Keweenaw Stories - Eddie Takala

An artist's rendering of Eddie, age nine

KHVM--00853--[Edward Takala]--ca. 1913

The Italian Hall Disaster occured on Christmas Eve 1913 in Calumet, Michigan. This is Eddie Takala's story:

As the 1913-1914 Copper Country strike entered its sixth month, the WFM Women's Auxiliary organized a Christmas Eve party at the Italian Hall. A red WFM union card was the only requirement for admission. Witness accounts of what happened varied, but most said that someone yelled "Fire!" The crowd raced for the steep stairwell. While those at the top pushed to get out, those at the bottom were smothered. Officially, 73 people died in the stairwell; over half were children under 10 years of age. Edward "Eddie" Takala was one of those children.

Eddie was nine years old, a son of Finnish immigrants Henry and Mary (Parkkinen) Takala. He lived on Iroquois Street in Laurium with his parents, four brothers, and a sister. With limited funds and a growing family, the Takalas had no photographs of their children. After Eddie's death, they commissioned an artist's rendering of their second-born son to remember him by. Several years later, they gave his first name to their youngest child.

Now more than 111 years later, and Eddie's family and community have not forgotten him. The Takala family returns to Lake View Cemetery to maintain Eddie's handmade grave marker of local sandstone. After saving his image for more than a century, they have passed it along to be preserved at the Keweenaw National Historical Park Archives.

 

A handmade stone grave marker for Eddie Takala

NPS Photo/L Webber

The stone memorial marker at the Italian Hall Memorial site.

NPS Photo/L Webber