Stanley Sun Article

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=15% BGCOLOR="#CC99CC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="MuusKinnoin Genealogy"><U>Genealogy Home</U></A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="00c80803.png"> <div> <B><U><IMG SRC="01092f30.jpg" border=0 width="146" height="243" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></B></div> <div> <B>*Picture did not appear in newspaper*</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>F.W. Kinnoin Knows and Appreciates Good Old American Freedom</U></B></div> <div> The Stanley Sun</div> <div> Stanley, North Dakota, Thursday, December 7, 1939</div> <bR> <div>      <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >This story may stretch out.  But what if it does?  It's interesting, and probably a lot of Stanley people don't know that the quiet citizen they meet every day, F.W. Kinnoin, Stanley jeweler, missed a Russian firing squad by three days.</FONT></div> <div>      If you want to appreciate American freedom, go into Mr. Kinnoin's store some day and ask him to show you the stack of passports, permits, and licenses to merely exist that he collected in his travels over Finland, Russia, Sweden, and Germany when, in his youth, he worked at his trade of journeyman watchmaker.  He will show you a document, issued by the police department of St. Petersberg, Russia, wherein it is affirmed and sworn to the Fritchoff Kinnoin is a watchmaker and resident of so-and-so on such-and-such street.  You will also see three other stamps affixed to the document stating that this same party moved across the street at one time and down the street at another.  The first obligation was to report to the police, and if you failed to report each move you made, you just turned up missing.</div> <div>      And Mr. Kinnoin will remind you and the dates on the documents will verify his statement that the years were in the late [18]90's and early 1900's when Europe was at peace.</div> <div>      What are war conditions?  Well, Mr. Kinnoin has a sister, a nurse, who is at the front now.  He can show you a letter, written early in the summer wherein she stated that the Finns were digging trenches in the anticipation of war.  The last letter was in October and stated that she was going to the front and that the censorship would be so strict that she probably would not be able to write again until the war was over.</div> <div>      Born in Tampere, Finland, Mr. Kinnoin is familiar with the section of the country in which the war that is now stealing the headlines is being fought.  At the age of 11, it was decided for him that he was not destined to become a scholar.  Two winters in a logging camp where he branded logs and the decision was made for him that he should become a jeweler.  He was then 13 years old.  And so into a jewelry store in Tampere went our young Kinnoin, to serve an apprenticeship of five long years at no pay.  He swept the floor and polished up the place for a chance to sleep there and get his board for learning the trade.  The five years earned him a government diploma which he still has.</div> <div>      Armed with the diploma and not much money, St. Petersberg, Russia was his next stopping place.  He worked there a year at his trade and can show you the passports and various other police identification to his mounting stack.  Then followed Malmo and Gotenborg, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark shortly after.  Mr. Kinnoin recalls that he failed to get work in Copenhagen and did not remain there long.</div> <div>      1902 found Jeweler Kinnoin in Berlin, Germany, where he worked at his trade for a year and a half.  He recalls Berlin as a great city, built on a flat and not particularly beautiful.  A busy place, however and a railroad center with a beer hall every second door.  “Had a hard time getting a job there, but when you're broke, you've simply got to get a job.”</div> <div>      Back to Stockholm after Berlin and then a visit to Finland.</div> <div>      Mr. Kinnoin at this stage of the interview, selected a card from the mass of documents.  “Know what this is?” he inquired.  “Well, it's the summons for one Fritchoff Kinnoin to report for duty in the Russian army for Siberian duty.”</div> <div>      Young Kinnoin had heard about Finns in the Czar's army in Siberia and he had also heard a little about a place they called the United States.  Anyway, the year 1903 found him entangled with the immigration authorities at Ellis Island, New York.  He was detained nine days, with twelve as the deadline.  At the expiration of twelve days, if you couldn't pass, you were bundled onto a ship and sent back.  Young Kinnoin had due cause for worry.  He had six dollars, had been detained in Ellis Island for nine of the twelve days and a Russian firing squad awaited him at the end of the trip home.  Nice cheerful prospect.</div> <div>      “I had no relatives in this country, was $29 short of having the required $35 necessary to enter this country and all the English I could speak was the one sentence: `I have nothing upon which to pay duty.'”</div> <div>      But he did have letters of recommendation from the various firms he had worked for.  He still has them, and the one given him by a Stockholm firm is quoted:</div> <div>      “The watchmaker, Fritchoff Werner Kinnoin, who has been working at my workshop since November 2nd 1899 until today, has been engaged in adjusting and repairing of watches: he has been industrious and done his work to my pleasure: he has been honest in his behavior, and now of his own request he is free from his service.  Wherefore, I hereby recommend him.”</div> <div>      Whether the letters in many different languages did the trick or not, Mr. Kinnoin is not just sure, but on the ninth day, he was taken to New York and turned loose.</div> <div>      The letters of recommendation town and he saved a few dollars.  <I>(This sentence seems to make no sense, but that's what it says)</I></div> <div>      “To my amazement, I was not required to report to police and I could change my address every day if I wanted to.  Nobody molested me and I did not have the shadow of enforced military service hanging over me.  When I began to grasp what freedom really meant, I could hardly believe it.</div> <div>      “In New York, people were very kind to me and I soon began to get the language.  There was a slogan in the East in those days, `Go West, young man and grow up with the country.'  Went west as far as my funds would permit-St. Paul.  Got a job there-not easy-but the letters did the trick again.</div> <div>      “My first job in St. Paul was for $6 a week and I couldn't make ends meet.  I remember that the boss was always telling me how much $6 was in Finnish money, but that didn't seem to do me any good.  My next job was at Stillwater, salary $12 a week.  Then back to St. Paul and landed a job with Albert L. Haman, who dealt in American watches.  I worked for Mr. Haman until I had saved $600.  I worked in the workshop upstairs and did not get a chance to see how Americans did business.  I was now aiming at a store of my own.</div> <div>      “When I told Mr. Haman that I was going to quit, he wanted to know the reason, and I told him that I planned to go to North Dakota and open a store.  He informed me that he had been through North Dakota several times and that nobody lived there.</div> <div>      “Landed in Velva in 1905 and opened a store and by the time I had the store started, my $600 was a thing of the past.  Before leaving St. Paul, Mr. Haman had told me that if I ever needed help to let him know.  About the time I had the Velva store open and was out of money, Mr. Haman started in the wholesale jewelry business.  Remember that I wrote him something to the effect that I was in the jewelry business but had nothing to sell.  Immediately, he informed me that my credit was good for $1000.00.</div> <div>      “I got on the train and went to St. Paul and bought $800 worth of stock on my nerve.  The SOO started to build a railroad soon after and within four months, I had paid Mr. Haman his $800 and a lot more besides.  He died two years ago and I want to say that I bought my stock from him until the time of his death.  He was a true friend.”</div> <div>      Mr. and Mrs. Kinnoin met in 1905 and were married in 1912.</div> <div>      “That put a stop to my traveling”, said Mr. Kinnoin.</div> <div>      “Made a trip to Finland to visit my mother in 1909, and was so impressed by the contrast that I have no desire whatever to return to Europe.  Those poor people.</div> <div>      “We came to Stanley in 1917 and bought out Bruno Zimmerman.  Of all the places I have lived, I like Stanley and the people the best.  I have no desire to go any place else.  I have been in Stanley longer then any other place and it's good enough for me.”</div> <div>      And that folks, is the story of F.W. Kinnoin, except that there are two sons, Carl and Meyer.  Carl runs Carl's Lunch, is married and has two children.  Meyer is in Los Angeles, employed for a firm that manufactures airplane parts.</div> <div>      Born August 17, 1878, F.W. Kinnoin is 61 years old and enjoys the best of health.  He works every day and has no intention of quitting.  Mrs. Kinnoin works with him in the shop and they have friends all over the state.  A sticker in the window of the Kinnoin store states that he is the official watch inspector for the Great Northern railway and Mr. Kinnoin is very proud of the fact that railroad men send their timepieces to him from long distances when a repair job or an adjustment is required.</div> <div>      And of course, this piece would not be complete unless Mr. Kinnoin expressed his version of the present conflict that is taking place in the land of his birth.  For one who has been there and seen his attitude is <I>(a few words are missing)</I> for or against either side, but rather one of pity for the people who are doing the actual fighting and undergoing the hardships.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>