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Jussi K. and Olga S. Kangas papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: S6064

Scope and Contents

The Kangas papers provide a look at individuals enrolled and employed at the Work People's College located in a neighborhood of Duluth called Smithville. In the 1920s a Work People's College guest and house mother named Olga Johansson met and married Jussie Knute Kangas a teacher of bookkeeping at the college.

The collection consists of photographs (1921-1942) of the Work People's College buildings, students, classrooms, dining hall, a friend of the Kangases, a picnic at Fairmount park (1926, Cliff Studios), a 1920’s photograph and a postcard (mailed March 22, 1926) of the Duluth Central high school building, and two undated photos of the Finnish-American Athletic Club. Additionally, there is an undated photograph of the Duluth skyline and a 1942 photo of a pile of scrap iron for the WWII war effort in Kettle River. The snapshots were exposed either by the Kangas’s or their College friends.

The origin or photographer of the 8x10 images of the College classrooms is not known.

The Work People’s College opened in 1903 in Minneapolis, but due to the lack of Finnish students it was moved to Duluth. Finnish American Socialists supported the school, and by 1908 had gained total control changing the name from Finnish People's College to Work People's College. In 1914, the issue of industrial unionism caused a split in the Finnish Socialist Federation and the Work People’s College became an IWW school, which it continued to be until it ceased holding classes in 1940. The property was liquidated in 1962.

At its peak, in the school year of 1913-1914, Work People's College had a student body of approximately 150.

The main school building still stands, functioning as an apartment building at 402 west 88th avenue south. Records of the Work People's College (Tyovaen Opisto) span 1904-1962 and are located at the Immigration History Research Center, an archives on the Minneapolis campus of the University of Minnesota in the Elmer L. Andersen Library. A complete inventory of the records is available. http://www1.umn.edu/ihrc/inventories/FINwpc.htm

Dates

  • 1921-1942

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for use in the Kathryn A. Martin Library, Archives and Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

This collection may be protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials. Researchers may quote from the collection under the fair use provision of the copyright law.

Biographical / Historical

Olga Sofia Johansson (in her twenties) and Jussie Knute Kangas met at the Work People's college in the 1920s. The school was located at Smithville, a Duluth neighborhood, where Jussi Kangas was employed as a bookkeeping teacher.

Before Olga was two years old, her father, Enoch Johansson, left his wife and children and fled Finland for Sweden and then Canada to evade a four year prison term. Olga and her siblings were placed in an orphanage after they were found abandoned - or alone - in "a shack" while their mother, Eva Johansson, was working in a factory.

Details of Olga's childhood before and after the orphanage period are not known. Olga lived in Helsinki with her brother Vilho Johansson where she attended school through ninth grade and was subsequently employed by an island truck-gardening firm. During the Finnish civil war she worked as a nurses aide on a hospital train, but was captured by the “whites” and marched to a concentration camp where she nearly starved. She was paroled "after some months" and found work in a coffee shop. Her eldest sister, Hilja, emigrated to America from where she encouraged Olga to join herself and her husband. Olga's parents purchased her steamship ticket for America in 1920, and she reached Ellis Island when she was 20 years old. It is not known when she reached Duluth, but she was employed as a hotel maid at Hotel Lenox in Duluth's downtown. She found a community in the Finnish American Athletic Club and Work People's College participating in theatrics, choral performances, and reading pacifist poetry.

After several years Olga met and married Jussi Kangas who was teaching bookkeeping at the Work People's College (Tyovaen Opisto 1904-1940) a Finnish Folk School. During these years she wrote articles for the Industrialisti, the IWW newspaper in Finnish.

Jussi Kangas (born August 16, 1896), had several years of education at Valparaiso University in Indiana becoming an auditor for the Co-operative Movement in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Jussi and Olga Kangas parents made a trip to Finland "to transport a draft-dodger to a jail cell in his homeland". Their son, John, was born about a year later, on December 26, 1930. Jussi died at age 36 in 1932 of scarlet fever and pneumonia when the baby, John Omar Kangas, was about 18 months old.

Olga cared for her sister and her sister's twins, and she returned to work as a maid in Duluth. Olga "was fired and blacklisted in Duluth for union organizing activities" and moved to Cromwell, Minnesota just south of Duluth, to work in a Co-op store. She was a reporter for the Co-op Builder and Osuustoiminta Lehti publications.

Olga met her second husband, Charles Alexander Hill, (born March 6, 1897), who was the manager of the Cromwell Co-op Garage. They married in 1941, and the three years, relocated to Kettle River, Minnesota where Charlie worked as a powerhouse operator at KR REA. Olga's mother, Eva Gustava Helsted Johansson (1858-April 1948) and one sister lived with them.

Olga and Charlie moved to Lake Worth, Florida near the Finnish-American Hall (Kenta Iiaali) when Charlie retired. Charlie died August 23, 1977. Olga died September 16, 2000, at a Finnish-American rest home in Lake Worth, Florida.

The Kangases biographical information was supplied by their son, John O. Kangas.

Extent

23.00 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Kangas papers provide a look at individuals enrolled and employed at the Work People's College located in a neighborhood of Duluth called Smithville. The collection consists of photographs (1921-1942) of the Work People's College buildings, students, classrooms, dining hall, a friend of the Kangases, a picnic at Fairmount park (1926, Cliff Studios), a 1920’s photograph and a postcard (mailed March 22, 1926) of the Duluth Central high school building, and two undated photos of the Finnish-American Athletic Club. Additionally, there is an undated photograph of the Duluth skyline and a 1942 photo of a pile of scrap iron for the WWII war effort in Kettle River.

Physical Location

This collection is located at the University of Minnesota Duluth Archives. For more information about this collection or to make an appointment, contact us at libarchives@d.umn.edu or 218-726-8526.

General

This collection is part of the Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections, which are housed in the University of Minnesota Duluth Archives at the Kathryn A. Martin Library.

Title
Guide to the Jussi K. and Olga S. Kangas papers
Author
Finding Aid Authors: P. Maus.
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Collecting Area Details

Contact The University of Minnesota Duluth Archives and Special Collections Collecting Area

Contact:
Kathryn A. Martin Library
University of Minnesota Duluth
416 Library Drive
Duluth MN 55812-3001
(218) 726-8526