KOIVUNIEMI

VILPPULA BREWERY

Life in the Vilppula region sprang to new life with the arrival of the railway network, to the extent that in 1880, Adolf Aminoff, the owner of Pekkala Manor in Ruovesi, together with Danish master brewer Fredrik Karl Christian Bär, decided to establish a brewery upstream from Vilppulankoski, on a farm called Peltoniemi.

After six months of building work, the two-storey brewery and a separate stone cellar were complete. Master brewer Bär moved in to live in a building built next door to the brewery, and the brewery started operations in February 1882. Soon after, in November of the same year, Bär died, and his position was taken by Otto Silverberg from Ostrobothnia.

The products of the brewery were sold widely in the Vilppula region, as far as in Murole. The sales were organised through shopkeepers, millers, farmers and farm hands. 

The brewery building burnt down in 1884, and was not replaced, so the history of the brewery turned out to be short-lived. The stone foundations of the brewery can still be seen in the yard at Koivuniemi.

FROM KLAMINNIEMI TO KOIVUNIEMI

Following the death the Adolf Aminoff in 1888, the leasehold and the buildings of Koivuniemi were bought by Aksel Matias Jaatinen, a judge of the Ruovesi district court, from the bankruptcy sale by auction of the estate. According to the inventory, the buildings comprised the main building, a smithy, a barn, a cowshed, a cellar and a smaller residential building. Its current form, the Koivuniemi main building, was acquired during Jaatinen’s ownership in the 1890s.

After Tuomas Jaatinen’s death in 1907, Koivuniemi came under Wäinö Jaatinen and, after his death,
 
Armia Jansson, a lawyer’s widower. Koivuniemi became the centre of cultural life in Vilppula. In 1919–1952, Koivuniemi was the home of the district physician Väinö Klami, who also held his surgery in the house. At that time, the estate was renamed “Klaminniemi”. Local authorities purchased Koivuniemi in 1969 and refurbished the building to serve as an adult education centre in 1987.

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1918

In 1918, Finland experienced a brutal civil war, which lasted for four months and resulted in the loss of nearly 40,000 lives.
For seven weeks from the first days of the war, Vilppula was the centre of events. The northern side of Vilppulankoski was held by the White Guard and the southern side by the Red Guard. The Finnish Civil War ended on 16 May 1918 with the victory of the White Guard and the defeat of the Red Guard.
The White Guard was led by the Finnish Senate and the Red Guard by the Finnish People's Delegation that opposed the Senate.

During the battles of Vilppula, which lasted from the beginning of February to mid-March 1918, Koivuniemi fell within the part of the front line held by the White Guard.

Following the first hostilities, the Whites extended their defence line reaching Koivuniemi.  
Like many other houses in Vilppula, Kouvuniemi was used by White Guard soldiers as a place to sleep. Sheltered by Vilppulankoski rapids, Koivuniemi was not, however, under immediate risk of being attacked. The Red Guard could only attempt to cross the rapids along the bridges and they never managed to advance across through the railway or road bridge.