See what was the number one topic of conversation in your hometown in 1866

A clip from the Suometar newspaper, which tells about the election of a valioman in Parikkala in 1866. — As the name suggests, the local letter told about the affairs of one’s locality. In Parikkala, the heated election administration spoke.

The National Library has published a database containing 72,000 local letters.

Emotions boiled over when a representative was elected in Parikkala for the Diet of 1867:

*\”There would be nothing excellent to say about this matter, but the ukos were much more lively than in the old days. So the election took place with great shouting and noise.\”*

An article written in Fraktuura appeared in *Suometar* magazine in November 1866.

It was a so-called local letter. It was sent by the pseudonym J. It was probably a priest, maybe a schoolmaster, a locksmith or a scribe. In any case, a person with writing skills who had been monitoring the election coverage.

He wasn’t an actual journalist, but helped *Suometar* by sending small reviews of local events. They could be related to the weather, the amount of the harvest or other aspects of life. The essential thing was that the matter told about the events of Parikkala.

An old envelope with the words Suomettare. A red postmark on the closing flap. — The local letter was sent in an envelope with postage paid by the newspaper.

In the 19th century, Finnish-language newspapers were full of similar local letters and they were mailed all over the country.

Newspapers literally lived on local letters. Running a newspaper was not yet a professional activity, but the magazine was done as a calling and as a sideline. Helpers sending local letters were worth their weight in gold.

The first local letters appeared in the 1820s, but the real boom began in the middle of the century. The international political situation had an effect in the background: the year 1848 was the so-called *Europe’s crazy year*, as a countermeasure, several censorship laws were enacted in Finland as well. Newspapers were not allowed to publish anything other than Christian or financial matters. Local letters passed censorship.

The local letters were so popular that thanks to them, new newspapers started to appear. 1851 started *Sanomia from Turku*, 1852 *Oulu Wiikko-Sanomat*. A little earlier, the Kuopio native *Maamiehen yvästa* had been established. The elitist *Suometar* changed his style to become more popular with local letters. Even the state’s official newspaper *Suomen Julkisia Sanomia* ran on the power of local letters.

You can search the database for articles about your home municipality, for example. The letters date back to 1885.

You can access the database here.