Census Journey 1

The Andersons and Kannastos of Rocklin, Placer County, California, in 1910 and 1920 --by K. Dixit

The following is part 1 of my notes taken from a journey back through time, via the U.S. Federal Census images (viewed on subscription at www.Ancestry.com)

This time, I am searching for...

• my great-grandfather, John Kannasto, who was born in Finland;
• my great-grandmother, Mary Anderson, who was born in the U.S.;
• their children, including my grandfather, William Kannasto;
• Mary Anderson's parents (who were born in Finland) and siblings.

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1910 Census, Rocklin, Placer County, California (May 6, 2002)

I decided to look in the Rocklin, California census files first, since I've been really curious to know if there were two John Kannastos in Rocklin, or just one.

My great-grandparents were called John and Mary Kannasto, and my grandfather, William Kannasto, came from Rocklin, California. This is to the east of Sacramento.

In the LDS website www.familysearch.org, a search for the name John Kannasto yields just two results -- a John Kannasto who was married to Mary Anderson (parents Oscar and Ida Anderson), and lived in Rocklin, and a John Kannasto who was married to Emma Loopakka, and also lived in Rocklin. I wondered if they might have been father and son, but I heard that John had come to America by himself as a young man, possibly when Russia invaded Finland (I'll have to check the history of Finland later and see what happened around then). (Later note: 1899 was the start of a period of resistance by the Finns, against Russian occupation.)

I wondered if the same John might have been married twice. John and Emma's children were older than John and Mary's, but John and Emma's youngest child, Albert, was born a few months after John and Mary's oldest known child, William.

Goals: to find my grandfather, William, who was born in 1908 and should be a toddler living with his parents, John and Mary Kannasto, in 1910. To find out if there is another, separate, John Kannasto, with a wife Emma and older children. Also to look for Mary's parents, Oscar and Ida Anderson.

Please note that the writing in the census images can be difficult to read, and that the official census-takers made all notations, many times from people who came from other countries. The spellings of names are therefore not necessarily the definitive spellings. It seems that it was quite common for people's names to be misspelled in the census files.

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1910 Census, Rocklin (township 9, Enumeration District 69), Placer Co., California - Sheet 6B (ancestry.com microfilm page 12)

(shown are name, relationship to head of family, age and birthplace) - throughout this report, my direct ancestors are in bold type

In one dwelling on the street Cemetery Annex:

In the occupation column, it says John Kannista/Kannasto was the proprietor of a small granite quarry, and his wife may have been the proprietress of a dry goods store (? difficult to read). Their daughter, Hilma/Helma, worked in a private house (perhaps as a maid or other such worker? - again difficult to read).  All 3 daughters, Hilma/Helma, Maniel (sp?), and Elma had been attending school within the last 6 months. Parents Emma and John had been married for 18 years, and Emma had given birth to 7 children, 4 of whom were still living.

Note after further research:  the correct names should be:  John KANNASTO (my great-grandfather John Kannasto's uncle), Emma Sophia LOOPAKKA Kannasto (they married on 9 July 1892 in Ironwood, Gogebic Co., Michigan - source www.familysearch.org IGI), Helmi/Hilma Eugenia KANNASTO, Mamie Sophia KANNASTO, Elma Esther KANNASTO and Albert Edward KANNASTO.  No information on the possible other 3 children, who had died.  This John KANNASTO was probably the uncle of my great-grandfather, John Kannasto.  One of my uncles was told that our John Kannasto was sent by his father from Finland to Rocklin, to join the father's brother, who was also called John Kannasto.

Same 1910 census, on the next page, Sheet 7A (ancestry.com microfilm page 13):

Near the John and Emma Kannastos, in one owned home on the street Ero Hamas (? -- hard to read), off Cemetery Annex:

Here are my great-great-grandparents, Oskar and Ida Anderson, and my great-grandparents, John and Mary Kannasto.

Oscar Anderson was the owner of a small granite quarry.  His son, Frank, was a granite cutter in a granite quarry, and his other sons, William and John, were labourers in a granite quarry.  His eldest daughter Mary and her husband John Kannasto (my great-grandparents), were also granite cutters in a granite quarry.  Lena was attending school.

Oscar and Ada had been married for 25 years, and had come to America around 1881 and 1885 (they may have married in 1885, after Ada arrived in America).  They must have stayed in California for a bit (their daughter, Mary, was born there), then gone to Montana, Washington, and back to California. They had had 11 children altogether, 9 or 7 (difficult to read) of whom were still living in 1910.

John Canasto/Kannasto (my great-grandfather) had come from Finland in 190-(?) - probably 1900, according to other information.  He and Mary had been married for 6 years (i.e. since about 1904), and had had 3 (?) children, 2 of whom were still living. Two-year-old William was my grandfather.

• coming soon: Family group sheet for Ida Alajoki/Johansson and Oskar (Oscar) Anderson
• coming soon: Family group sheet for Mary Anderson and John Kannasto

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Most of the neighbors of the Andersons and Kannastos were also Finnish families who worked in or owned granite quarries.

The following are excerpts from Uno Hebuck's Memories of Rocklin, found at http://www.rocklinhistory.org/ (in the "Written Histories" section):

"The town of Rocklin got its name when the Central Pacific Railroad was building their railroad through Rocklin in the early part of 1864 account of the granite quarries that were operating in Rocklin at that time and of the rocky terrain of the surrounding land.  ...

"The first Finnish family to locate in Rocklin was the John Mantyla family, who came from Finland where he learned the granite trade. ... Finding that the granite business was a good business, he was instrumental in writing to his friends in Finland of his good fortunes, hence many Finnish families left Finland for Rocklin to make their future homes. Naming a few ere:  the Pernus, Wickmans, Hebucks, Hills, Alexsons, Halonens, Peter Johnson, John Kannasto, ..."

I think the John Kannasto referred to by Uno Hebuck is not my great-grandfather, but probably his uncle. The uncle had been in California much longer, and was older, so was probably a more important member of society there. Other mentions of Kannasto (again, quite likely the other John Kannasto) in Uno Hebuck's Memories of Rocklin are:

"May 3, 1914, the last big fire to hit Front Street in Rocklin destroyed the Burchard Hotel, Morgan's Saloon, Mrs. Beasmore's Candy Store, the Porter's Saloon, a barber shop, the Porter's Livery Stable, the large Porter's Hall (upstairs over the stable), Hislop's Funeral Parlor, the Clark Building which housed the Kannasto Moving Theatre, and a vacant building next to the two story granite building that is there today."

"October 30, 1915, the beautiful John Kannasto home on South Grove Street was destroyed by fire; Mrs. Verner G. Kokkila is their daughter."

"June 17, 1922, the last of the big fires of Rocklin was on Railroad Street and south of Rocklin Road, facing the railroad tracks.  Complete losses were the Holmes Saloon, a restaurant, Kannasto's Ice Cream Parlor, a barber shop, an old rooming house, and then the large two story Southern Hotel on the corner; jumping the alley it destroyed the large Blackwell and Hendrickson's Livery Stable and their blacksmith shop, which was located at the corner of Rocklin Road and Taylor Road."

In the 1910 Rocklin Census, just down the street from our family (the Andersons and Canastos), I found the Hebuck family  -- Mr. and Mrs. Hebuck and their 8 children, including Uno (the writer of the above memories), as a boy of 12.

On another page is Verner Kokkila (mentioned in Uno Hebuck's memories, above), as a boy of 11 (?) living with his parents and 2 siblings.  It may have been one of the other John Kannasto's daughters (perhaps Maniel, 14, or Elma, 8) who later married him.  Note: on further research, it appears to have been John and Emma Kannasto's daughter Elma who married Mr. Verner G. Kokkila.  They had two children, born in 1923 and 1925.

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Rocklin, 1920 Census

Strangely, there were only 13 pages in the 1920 files for Rocklin - about half amount found in  1910. I was expecting there to be more, not less. The following families were found in the 1920 Census, California, Placer Co., Rocklin Town (Enumeration District 80), sheet #4B (ancestry.com microfilm #8), enumeration date 16 Jan 1920:

In a dwelling on Center Street:

In a dwelling on Railroad Street:

The John Kannasto who is shown as a boarder above may have been Emma's husband, though his age is about 5 years older than it should be.  Or was there a 3rd John Kannasto?

I couldn't find my great-grandparents, John and Mary Kannasto, anywhere, and some other young people seemed to be missing, too, for example Verner Kokkila, Uno Hebuck, and the Andersons' other sons.  I searched through another file which contained 23 pages and was called "Township 9, excepting Rocklin Town" thinking the other young people might have been living just out of town.  In this file, I found far fewer Finnish people, but many Japanese families - often a married couple with Japanese first and last names, born in Japan. Sometimes their children also had Japanese first names, but in more cases English-style names, such as David.  Many of the Japanese residents of the Rocklin area were farmers. There were also people from China, Scotland, Spain, other countries, and other parts of America.  No Kannastos or other missing Finnish young people, though.

I went back to read more of Uno Hebuck's Memories of Rocklin, and found the following:

"Prior to the big granite workers strike for higher pay in 1915, the granite business in Rocklin was a very successful business.   As mentioned before, the S.P. Co. quoted that in 1912 there were 1955 carloads of granite shipped out of Rocklin, indicating it was a good business. After the railroad moved in 1908, the granite business kept the town in prosperity but that strike of 1915 spelled the doom over Rocklin.  The strike was never settled; workers held on as long as they could then they were forced to leave Rocklin to other locations for employment, leaving their homes for sale at what prices they could possibly get for them.  Some homes sold as low as $800. A lot of the quarry owners lost and many closed down their plants, so today there is only one quarry operating and that is the Ruhkala Brothers.  One can say that the 1915 strike killed the granite business in Rocklin, and after World War One the town became known as a "bedroom town" for people who worked in Roseville and elsewhere."

It seems like this must be the explanation for the disappearance of John and Mary Kannasto and the other Finnish young people, and the possible halving of the town's population (judging by the reduction in the number of census sheets from 27 to 13).

I thought of looking for John and Mary and their children in nearby Roseville, but there were too many census sheets for those towns, and I couldn't be sure they would be there at all. As far as I know from other sources, the Kannasto family left Rocklin sometime between 1916 and 1932.

For now I will move on to another branch of our family.  Census Journey 2 deals with the Quackenbushes and Freemans in and around Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska.  

(note: John and Mary Kannasto and their children were later found in 1920 in Astoria, Oregon -- see Census Journey 8, not yet completed)

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