MRS. INGET ,,,Dairy in Nipigon

 

NIPIGON HISTORICAL MUSEUM JANUARY 30/06

 

MRS. INGET

Resident of Red Rock/Highway 17

 

Husband: Oliver Inget

Children: Wayne, Shirley, Diana, Billy

Husband’s Parents: Magnus and Hanna Inget

 

My husband’s parents immigrated from Finland.  Magnus came to the States first and then they homesteaded here in Red Rock in 1921.  He sent for Hanna in Finland and then they were married in Thunder Bay.  They homesteaded here and they’ve had the farm here ever since.  On their honeymoon Magnus cut wood for Mr. Arolla’s Saw Mill in Hurkett and Hanna cooked there.  They also worked for Oivo Paju’s dad who had a logging business too.  Magnus passed away in 1954 and Hanna died in 1962.  Hanna worked as a maid for Magnus’ family in Finland.  When he homesteaded here he sent for her and they were married.  Magnus and Hanna started a farm here at the homestead and they sold milk to Mr. Ruoho in Nipigon.  We bought the farm from Hanna when Magnus died and we took over and sold to Ruoho’s and then Palm Dairies who bought Ruoho’s out.  We would send the milk to Thunder Bay, we would drive it to Dorion and then a truck would pick it up from Dorion, We increased the cows and started to sell more milk eventually. 

We quit farming in 1963 completely in 1963.  I came to the homestead in 1946 and have been here ever since.  We sold our older home to our son Billy and in 1986 we moved in to our house that we built here on the property. 

 

There was a lumber company in behind our property called Newago Lumber, they used to cut pulpwood there and they shipped it through the creek, they did a water drive there.  In 1940 there was a fire behind our homestead and so the Newago Co.  Was picking up all the burnt wood.  My husband worked for them as a cook, camp 11 was the name of it.  He was a kid when he started in the bush camps.  He was 14 when he quit school to go to work.  He worked for the bush camps until he joined the Air Force in World War II.  We got married in 1946 and he was discharged in March and he was in the war for four years and was discharged in march 1950.  He was 18 when he joined because at that time they were supposed to get called in but he didn’t want to get called into the army so he decided to join the Air Force to avoid the Army.  Alec Fraser was with my husband in the war and there was someone with them who had written a book on what happened to them there. 

 

I am Ukranian and I learned a little bit of Finn from Mrs. Inget and she couldn’t speak a word of English.  So we taught each other what we could and we got by pretty good.  When I listen to someone speaking Finn, I can pick out a little bit here and there but I don’t understand it the way I used to.  Most of the people that Oliver and I knew are gone now and there aren’t too many Finnish people around anymore.  They used to have May Day parade in Nipigon before, it was a celebration for peace and the Finnish people would gather for it and they had it in Finnland too.  I think they still celebrate it in Thunder Bay.