The Past

Businesses
Churches
Communities
Community Services
Entertainment
Ethnic Groups
 ~ Chinese
 ~ Czechoslovakians
 ~ First Nations
 ~ Japanese
 ~ Finnish
 ~ ~ Mara and the Finns
 ~ ~ Early records
 ~ ~ Koskimakis of Mara
 ~ Ukrainians
Geography
Heritage Homes
Industries
Organizations
People
Schools
Transportation

Museum page

Koskimakis of Mara

Mr. and Mrs. Koskimaki live in Enderby. They moved from Mara to Enderby in 1963, when they sold their farm to Mr.Bruns, who still farms in the same place.

Mr. Reino Koskimaki's father John Koskimaki came from Finland to Canada in 1905 with his two brothers. But a few years later Mr. J. Koskimaki went back to Finland, because his wife died. He stayed a couple of months in Finland, got married and in 1909 he came back to Canada with his new wife Anna. They had five children: Ila, Ellie, Reino, Effie and Viola.

First John Koskimaki worked in Ontario, but he didn't like it, so he decided to come to Three Valley to farm. He bought a farm in Mara and stayed there the rest of his life doing farming. Also the other one of his brothers, Herman Koskimaki, bought a farm in Mara and farmed with his wife and children.

John Koskimaki didn't speak English at the time he arrived in Canada. And learning English was hard because Finns had their own community where they had their own social life, so they didn't have to use English. They also had their own newspaper in Finnish-New York Times. Children learnt to speak English in the school, but working age peole never did propely.

Finns had their own dances, saunas, sport clubs etc. The communities were very active. They introduced to other people their steam baths, songs etc.

John Koskimaki is from Savonlinna, Finland and he came to Canada to look for work. He was 28 years old at the time. They said they came to America, not especially to Canada. At the time America was a big thing and it was really something special to go there. Finns had to come by boat and the way was very long: it took about 2-3 month to get to Canada.

Finns mainly did logging and farming and younger Finns worked on the railways. At the time they earned about eight dollars a month, but it was enough for living.

In Salmon Arm there was a big Finnish community. Also there was a large settlement of Finns who were building the CPR in Sicamous.

Mr. J. Koskimaki died in 1957 and his wife died in 1918. Mr. Koskimaki's son Reino Koskimaki farmed his father's farm until 1963. Now he lives in Enderby with his wife. He speaks both very well Finnish and English. They have children in grandchildren in Salmon Arm. Mrs. Koskimaki doesn't speak Finnish, because she is from Britain. They haven't visited Finland yet, but hopefully they will someday.

from an interview with Reino Koskimaki,
January 17, 1991

Ulpa Pullekinen
ALF School 1989