Founding Maine Finns

Peter Polvinen and Saimi Suttinen

    Aaro Petter (Peter) Polvinen, the second of seven children of Pekka Polvinen and Loviisa Kinnunen, was born at Juortana, his uncle's farm in the Vartius district of Kuhmo, on 30 Nov 1877. On 24 Oct 1899 he married Anna Liisa Heikkinen, a 21 year old farmer's daughter living in the Lentiira district of Kuhmo. The young couple had no children as Anna Liisa died of scarlet fever on 13 Nov 1901. A widower living at Petäjävaara, his father's farm in Lentiira, he was issued a passport to immigrate to America on 21 Jun 1906. He departed from Hanko aboard SS POLARIS on 4 Jul 1906, sailed from Liverpool aboard SS SAXONIA on 10 Jul and arrived at the Port of Boston on 19 Jul. His passage was paid for by Antti Romppanen, whom he was joining in West Paris, Maine.

    Saimi Maria Sutinen, the oldest of six children of Akseli Sutinen and Saara Korhonen, was born on 26 Dec 1887 on a tenant farm in the Lentua, where her parents were lodging. A 19 year old unmarried woman, she was issued a passport to immigrate to America on 3 Oct 1907. She departed from Hanko aboard SS POLARIS on 9 Oct 1907, sailed from Liverpool aboard SS BALTIC on 17 Oct and arrived at Ellis Island on 26 Oct. Her passage was paid for by her cousin, Abel Pulkkinen, whom she was to join in West Paris, Maine.

    Peter and Saimi were married in West Paris on 11 Jul 1908, with P. L. Miettinen, a clergyman from Thomaston, Maine, officiating. U.S. Census records show that they were living on a farm on Bryant Pond Road in Greenwood, Maine in 1910 and 1920, and in 1930 they were renting a house (for $10 a month) on Church Street in West Paris. Conditions improved for the by the end of the decade, as in 1940 and 1950 they owned a farm on Greenwood Road in West Paris.

     They were the parents of seven children, three of whom died before reaching the age of 11. Peter's father died in Kuhmo at the age of 59, only 5 months after his son emigrated; his mother was evacuated during the Winter War and died (and was buried) far from home in Pyhäjärvi Parish at the age of 89. Saimi's parents died of old age in Lentua; her father at 74 and her mother at 81. Peter and Saimi each had siblings follow them to North America. Saimi's sister, Hilda Kustaava Sutinen, immigrated to West Paris in 1911 and in 1927 her brother, Aukusti Sutinen, immigrated to Canada where he drowned in 1934. in 1907, Peter sponsored his brother Kalle Polvinen's immigration to West Paris.

    Peter died at the age of 73 on 27 Nov 1951 and Saimi passed at age 69 on 8 Apr 1957. They are buried together in the Finnish Cemetery on Pioneer Street in West Paris.