Miners Memorial Project research almost complete by TSHS

Miners Memorial Project research almost complete by TSHS

By Elaine McGillivray

TOWER/SOUDAN – Volunteers from the Tower-Soudan Historical Society (TSHS) continue to work on documenting a list of men who died in, at, or near the Soudan Mine from 1884 to 1957. Documentation is almost complete on the list of 143 men, with only seven needing further documentation.

Andy Larson, former president of the Tower Soudan Historical Society and retired Soudan Mine interpreter for 27 years, created the original list of those who died. In recent years, volunteers have found death records, newspaper articles, cemetery records, and documentation from books on mining accidents for most of the men.

Much of this information was found at the Iron Range Research Center in Chisholm. Family members have also sent photos, obituaries, and stories. The TSHS research volunteers are seeking documentation on the cause of death for just seven more men (see below).

This project started a few years ago as a collaboration between the Tower-Soudan Historical Society and the Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park. The goal is to have the information on the men who died available to the public at the Dry House Visitor Center at the state park and at the Tower Train Depot Museum.

The TSHS volunteers are working with Sarah Guy-Levar, interpretive supervisor at the park. The park interpretive program has provided high-quality archival binders, paper, and sleeves to preserve the information. Later this month, the volunteers will start copying the materials for insertion into the new binders. Breitung Township has generously offered their copy machine and ink free of charge for the copying.

The documentation will be available for the public to view at the grand reopening of the park this summer and as soon as possible after Memorial Day at the Train Depot Museum. Note: If you are interested in touring the underground mine, the underground tours for the general public will resume on Saturday, May 25.

The second phase of the project is to erect a monument at or near the state park commemorating those who gave their lives in the important job of providing iron ore to our country. The men to be honored died of injuries sustained in the Soudan Underground Mine, in the adjacent open pit mines, or on the nearby property and railroad.

The third phase of the project will be to have the data in the binders digitized for the University of Minnesota Digital Library.

Below are the names of the seven men for whom there is no documented cause of death. Excellent documentation would be a death record, but a search has occurred for the death records at Breitung Town Hall, to no avail.

Other documentation could be found at ancestry.com, familysearch.com, or other online resources. The volunteers wonder if there are archives from the Oliver Iron Mining Company and where they might be. Records have been sought from the Soudan Hospital, where many of the men died, but records weren’t available for the correct dates.

Andy Larson found a cause of death in his original research (see list), but the volunteers have not found corroborating documentation. Note that there are cemetery records (found at lakevermilion.net/cemetery records) or Find a Grave records for all of the men except William H. Brown. But these records do not give a cause of death.

The remaining survivors are listed below by name, date of death, cause of death, and current documentation:

  • Mike Berger, DOD June 25, 1895, killed in mine; cemetery record
  • William H. Brown, DOD July 7, 1884, Breitung Pit cave-in; no documentation
  • Frank Carlson, DOD, November 28, 1897, killed in #1 shaft; cemetery record
  • Charles Johnson, DOD March 27/29, 1897, killed in #1 shaft; cemetery record and Find a Grave
  • Matt Johnson, DOD April 28, 1896, killed in #5 pit; cemetery record; and Find a Grave
  • Jon Ross, DOD January 7, 1897, killed in Alaska shaft; cemetery record; and Find a Grave
  • John Sackrison/Sakrison, DOD May 31, 1900, killed in mine; cemetery record

If you have information to document a cause of death for any of the men above, please send copies of the documents to the Tower-Soudan Historical Society at P.O. Box 465, Tower, MN 55790, or scan your information and email it to towersoudanhs@gmail.com.

Likewise, if you have ideas about where the research volunteers might find this information, contact the TSHS as noted above or by calling 218-750-7514.

When the binders are complete, the research volunteers plan to include some stories about the men who died. The data reveals a number of interesting facts. People will say, “A lot of Finns worked in the mines.” Indeed, 51 percent of those who died were Finns, followed by 34 percent who were Austrian (the Austro-Hungarian Empire included Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Croatia), and 24 percent were Swedish.

Sadly, seven teenagers (ages 16 to 19) died while working in or near the mine. A father and son died two months apart.

And there are a few humorous stories. Elias Houtahla, who died in 1892, is said “to have been engaged to the notorious Finlander Kate.” (From the Vermilion Iron Journal of December 1, 1892.)

Another story is how many names some of the men had, depending on the source material. The author’s great-grandfather, Matti Soderena/Sooger, was one of them. He died on April 25, 1894, by falling 200 feet down the elevator shaft. He is an example of the men who had many names attributed to them, depending on the source information:

  • Death record at Breitung Town Hall: Mat Sercos
  • The Vermilion Iron Journal article on his death: Matt Sookran
  • Cemetery Record: Mati Sooknan
  • FamilySearch.com: Matti Soderena
  • Family research: Matti Soderena/Sooger

The photo in this article is of Swan Branwall. His granddaughter, Barb Burgess, is one of the TSHS research volunteers, and his daughter, Arlene Olson, lives in Virginia and remembers the day her dad died.

Swan Branwall died on April 16, 1940, just short of his 38th birthday. He was an electrician at the Soudan Mine. He made a misstep on the 12th level of the Alaska Shaft and fell 50 feet. The fall resulted in injuries from which he later expired (language from the Tower Weekly News of April, 1940).

Elaine Sooger McGillivray is from a family of Finnish immigrant miners. Besides her great-grandfather, her maternal grandfather, Albert Kainula, worked at the Milford Mine near Crosby; her grandfather, Matti Sooger, worked at mines near Eveleth and Virginia; and her father, Oscar Sooger, was a truck mechanic for the Oliver Iron Mining Company in Virginia. All of these men were born in Finland. Her father-in-law (Rodrick McGillivray, Scottish) worked as a security guard and in the commissary for the Oliver Iron Mining Company in Virginia. Elaine and her husband, Peter, are both from Virginia. After living in the Twin Cities for 40 years, they recently retired to Lake Vermilion Tower.

Article was originally published in Hometown Focus.