Sepäntalo

Jämsä village Toholampi

Sepäntalo (the blacksmith´s house), once called “a grand house”, is still located at Karjapuro brook in the village of Jämsä. A birch alley led to the courtyard area which – in addition to the solid, high main building from 1877 – featured a sawmill, a smithy and other outbuildings. Even 600 timber trunks were needed to build the main building, which was then coated with wide, hand-planed vertical boards and painted yellow. The large multipurpose kitchen-living room was spacious and light and its walls were lined with smoothed boards, which was rare in those days. The walls of the other rooms were also lined. In the early days, the fireplace in the corner of the kitchen-living room was so big that several men could sleep on it.

Four brothers known as energetic professionals and entrepreneurs lived in the house. The second youngest of the brothers, Sakri Järvenoja (1835–1885), was a renowned blacksmith. The guns he made were sold throughout Finland. They were sought after especially among sealers. In addition, Sakri repaired guns and forged nails that were used in, for example, building the church of Toholampi.

Even the drying barn of Sepäntalo reflects the wealth of the house: it was unusually high with two beams on top of each other. The windmill was also high compared with the simple post mills typical of the region. The frame saw was powered by the windmill. In around 1870, the innovative brothers built a frame saw at the brook near their house, harnessing waterpower for this saw. At this time, the brothers were already actively involved in trade. Later on, they started to use wind-power again at the sawmill and finally purchased a locomobile to be used as a power unit. Juho Järvenoja was principally in charge of the sawmill operations. Boards and planks were transported with the brothers’ horses from the sawmill to Himanka and shipped from there further to world markets. It is said that the Järvenoja brothers kept precise – but not too strict – order in their house. Maids and farmhands enjoyed working there because the conditions were relatively good particularly for hard-working servants.

Stories

The blacksmith Sakri Järvenoja was among the top shooters in the entire region of Ostrobothnia, which also proved the high quality of the guns he made. In a competition arranged in Kokkola, Sakri is said to have shot three bullets to the bull’s-eye, even to the same hole. The referees did not notice or even believe this first. But Sakri took offence and asked them to dig out the bullets. There were three bullets on top of each other. He is also said to have shown a sceptical customer how the gun he made works. The customer asked Sakri to adjust the gun because he did not hit the target well enough. Sakri took the gun and shot a sparrow on the roof from 60 metres, stating that “it is actually the man who needs adjusting, not the gun” (Kujala 2011, 111–112).

The story goes that even in the late 1800s they believed in Sepäntalo that the soul of a deceased person remains among the relatives for 40 days, in other words, the same period that Jesus spent among his relatives after Resurrection. It was believed that the prayers read for the deceased during this period were effective. As far as is known, in Sepäntalo they read, for example, the writings of the German mystic Jakob Böhmen (1575–1624), of which handwritten Finnish translations existed. Legend has it that a certain deceased person had locked the door of Sepäntalo and made noises in the attic (Kotila 1978, 8). Of the Järvenoja brothers, especially Jaakko was a mystic. “The mystics emphasised praying and daily repentance” (Suur-Lohtajan historia II, 356).