Clarke Historical Museum
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Cultural and Ethnic Organizations

In the early 1900s, Humboldt County was an increasingly diversifying place. Croatians worked in mining and metalworking industry, while Scandinavians worked in the fishing and whaling industries. Members from both groups also worked in the logging industry.
 Around the turn of the century, foreign-born workers could not get health insurance while working in the United States. This meant that, if the men working in these dangerous industries died on the job, their families were at serious risk for homelessness and poverty. To help support their local communities, groups like the Croatian Fraternal Union (pictured above) formed to pool money via club dues. Records from these groups show that dues collected were used for many purposes, including giving money to injured members, their families, and sending money to family and friends abroad following major disasters.

Croatian Fraternal Union and Croatian Benefit Societies

 In the early 1900s, Humboldt County was an increasingly diversifying place. Croatians worked in mining and metalworking and to a large extent the logging industry, while Scandinavians worked in the fishing and whaling industries, with a smaller number working in the lumber camps.
Around the turn of the century, foreign-born workers could not get health insurance while working in the United States. This meant that, if the men working in these dangerous industries died on the job, their families were at serious risk for homelessness and poverty. To help support their local communities, groups like the Croatian Fraternal Union formed to pool money via club dues. Records from these groups show that dues collected were used for many purposes, including giving money to injured members, their families, and sending money to family and friends abroad following major disasters.
​You can see a full list of the founding members of the local Croatian Fraternal Union here.

Sons of Norway and the Order of Runeberg

​Besides supporting members financially, ethnic and cultural based organizations served another vital purpose: a location to reconnect with people from the same country who spoke the same language and shared the same traditions. In many cases, this purpose of continuing local traditions was the foundation of the club, with insurance coverage following as more people joined. In the case of the Sons of Norway, Fram 13 located in Eureka, Han Trollness founded the local precursor to the Sons of Norway in the early 1900s to support local, homesick Norwegians through festivals and various social activities. Many of these activities allowed attendees a space to speak their home language, share in traditional foods, celebrate holidays and create close knit communities. The Sons of Norway, Fram 13 is still a very active part of the local community today and holds a yearly summertime festival, where they bring out a large, replica Viking ship.
The Order of Runeberg is an organization for people of Finnish and Swedish descent. It was officially created in Illinois in 1920 when two groups, the Swedish-Finnish Benevolent and Aid Association and the Swedish-Finnish Temperance Association, merged. There was one Lodge in Eureka from c. 1920 to c. 2014.

United Ancient Order of Druids

​Not all culturally-based organizations operated under cultural, ethnic or nationality-based titles. The United Ancient Order of Druids was an American version of the Ancient Order of Druids, founded in England in the 1700s. In Humboldt County, membership in this organization consisted largely of people of Italian descent-a trend apparent in many lodges in California and Michigan- and their records show that dues were put into an organizational fund to support members and their families in times of hardship. Different iterations of this group existed from 1894 to about 1949 and could be found in Eureka and Ferndale. The Druids also had an Auxiliary organization called Circles which allowed women and men to join. There was at least one of these Circles in Humboldt County in the late 1940s.
Clarke Historical Museum
240 E Street
​Eureka, California 95501
admin@clarkemuseum.org
(707) 443-1947
Open Wednesday-Sunday
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed Monday & Tuesday

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Open until 8:30 p.m. during Friday Night Markets
Open until 9 p.m. during Eureka Arts Alive
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