be replaced by newcomers unfamiliar with mining rigors at a lesser pay. Women arriving in the copper and iron regions of the United States had been mostly "without occupation" in Europe according to the 1911 Report of the Immigration Commission (see Tables 2 and 3). Those who did work, were, like the men, primarily employed as farm laborers. The other major occupa- tion had been domestic service. Within the Croatian race there are striking differences between those settling in the iron ore regions and those in the copper regions. Where 81% of the Croatian women in the copper region had been without occupation in Europe, in the iron region only 12.2% of the women had been in such a state. The iron region also contained 46.9% of the former farm labor- ers and 38.8% of the former domestics where the copper region held only 16.7% of the farm laborers and 2.4% of the domestics. The Slovenian figures for those settling in the two differ- ent regions are also quite different, though not as extreme .mu0moccHS mcwpsaocw .maco coflmou coma map How mum mousmfim « In n.H in «.mm m.m~ ~.mv pea Hmuoe II II II m.mm o.m m.¢m Hm £mfl©m3w it II it It m.m~ v.05 hm cmwco>on .. m.~ I- m.>H m.n m.me ca smacafim II o.N It m.mm m.m¢ N.NH me coaumouu Honuo maesmm mawcflz mowumoeoo mcweumm II CH mommz usosuwz Ho Spas mcflxnoz unwouom :oflummdooo usonuwz mcfluuomom comm unmouom Honfisz .mmadfim QmBHZD mmB OB UZHZOU mmommm «mMA¢me zmomIZOHmmOm m0 ZOHB.H¢ m.¢m vm cmflco>on H.> In In v.H~ h.om n.0a mm smflaom m.aH .. .. o.ma m.eH v.~m Hm cmflmmsuoz II In It m.m h.mm o.om om Hmammz o.om m.mH In o.v h.oa o.mm ms CMHHMDH .z in It I: m.mH m.m m.>n on Smwccflm o.oa o.oa in o.mH I: o.mm om nmflamcm II In In v.m >.mH o.Hm we coaumonu nonuo mcfl3om mcflcflz moflummeon mcHEHmm In cH momm3 usonuflz Ho spas maflxuoz unmouom COADMQSUOO usonuHS mcfiuuommm oomm unmoumm Honfisz ma.wm9¢6m DMBHZD mmB OB UZHZOU mmowmm smquzmm zmomIZUHmmOh ho ZOHBo -oo.mHm -om.~Hm um>o GOHH vH he ma vm on em mm ma wmm om.ham loo.me Hommou .UopsHOGH uoa em mm vw mm mw mm ma «5 mam oo.me tom.NHw HOOH on as can no: on mmusmHm . amonlo>flumz smflpo3m xm>on coaco>on zmflaom .z .cmwamuH smflccflm nmfiamcm ameumonu cmfipmcmo .MflflZ Mm BZDOE QmHhHUmmm mofim UZHZMANN mmmwoqmzm "Mn—”<2 m0 *BZMUMmm .w mnmfifi mm 34 infraction. Joseph Tambourini dared to tell others his political views in 1899 at the Chapin Mine. His views apparently were not in line with management's and he was fired, being forced to move off the company's property and sell his livestock in the middle of winter. The superin— tendent of the mine was sending a clear signal to the miners that they could be easily fired for any reason. Tambourini nevertheless quickly found work as a logger for the rest of the winter and when Spring came, he built a house high on a hill above the superintendent's home. In this way, if the superintendent looked north, he would be forced to look up, not down, to Tambourini. Tambourini literally 56 Other immigrants "moved up" within the mining community. were not as lucky as Tambourini, who managed to remain in the community as a garbage collector for the rest of his life. For most, being fired meant moving to a new com— munity and often to a new range. Those with a particularily outstanding reputation were fortunate enough to make the company's blacklist and were usually forced to move from Michigan if they desired to continue mining. Though most would probably have claimed otherwise, employers were indifferent toward their workers. The life or death of an immigrant meant little to them. What was important to the company was the amount of work accomplished. ". . . sometimes they'd have an accident and you had to wait until the end of the shift to get the men out. They couldn't stop working . . . . A life just didn't mean any- 57 thing. You had to keep on working," recalled Delia Johnson. Wilmer Johnson explained further, " . . . they didn't 35 even stop the skip. They said, 'Wait until quitting time.‘ See? Because what they done was, the skip was going, they were hauling the ore up, they never had no cages to put on the side. So they figured that would be delaying, taking the bodies up."58 Nothing was allowed to interfere with the rhythm of drilling, blasting, and hauling. Bodies could be taken care of soon enough at quitting time. The small respect mine policy paid its workers weighed heavily on the minds of many immigrants and still bothers many of them living yet today. Martin Loukinen remembered, "if a man carelessly injured a mule or caused it to die, [he] was fired . . . the company would say it had to buy a mule but a man could 59 The death of a mule cost the company money be replaced." to replace but the cost of replacing a man was cheap. There was usually a good supply of replacement immigrants available. Here one might use the same reasoning used by the company when charging its miners two times the cost for supplies necessary to the trade. Men were necessary to the mining trade and by using immigrants, an employer was waste- ful with his supply of them because they were plentiful and came quite cheap. Had the available manpower been fewer in number, the cost to the company would have been greater and employers would have been more careful in their use of them. Unfortunately, immigrant workers were in no po- sition to charge double for their labor, and remained a cheap supply for companies. 36 Accidents and Death and Medical Benefits "'Although this is a small city there are 16 mines . . . rare is the day that some- one isn't hurt in my time here several men have died in the mines I have worked in the mines for 3 months and I know the work well what it is like.'" Finn writing home from Negaunee, 191061 To this immigrant and many others like him, the dangers of mining were well-known; deaths occurred frequently enough to remind them of the hazards of their occupation and price they might pay to earn a fortune in America. County-wide, there was at least one death per month in any year though quite often the number was two deaths per month for men killed while engaged in mining. At the risk of appearing as cal- lous as a company, however, one must point out that com- pared to the number of men employed in mining, the num- ber of those actually killed is surprisingly low. One would expect a much larger number. In Table 5, one can see that for the years selected, the highest number of fatalities was 8.4 per 1,000 employees but the average number falls closer to 5 deaths per 1,000 employees. Iron mining seems to have been slightly more dangerous than copper mining as is pointed up by a Finnish writer in 1904, possibly advising a friend he had made a wrong decision to work in iron country. I would have gone to look at better places than the iron mines no human being can last long in them it's difficult in them and the work full of disease only those who don't dare to get better jobs work there they gan't know anything but bad of America. No matter what statistics report about number of 37 c30cxc5 aa mama o.m mchm ca mama c.m bmcc cm coma ACOHHV m.e onm HH mmmH ouumsoumz m.m mmvv «N aama c.h cmov mm Noma m.m cmcm «a coma v.c Ncmm om mmma ACOHHV c.m amwm ma amma Oanwmoo a.m cma.va vv Ncma m.N ahmsma cm coma m.o mama we mmmH .umdaoo. o.m owes Hm mmmH coonmsom moomoamEm coc.a mmmMOamEm moauaamumm How» Nmmmmw mom moauaamumm ac .mm