Port Arthur Workingmen’s Association: Imatra No. 9
Part of Finlandia Club collection
Consists of minute books, account books, and membership of the Workingmen's Association, including executive, entertainment committee, and sickness and funeral relief fund.
Part of J P Bertrand Collection
Photographs of Bertrand's travels in Northwestern Ontario and Northern Minnesota, probably 1940s and 1950s. Includes Kakabeka Falls, the Port Arthur Waterfront, and several reproductions of unidentified older portrait photographs.
Most subjects are not identified in any way.
Photographic prints; negatives are also described as #13d.
The collection consists of legal files and documents, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and drawings from the legal firm Wink & Cameron (Port Arthur). The collection consists of the following series:
Records of Reverend Toivo Johannes Pajala (1903-1972), minister of Saalem Pentecostal Church.
Toivo Pajala was born Dec 31, 1903, in Vimpeli, Finland. His family was Lutheran, with some ties to the Pentecostal Church. Pajala migrated to Canada at age 19, and was in Port Arthur at least by 1923. For many years he made a living as a bushworker.
Religion became an important part of Pajala's life: he became Laestadian, then Pentecostal. He attended the Western Bible College in Winnipeg for two years, and then was ordained in 1946 in Toronto. He married his wife Sylvia in 1949 shortly before returning to Port Arthur.
From 1949 to 1963, Pajala was pastor of Saalem Finnish Pentecostal Church in Port Arthur. In 1951, he established a Finnish-language Pentecostal radio program on CKPR, particularly reaching bushworkers and others in rural areas, and people unable to leave their homes. He was also well known for supporting immigrants to the region, and providing funeral services when others would not.
Pajala spent 1963-1967 as a pastor in Waukegan, Illinois. After 1967, he officially retired, and returned to Port Arthur, where he was still active in the church. His death was in 1972.
Most of the records in this fonds relate to either Pajala's religious education in the 1940s (organized by class or by notebook) or the sermons he gave in Finnish or English, in Port Arthur and by radio (organized loosely by theme.)
The last few files of the fonds relate to a project after Pajala’s death: to interview those who knew him and memorialize him. The book “Kansanpappi Toivo Pajala,” written by Tellervo Kähärä and available in the Library, is a result of that work.
Part of Finlandia Club collection
Account books and minute books of the Finnish Building Company, an organization formed in 1909 to raise funds for the construction of the Finnish Labour Temple (Big Finn Hall) at 314 Bay Street.
The Finnish Socialist Local: Port Arthur
Part of Finlandia Club collection
Minute books, account books, and membership books for the Port Arthur Finnish Socialists Local. Includes records of the sewing society, entertainment committee, and theatrical society.
Thunder Bay Finnish Canadian Historical Society collection
A vast and varied collection of records documenting the experiences of Finnish immigrants to Northwestern Ontario. Includes correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, interviews, published material, and ephemera. The photograph collection is extensive and covers a wide range of subjects.
The records are arranged into the following series:
A - Bay Street Project
B - Finnpraxis Project
C - Collections
D - Photographs
E - Miscellaneous
F - Finnish Experience
William Fitzgerald Langworthy collection
Photographs and documents, generally collected because they would be of interest regarding the history of Port Arthur and Fort William. Includes rail and CPR, ships, fishing, and social and sporting groups.