Spencerites in Russia

Bill: Andy Salo came to Spencer from Scotia, and I can remember his wagon, he had those b-i-g spoke wheels and they were about 5 feet higher than anything else we had. He brought them from Scotia.  I'll never forget pitching those wheat bundles and oat bundles on that high wagon. and you had to throw an extra to get them on. That was hard work in those days. Andrew was a hard working man and a very good businessman. He made money buying heifers in the spring and pasturing them all summer and selling them in the fall to dairy farmers as heifers ready to freshen. Andy Salo became brainwashed and he became a very ardent communist. 

George: When we were baling hay up there at the end of the day he's got to go to the hotel and get some of that Indian Beer.

B. He became a hopeless alcoholic. He was a real good guy. But he became a staunch communist I would never want to work for him because the worst kind of guy to work for was a staunch communist. He had absolutely no -­

J. Who talked them into it? They weren't originally communists, were they?

B. I don't think he was. You had those agitators. that were paid by the Russian Government to go - they got $50 per person they got to go to Russia. None of those agitators ever went, but they got people to go. Wendelas went from here.

J. Who all went from here?

B. They were about the only - and Victor Rajala from South Danby.

 J. Did they come back?

B. No. After two letters from there Victor Rajala was my mother's cousin. After that they disappeared. Nobody ever heard a word from them. Wendelas came back, because Grace, Hill she later became Wendela, - she did not throw her passport away like a lot of other people.

R. A lot of people went and threw their passports over into the water - but she was smart enough to know -­

B. They were not all Finns that went there, - there were many Americans that went there.

 R. That's why this movie "Reds" is so interesting.

B. I can remember telling Bill Wendela, Grace was a teacher in Crumtown, and she boarded at Niemi's when she taught school in District #6, and my Dad said, "why do you want to go there?  (Russia) to that God forsaken place when you are doing so well here. And he was in a very good position, here he wore those big overalls. He status symbol was his checkbook hanging over - - to let people know that he had money in the bank. He was one of the very early egg producers in the area.

R. And so when they came back she left and she had this little old farmhouse, and she went to New York or somewhere to work - and they had nowhere to come to. And when they came back, they sent the children over to ask for kerosene for the lamps, and whatever they had to have to start with. They had nothing. They were absolutely broke. Bill himself, Mr. Wendela, would never show himself to my father. But they sent the children over to ask for things. I remember that so plainly.

J. Did they pay you back later on?

R. No. The only thing we ever got - Grace had brought from Russia some funny tan hats, you know, and she came and brought them to my sister and me and I supposed it was to pay back for some of the things. We wouldn't wear those things. They were totally broke.

 R. Some of those people went through hard times. Some of them, of course, never got back. Some wound up in labor camps, salt mines - This couple noticed that so many of their friends were disappearing, and they decided to try to get back. We know quite a few people from Karelia who lost their homes from the later war and one couple, she was from there, and they went back a couple of years ago. And where her parents were buried, the tombstones in the cemetery had been taken and used for building and whatever - so she said she knew where the cemetery was, but there were no markers left. We have a friend who is an auto dealer. The Russians come over and buy a car a pay for it with American Dollars. They buy all the parts to go with it to last a long time.