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Arne Wianter, Karl Adolph Lepisto & Svante Lampi
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This was Donated by Cheryl Webber/The Terry Girls Genealogy
Information & Translation done by Susan Sonju:
The front of the Real Photo Postcard (RPPC) States:
"Arne Wianter [Aarne Wiander] - Sparta, Minn
Karl Lepisto - Sparta, Minn
Svante Lampi - Gilbert, Minn"
All were Finnish and from St. Louis County, Minnesota. They did not serve in the same unit during the war.
The postcard was written to Ann Nikunen who was the younger sister of Mary Emily Nikunen who later became Karl Lepisto's wife. As best as I can determine using Google Translate, the postcard says...and I am very much paraphrasing here...
"I am greeting you with two other soldiers who also send their greetings to you. This is a bad picture of me. I invite you to write more of your letters sometime. Goodbye and have a nice summer. Karl Lepisto"
Arne was wounded by shrapnel and gassed during the war. He returned to MN and later was tried and acquitted of murdering a man who was having an affair with his wife, Minnie. Minnie was later convicted of selling moonshine to men in the lumber camps during Prohibition and she had been married twice before unbeknownst to Arne. They divorced in 1928. Arne was in and out of the state hospital at least five times possibly due to the gassing. I was surprised to find he returned to Finland and died and was buried there in 1935. No direct descendants, but he had a mother and siblings in Finland when he died.
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