By J. Eric (Lassi) Lassila

Chassell High School

Ninth Grade

My great-grandfather, John Gust Lassila was born only 12 miles from downtown

Helsinki, Finland on July 25, 1884. He was the first born son of John and Liisa

(Katajamaki) Lassila. A year later John was joined by a sister, Saimi Mary.

In 1889, at age five, John immigrated to the United States, with his family.

They came over by ship and docked in New York. From New York they took

the train to Arnheim, Michigan, where his family homesteaded a small farm.

They felt quite at home because there were other families of Finnish descent

living in the area. They raised chickens and used horses to clear and plow the

land.

On September 12, 1895 John was given a brother, Emil. A few years later John had

a new sister, Vieno. The family moved to Klingville, a farming community, five miles

south of Chassell, Michigan. John was lucky enough to attend grammar school in

Jacobsville, across the Portage Canal. When the canal was open and free of ice he

would row across in a small boat. During the winter he would ski across with other

children from the area.

While in his late teens and early twenties John worked at the Jacobsville stone quarry.

He was a crane operator, loading huge blocks of sandstone onto ships. These sandstone

blocks were shipped as far away as New York City for buildings. Many of the buildings

in downtown Houghton and other Copper Country cities are built with these red sandstone

blocks as well. John later spent four years laying rails for the Duluth - South Shore and

Atlantic Railroad, which had come under the control the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company

in 1890.

He must have been living in Jacobsville, because the family members tell me that

it was during this time that John moved across the Portage Canal and built a small log cabin

in Klingville. This log home was disassembled in the early 1970's and moved further up the

Klingville Road. It was reassembled and still remains a family home, although you can no

longer tell that it was once a log cabin.

He was also a founding member of the Chassell Strawberry Growers Association, Inc.,

which was founded in 1936. When the local market could no longer handle the surplus

of strawberries a delegation of local strawberry farmers was sent to Bayfield, Wisconsin

to see if the Chassell area could join in their strawberry shipping organization. Today

the Chassell Strawberry Growers Association is responsible for the annual Strawberry

Festival in July. Chassell strawberries were loaded unto raillroad cars and shipped to

Bayfield, Wisconsin and from there all over the country. Each strawberry farmer had his

own stamp. When the berries were brought to the railroad station the farmer's stamp was

marked on each flat of berries he brought in.

Early farmhouses burned wood, both for cooking and heating. While carrying wood into

his sister's farmhouse, John slipped on some ice and hit his head. John Gust Lassila died

on January 14, 1970 of a cerebral hemorrhage due to this fall.

I am sorry that I never had the chance to talk with my great-grandfather. I can only rely

on stories that my father, grandfather and Aunt Rose have told me. In time I will be able

to tell these stories to my children.