Blacksmith Leander Nisula

Kirkkotie 143 Toholampi

Leander Nisula (1888–1975) was a member of the Nisula master blacksmith family. The Nisula blacksmiths had worked at ironworks in different parts of Finland, also as steel fixers for canal ships and gates at the Saimaa Canal. They were known as skilled manufacturers of scythes, hatchets and axes, and their products were sold throughout Finland. Leander, who had learned his trade from his father, grandfather and uncle, practised the profession of blacksmith for six decades. He made and repaired tools, and as his skills developed, he forged scythes and other utensils. Leander also designed and made the gates of Toholampi church and graveyard. He was buried in the same graveyard.

Leander was known as a clairvoyant, storyteller and a versatile man in many ways. He forecast the weather and was able to tell about local history because of his good memory. Leander’s familiarity with local affairs is also demonstrated by the fact that in 1952 he served as a guide on the journey of exploration led by the folklorist Erkki Ala-Könni. Leander also assisted in autopsies. In his smithy, he had to defreeze the corpses of soldiers killed in the Winter War before they were put into coffins and buried in the soil of Toholampi.

Stories

Eino Isohanni (1978, 238) wrote in his book Vanhaa Toholampea that “above all the blacksmith Leanteri Nisula described in a surprisingly skilful, illustrative and vivid manner how the economic life of the municipality prospered”. He regarded this as the result of local land clearing, tar burning, potash cooking, and iron manufacturing as well as the hard work of skilled artisans, blacksmiths, brass founders, painters, and carpenters.

Based on oral lore, the blacksmith Leander told about his ancestors’ times when church discipline was strict. After committing a crime and having been to prison or subject to whipping, offenders still had to sit on the punishment bench (aka “black bench”) throughout the church service and confess their sins to the parishioners. Only after that was the offender allowed to return to the congregation. Leander told about a certain horse thief from Toholampi who, relieved after sitting on the black bench, stated that he “was God’s cousin again, just like the others” (Alaspää 1963, 11).

According to Leander, priests used to supervise the moral behaviour of young parishioners strictly. If there was reason to suspect that a child had been conceived before marriage, the priest would send the couple to the black bench on the following Sunday. After the black bench punishment, a public confession would be heard, followed by a pardon and readmission to the congregation (Alaspää 1963, 11).

Photos

The church gate by Leander in summer 2018

Leander’s grave

Leander’s gate at the old graveyard

Leander Nisula (Kotitanhuvilta)

Map