The Karlings of Wakefield
Our Story
The Karling family is a work of art - a mosaic of people in a rich and infinite variety. But no matter how different we may appear, we have one very important thing in common: a shared heritage as descendants of Zacharias Karling and Susanna Lohikoski Karling.
Why Did the Karlings Come to Michigan?
The primary reason Finnish immigrants chose to immigrate to the US was for the job opportunities that were extremely scarce in Finland, a dream to earn money to buy a farm, a need to escape from increasingly anti-Finnish policies imposed by the Russian Duchy that ruled Finland, and a cultural connection to the land. (Researching - more to come)
Zacharias Juhonpoika Karling
Zacharias Karling was born in Rantsila, Finland to Juho Eerikinpoika (John) and Vappu (Walpuri) Karling.
The C(K)arling family had been a famous military family from the beginning of 1700. Finland was for centuries a part of Sweden, and then Russia. All Swedish kings were very aggressive and had wars ongoing somewhere. They attacked Russia, Baltic countries, Denmark, Norway, Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and so on. During those times there were not armies in the form we know them today. In Finland, the kings ordered houses to pay one soldier (in Finnish "ruotusotamies"). The Carlings were soldiers for about 150 years. Juho Eerikinpoika was the last soldier in the family.
Zacharias left Finland in 1891 for America. He traveled from Finland to Gothenburg, Sweden, where he departed on July 10, 1891 aboard the ship Ariosto bound for Hull, England. He then departed Liverpool, England on July 16, 1891 aboard the ship Circassian and arrived in Quebec, Canada on July 25, 1891. From there, he made his way to Hancock in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, part of the Midwest's "Sauna Belt."
Shortly thereafter, he moved from Hancock to the Goegebic iron range, first settling in Ironwood for a few months. There he met Susanna Ulrika Lohikoski and the two were married on November 18, 1894. They soon moved to Wakefield Township.
In the early years of his residence in Wakefield, Zacharias worked at the Sunday Lake and Brotherton mines. However, he was a carpenter by trade and left the mines to help erect many of Wakefield's early buildings. For a time, he also served as highway commissioner and overseer of Wakefield Township before the city was organized.
(More to come ...)