Ylistaro cemetery

Ylistaro Church and Cemeteries

Ylistaro was part of the parish of Pohjankyrö and had already become a chapel parish of Isokyrö in 1658. It became an independent parish in 1859 and, following a parish merger in 2009, once again became a chapel parish, this time within the Parish of Seinäjoki.

The first church in Ylistaro was built in 1658, even though no official permission had been granted for its construction. In 1661, the parishioners petitioned for a priest of their own. The enterprising people of Ylistaro also built a bell tower for their church without permission in the 1690s. Within less than a century, the church had become too small, and a new church was completed in 1748, followed by its bell tower in 1775.

By the 1840s, the church had once again become overcrowded, and plans for a new church were initiated. For several years, discussions continued about various matters, including its location. In 1846, the State Architect E. Lohrmann prepared the plans, and Juho Kuorikoski was appointed master builder in the same year. The church was completed in 1850 and consecrated by Archbishop Edvard Bergenheim on Ascension Day, 20 May 1852.

In the churchyard stands a building completed in the early 1850s. It was designed by Jaakko Kuorikoski, who served as master builder of the church, and was constructed from surplus building materials from the church project. The building served both as a winter mortuary and a funeral chapel. Its use as a funeral chapel ended in the 1950s, but it is currently being restored for use as a summer venue.

Burials Beneath the Church

The cemetery of Ylistaro developed around the first church, on the site of what is now the Heroes’ Cemetery. It was most likely established around the same time that the first church was consecrated, in the late seventeenth century. People from Ylistaro could be buried beneath the church floor, in the churchyard surrounding the church, or in the churchyard of Isokyrö.

By the beginning of the eighteenth century, only prominent individuals were buried beneath the church floor. Burial inside the church gradually became a matter of social status and prestige, leading to disputes. When the new church was completed in 1748, burial plots were also established beneath its floor according to longstanding custom. However, most of the deceased were buried in the ground or in burial vaults located in the churchyard.

Burials inside churches gradually declined, and in 1751 the fees paid to the parish for burial within a church were increased. In 1776, following the example of its mother parish, Ylistaro finally abandoned the practice of burying people beneath the church floor.

The use of burial vaults also declined during the early nineteenth century, most likely because of unpleasant odours.

Extensions

The 1826 church inventory describes the churchyard as cramped and uneven, noting a clear need for a larger cemetery. Expansion work began in 1828, when the parish acquired two small strips of farmland adjacent to the cemetery. The following year, a new stone wall was built around the enlarged cemetery area.

The lack of burial space remained a recurring concern throughout the nineteenth century. In 1849, it was concluded that even if a new church were to be built, the existing cemetery would still be sufficient, provided that more soil was brought in. The following year, when construction of the new church began, plans were made to acquire additional land next to the church for cemetery use. The demolition of the old church also created more burial space in the old churchyard.

During the second great famine year of 1868, discussions about establishing a new cemetery resumed, but a new burial ground was not acquired until 1881. Burials continued in the Old Cemetery under special permission well into the twentieth century.

New Cemetery

The establishment of a new cemetery appears in various sources from as early as 1847. During the years of the Great Famine, the existing cemetery filled up rapidly. Although a decision was made to establish a new cemetery, the plan was not implemented at that time. The matter was raised again in 1881, when concrete steps were finally taken.

The Old Cemetery had become overcrowded, and in 1879 a public health decree highlighted the health risks associated with cemeteries located close to residential areas. The decree required the establishment of separate cemeteries in communities whose churchyards no longer had room for new graves. As a result, the cemetery was relocated to an area near the new church.

The first burials in the New Cemetery took place in the spring of 1883.

Beautification and expansion

In the years following its establishment, little attention was paid to the development of the cemetery. In 1891, a decision was made regarding the location of a drainage ditch, and in 1901 plans were approved for the construction of a new fence.

The New Cemetery also eventually became full, and discussions about expansion began in the early 1920s. Additional land was acquired adjacent to the cemetery, apparently through compulsory purchase from the lands of Ojala Rectory. The new section was equipped with subsurface drainage in 1926.

A second expansion took place in the early 1940s. Minutes of the parish administrative board from 1939 note that thinning operations had already been carried out in the central cemetery area, indicating that the land had been acquired by that time. For the new rectangular section, a landscape plan was commissioned from Hautausmaan Ystävät Oy (“Friends of Cemeteries Ltd.”), and the plan was completed in the autumn of 1945.

In 1954, it became apparent that the new Vaasa-Kyyjärvi highway would cut through part of the cemetery grounds. The parish requested that the road be moved two metres closer to the river, ensuring that no graves would be affected by the construction. The cemetery was enclosed with a spruce hedge.

Planning for the most recent expansion began in 1960. A development plan was approved in 1964, and during the same decade surveys were carried out covering the entire cemetery.

Cemetery Staff and Regulations

The first gravedigger, Efraim Perander, was hired in 1882 when the present cemetery was established. The gravedigger’s fee was agreed upon with the deceased’s relatives, and if the fee was considered too high, the family could dig the grave themselves. However, a fee of 10 pennies still had to be paid to the gravedigger for assigning the burial plot.

Gravediggers changed frequently. For many years, their duties also included ringing the church bells and operating the church organ bellows, and later heating the church. After Perander, a total of ten gravediggers were employed before 1968. The first full-time gravedigger with formal regulations governing the position was Sauli Sillanpää, who was soon succeeded by Jouko Sillanpää, who served the parish for more than 40 years.

The nature of the work changed over time. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jouko Sillanpää dug graves by hand. In the 1990s, he purchased his own excavator, and the parish compensated him for its use.

The first cemetery regulations were drawn up in 1933. They were reviewed and revised in 1938, and in 1941 regulations for a summer cemetery caretaker were added. Job descriptions and regulations were frequently revised over the years. In the 1990s, the title of gravedigger was changed to parish sexton.

The care of the cemetery was mainly the responsibility of the relatives of the deceased, and for a long time much of the work was also carried out on a voluntary basis. Seasonal workers were hired for the summer months. In 1945, regulations were drawn up for a gardener, although the position was not year-round. Today, the cemetery employs a skilled maintenance worker throughout the year as part of the parish burial services staff.

Burial Practices

The time and place of funeral services varied during the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, funeral services were usually held in the funeral chapel beside the church, and during the summer they were held in the cemetery. In the first half of the twentieth century, the deceased were usually buried on Sundays before the church service began. Funeral services were also often held on weekdays. In the 1960s, funeral services were held on Saturday mornings, and there was also a service at 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings, during which several deceased persons might be buried at the same time.

Gradually, the church became the usual place for funeral services. Whereas previously only prominent individuals were buried from the church, the practice became more common as church funeral services for war dead increased.

In 1958, the parish administrative board decided to move funeral services from the cold funeral chapel to the church.

A memorial grove was established in Ylistaro Cemetery in the early 2000s, and cremation burials have also gradually become more common. A memorial pillar for graves relinquished by families was erected in connection with the memorial grove in 2016.

The Overall Appearance of the Cemeteries

Old Cemetery and Heroes’ Cemetery

The Old Cemetery is located in the centre of Ylistaro, on a small hill between Kirja-Matti School and the river, surrounded by roads and enclosed by a fence made of natural stone. The cemetery has two gates, and a gravel pathway divides it into the Heroes’ Cemetery and the Old Cemetery area.

The Old Cemetery had fallen out of use but was brought back into service on two occasions when a Heroes’ Cemetery was established there. First, those who died in the Finnish Civil War were buried there in 1918, followed by those who fell in the Winter War and the Continuation War between 1939 and 1945.

The Heroes’ Cemetery occupies approximately half of the cemetery area and contains both the large memorials to the Finnish Civil War and the Winter and Continuation Wars, as well as the individual gravestones of those who fell in the Winter and Continuation Wars. A total of 305 war dead from the Winter and Continuation Wars are buried there. A particularly heavy loss occurred in the Battle of Särkisyrjä in Ruskeala on 19 July 1941, where 44 men from Ylistaro were killed.

Closest to the central pathway is the memorial to the victims of the Finnish Civil War, designed by Elias Ilkka and unveiled in 1922. It bears the names of 33 Civil War soldiers. Beside it are two granite pillow stones, one dedicated to two civilian victims who died in a train accident during the war and the other dedicated to two civilian victims killed in bombings during the Winter War. At the far end of the cemetery stands a large granite memorial dedicated to those who fell in the Winter and Continuation Wars, designed by Kalervo Kallio and unveiled in 1959.

The other half of the area has been reserved for the memorials of the Old Cemetery, a few of which still remain. In the middle of the cemetery, on the left side of the pathway, stands a memorial to the old churches. The outlines of the old church have also been marked on the ground with low metal marker posts on the left side.

Present Cemetery

The cemetery is divided into four sections: the old section established in 1883, the central section established in 1922–1923 (known as the Middle Section), the new section established in 1941, and the extension section established in 1971. In addition, these sections are further divided into smaller areas. Each section has its own distinctive character.

Section 4 of the Middle Section contains the so-called Karelia Section, an area of approximately 200 square metres where a total of 140 evacuees from Karelia who arrived between 1939 and 1947 were buried. The graves were originally marked with wooden crosses. As many of the evacuees later moved elsewhere, concerns arose about what would happen to the area once the wooden crosses had decayed.

In 1953, a memorial of red granite was erected in the Karelia Section. It was designed by Väinö Kuivalainen of Elisenvaara and carved by Toivo Suokko of Tervajoki. The memorial was renovated in 2007 when the Karelia Section was restored and made more prominent. Copper plaques on the side stones bear the names and dates of birth and death of those buried in the Karelia Section. Most of the deceased were from Käkisalmi (69 persons) and Kurkijoki (43 persons). The memorial was made possible through the efforts of the Käki and Kurki Foundations, the parishes of Käkisalmi and Kurkijoki, relatives of the deceased, and Väinö Kuivalainen. At its unveiling ceremony, the memorial was entrusted to the care of the Parish of Ylistaro.

Notable Graves

1. Johan Heininen (1834–1909)

Johan Heininen served as the second parish priest of the Parish of Ylistaro from 1894 to 1909. He was originally from Laitila in Southwest Finland.

2. Otto Alfred Airio (1894–1912)

Otto Alfred Airio served as parish priest of the Parish of Ylistaro from 1911 to 1912. Airio was originally from Kontiolahti, but came to Ylistaro from Ilomantsi.

3. Pekka Rudolf Heikinheimo (1863–1926)

Pekka Rudolf Heikinheimo served as parish priest of the Parish of Ylistaro from 1916 to 1926. Heikinheimo was born in Tervola, but came to Ylistaro from Utsjoki.

4. Sakari Tuure Tapani Toivio (1921–1959)

Sakari Tuure Tapani Toivio died suddenly at the age of 38 after serving as parish priest of the Parish of Ylistaro for only one month, from 1 to 31 May 1959.

5. Tapio Kalervo Kemppainen (1918–1985)

Tapio Kalervo Kemppainen served as parish priest of the Parish of Ylistaro from 1961 to 1983.

6. The Rängman family grave

Johan Rängman (1823–1901), Emilia Rängman (née Molin) (1848–1917), Riku Ränki (1878–1927), and Maiju Moëll (née Rängman) (1870–1938). The Rängman family played an active role in public life in Ylistaro at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, participating in youth association activities, various boards and committees, and the Civil Guard.

7. Juho Malkamäki (1844–1928)

Juho Malkamäki was a well-known preacher within the Finnish Revivalist Movement (Herännäisyys) and is also regarded as the founder of the Revival Festival (Herättäjäjuhlat). In the 1880s, he served as a representative of the Peasant Estate in the Diet of Finland, and in the 1890s he participated in the third and fourth Church Synods.

He served as a Member of Parliament from 1909 to 1910. In 1892, Malkamäki took part in the founding meeting of Kustannusosakeyhtiö Herättäjä. The company’s first annual meeting was held at Malkamäki the following year, and the revival meetings held in connection with it are regarded as the first Revival Festival.

8. Lauri Kaskio (1877–1918) and Aino Kaskio née Rängman (1878–1965)

Aino Kaskio commissioned the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela to design the flag of the Ylistaro Civil Guard. The flag is now preserved at the Ostrobothnian Museum in Vaasa. Lauri Kaskio was a forestry manager.

9. Vihtori Herttua (1886–1941)

Vihtori Herttua was an activist in the Finnish Revivalist Movement (Herännäisyys) and a veteran of the Finnish Civil War. Later, he became a supporter of the Lapua Movement.

10. Matti Niemistö (1860–1922)

Matti Niemistö was a prominent lay preacher within the Evangelical movement in Ylistaro and was originally from Halkosaari, Ylistaro.

11. Aili Josefiina Ketola née Kuivinen (1907–1982)

Aili Josefiina Ketola (née Kuivinen) was a teacher and a member of the Lotta Svärd organisation who directed several choirs, including one formed with her siblings. Her only son, Markku Ketola, an organist known internationally, died while on a concert tour in France.

12. Matti Vihtori Heinonen (1867–1962)

The Heinonen family (formerly Kyntäjä) possessed one of the first Finnish-language printed Bibles, known as the Queen Christina Bible. After her death, their daughter Ellen Heinonen (1894–1967) bequeathed the Bible to the Parish of Ylistaro.

13. Nils Sarelius (1821–1904)

Nils Sarelius was a parish clerk and organist as well as a municipal official. Originally from Haapavesi, he completed a distinguished music qualification with excellent marks in his youth. He was elected to his position in Ylistaro in 1851 and arrived the same year that the “Komia kirkko” (“Handsome Church”) was completed. Sarelius also ran a parish clerk’s school. He represented the municipality in Helsinki at the unveiling ceremony of the statue of Emperor Alexander II.

14. Jaakko Loukko (1870–1946)

Jaakko Loukko was a farmer and Member of Parliament from the village of Topparla in Ylistaro. In 1899, he helped found the Isokyrö-Ylistaro Agricultural Society, and in 1907 the Ylipää Youth Association. Later, he also helped establish the Civil Guard and was actively involved in municipal affairs in Ylistaro.

15. Anters (”Antti”) Matinpoika Punkari (1828–1883)

As a young farmer’s son, Antti Matinpoika Punkari once quarrelled with his brother Matti over farm work. In a moment of anger, Antti struck Matti in the abdomen with a sickle while they were working in a field, and his brother died as a result. At the district court, Antti was initially sentenced to be broken on the wheel and beheaded, but local farmers successfully petitioned the Emperor to have the sentence reduced to lifelong exile in Siberia.

Even after this ruling, further petitions were submitted on Antti’s behalf, and the sentence was eventually reduced to eight years of forced labour on the Saimaa Canal. After serving his sentence, Antti returned to Ylistaro and lived the rest of his life as a respectable citizen. After his death, however, his name was inscribed on the “wrong” side of the family gravestone.

16. Provost Jaakko Oskari Markkola (1884–1952)

Provost Jaakko Oskari Markkola completed his matriculation examination and later studied for the priesthood as an adult. In 1925, he was appointed parish priest of the newly established parish of Äyräpää in eastern Finland. A new church, designed by Oiva Kallio, was completed in Äyräpää in 1934. The church was partially destroyed during the Winter War in a battle in which 40 men from Nurmo were killed. The remaining ruins were blown up during the Continuation War. As a result, Markkola remained the only parish priest the parish ever had.

17. Sanna Koski (1884–1940) and Tyyne Hyyppä (1918–1940)

Sanna Koski and Tyyne Hyyppä were killed in the first bombings of Ylistaro on 17 February 1940, when a bomb struck Hyyppä’s commercial building. Four people were injured in the same attack, and approximately 20 buildings suffered damage. A second bombing followed on 26 February of the same year, but it caused no fatalities. The two women are also commemorated with individual memorial stones in the Heroes’ Cemetery of Ylistaro.

18. Aleksandra (Sandra) Ahlberg (1896–1973)

Aleksandra (Sandra) Ahlberg was Ylistaro’s long-serving midwife. According to local tradition, not a single mother or child died under her care.

19. Maria Pirilä (1881–1949)

Maria Pirilä worked as a teacher and was originally from Teisko. She attended the teacher training college in Heinola and came to Ylistaro in 1905. The inscription “Teacher Maria Pirilä” on her gravestone is engraved in beautiful, precise cursive handwriting, using her own handwriting.

20. Vilhelmiina Karoliina Vesa (1858–1942)

Vilhelmiina Karoliina Vesa was a well-known teacher in Ylistaro, also originally from Teisko. She was active in the teachers’ association, but especially in youth association work. She was among the founders of the Ylistaro Youth Association in 1894. Choral singing was also close to her heart.

21. Uraania 15 years

At the rear of Section 8 of the Middle Section, right next to the spruce hedge, stands a small grey gravestone bearing only the inscription “Uraania, 15 years” for the person buried beneath it. According to local tradition, she may have received her unusual name from the ship Urania, which transported emigrants to North America. However, she later returned to Finland and Ylistaro with her parents.

Uraania was 15 years old when she contracted tuberculosis, from which she died. According to local accounts, her coffin was carried by young girls dressed in white. Uraania’s parents later moved back to America.

22. The Jaatinen Family Grave

The Jaatiset family are Karelian evacuees, and the stone serving as the grave memorial is the family’s old gravestone. The stone was brought to Ylistaro from the family’s home region of Jaakkima in Karelia in 1991, after relatives happened to find it in Jaakkima Cemetery during a trip to Karelia. Names have been engraved on both sides of the stone, as the family has put it back into use.

Memorials in the Churchyard

• Memorial to the Jägers of Ylistaro

Memorials in the Cemetery

• Karelian Memorial Monument
• Memorial to Those Buried Elsewhere
• Memorial Grove and Its Monuments
• Memorial Pillar
• Collective Memorial for the Single Grave Area