Kannus is a Finnish city located in the province of Central
Ostrobothnia. The city has a population of 5,433 and an area of
470.65 km², of which 2.32 km² are water bodies. The population
density is 11.60 inhabitants / km². The nearest larger town is
Kokkola at a distance of 40 km. The center of Kannus is located
along the Lestijoki River. The neighboring municipalities of Kannus
are Kalajoki, Kokkola, Sievi and Toholampi.
The city is
located along the Ostrobothnian line, and despite the small size of
the city, several trains stop at Kannus station. Kannus' best-known
and largest companies include Pouttu Oy, Eskopuu Oy and Kannustalo
Oy. The local Lestijoki newspaper is published in Kannus.
Stone Age discoveries have been made in the Kannus
region. The oldest Stone Age finds are located in the times of
Suomusjärvi culture. The residence during the comb ceramic culture
has been found in Polvikoski, the village of Ylikannus. At the end
of the comb-ceramic culture, the Lestijoki valley seems to have lost
its settlement, as very little is known about the discoveries of the
late Stone Age. The desertification of the area may have been due to
the change in the area due to the relocation of the coast, which is
unfavorable for sea fishing. Certain Bronze Age finds are not known
in the Lestijoki area. It would seem that the area has lost
permanent housing after the Iron Age and turned into a wilderness
area where only the Sámi and their taxpayers moved. Gradually,
wilderness people from Satakunta and Kainuu, ie Pirkka, settled in
the wilderness.
At the beginning of the 15th century, Kannus
belonged to the Suur-Pedersöre area. It was later incorporated into
the Great Lohtaja. In the late Middle Ages, Kannus grew into the
largest village in Suur-Lohtaja, with thirty houses scattered on the
banks of the Kannusjoki River, now the Lestijoki River, from the
mouth to Toholammi. Possibly a foreign nationality was represented
by Juho Holsti aka Alli, a resident of Kannuskylä in the 1540s,
whose house is difficult to identify with any later house. Holst's
immediate neighbors at the mouth of the Lestijoki River were already
inhabited in the 1540s by brothers Olli and Lauri Pietarinpojat,
whose houses were later called Polish (both Puolacka and Pålack were
written). At the end of the Middle Ages, about a dozen families
lived in Ovannann, the area of the present parish of Kannus. When
Ala- and Ylikannus were first marked as different villages around
1560, there were 19 houses in each. The settlement of Mutkalampi was
also reduced to Alakannus in the 16th century. The winding pond was
separated into its own village at the beginning of the 17th century,
but its survival for such a long time in connection with Alakannus
shows where it was mainly inhabited. It was not until the 1620s that
Kannus was regularly listed in the tax books as a separate village
from Alakannus, which was renamed Hillilä in the 1640s. In the
Lestijoki Valley, settlement activity came to a halt at the
beginning of the 17th century, all the way to Ylikannu. In 1608
there were a total of 51 houses in Kannuskylä, Hillilä, Välikannus
and Ylikannus and in 1690 only one more or 52 houses.
In the
17th century, ironmaking became an important side income for the
peasants. The state also drew attention to the iron soil of the
Lestijoki Valley and in 1642 granted privileges to establish
Rautaruukki in the area. However, the ironmaking of the Lestijoki
Valley did not get its start from those privileges. Instead, it
seems that the founders of Kokkola in particular contributed to the
revival of iron production in the region. The peasants made anchors
and other larger forging work using hydroelectric hammers that were
private or shared by several houses. Tar production has also been
very important to peasants in the region.
The first church in
Kannus was probably completed in 1674 and was in use for almost nine
decades. A dispute a couple of generations later reveals that Lauri
Erkinpoika Sämpilä of his own village had been the master builder of
the church's belfry and churchyard. He had received no salary for
his work other than three free burial places for himself and his
heirs. The church itself probably had no information other than that
it had 46 windows, 34 of which were sold at auction to parishioners.
In the spring of 1761, the villagers decided to build a new church
and the props of the old church were reserved for the needs of the
new church. Construction of the new church began on January 11,
1790, and it was decided to choose Matti Honka as the master
builder. Honka built the church for 64 days, first 29 days in the
spring of 1761 and then 35 in the fall. Honka received five copper
thalers a day, or a total of 320 thalers.
While the Great Famine undoubtedly reduced the population of Kannus considerably in the late 17th century, most of the houses that remained deserted were surprisingly soon repopulated during the first decade of the 18th century. In the 18th century, of course, wealth during the Great Hate did not depend on the peasants' own activity and perseverance, but rather on how the houses happened to be spared on enemy raids and thus also on how remote they were located. Only in this way is it understandable why there were the most tax-paying houses in the Oversize. When peace was finally made in 1721 after seven years of Russian rule, there was enormous reconstruction work ahead. As early as 1722, the Governor of Ostrobothnia, Reinhold Wilhelm von Essen, made a trip to the northern parts of his county, trying to find out the worst grievances. The most important task of reconstruction was considered to be the rapid settlement of desert farms. The worst obstacle was considered by Governor Von Essen to be the shortage of men caused by the war and many consecutive years of disappearance. As a result, the cultivation of houses could not be carried out in the blink of an eye, but took several decades. The remote Mutkalampi, which was spared the destruction of the great hatred, was better than usual.
When the old deserted farms of Kannus began to be inhabited to
the last at the same time, the splitting was allowed to resume for a
long time. In Suur-Lohtaja, the new settlement period clearly began
in the 1750s. Apparently, the sympathy of Governor Gustaf Abraham
Piper made it possible in 1752, despite the order, to establish new
entrants. The number of houses in the village had almost doubled
during 1725–1810, which had doubled in a decade since the 1750s.
The population of the village of Kannus grew strongly in the
early 19th century. In 1810 the village had 1,766 inhabitants and in
1840 even 2,825. After this the population growth calmed down and in
1890 the municipality had 3,796 inhabitants. Border arrangements
were made in Kannus in the 1870s, when the houses of Ainal and Oja
were transferred from Mutkalamminkylä to Himankakylä in Himanga.
Earlier in the 1860s, Kannuskylä and Hillilä village had been moved
to Himanka. The second church in Kannus had time in office for a
little over five decades when lightning struck it and burned it as a
reindeer on July 31, 1813. Because the church burned during the day,
almost all of its property was rescued. After the fire, the
churchyard was guarded by four men. Immediately after the fire, work
began on planning to build a new church. The people of Toholampi had
sent information to the people of Kannus, in which they promised
that the wealthiest farmers would provide building logs and other
building needs for the new church. The master builder of the church
was Heikki Kuorikoski from Caustic, whose handwriting is probably
also the drawings of the church. C. Bass’s drawings do not exactly
match the current form of the church. The new church in Kannus is a
cruciform church. The church was completed on September 26, 1817.
However, it had to be repaired already in 1824 and 1850. The church
was repaired more thoroughly in 1855 under the leadership of Heikki
Kuorikoski's grandson. No further information is available on this
correction. The church was repaired again in 1888. All men between
the ages of 16 and 70 in the village were required to attend this
repair. The neglected were allowed to pay their daily work for one
and a half marks. At that time, a lightning conductor, among other
things, was installed in the church. In 1904 the church was
renovated again.
The village of Ylikannus became independent
from Suur-Lohtaja in 1859. At that time, the name of the
municipality also became Kannus. When completed in 1886, the
Ostrobothnian Railway enlivened the life of Kannus as well. Several
shops were established in the village and the Eklöv sawmill in the
vicinity of the railway station brought wealth to the municipality.
At that time, the municipality also established a land trade, a
sawmill, a brick factory, a milk skinning station and a steam dairy.
Migration, which began in the late 19th century, also took spurs to
the United States. Between 1872 and 1917, 2,555 residents moved to
the United States. The most famous spokesman who moved to the United
States was Oskari Tokoi. In 1919, the Korpelankoski power plant was
built in Kannus. A great fire in 1934 badly destroyed the church
village of Kannus. The population of Kannus grew slowly in the first
half of the 20th century. In 1923 there were 5,556 inhabitants, but
in 1952 there were already more than 6,200. After that, the
population of the city began to decline steadily due to emigration.
At the beginning of the 1970s, there were just under 5,000
inhabitants. At that time, however, the population decline stopped
and the population began to grow again. In 1985, 5,867 people lived
in Kannus. Kannus received city rights in early 1986. Recently, the
population has remained fairly the same, meaning it has not just
increased, but has not decreased either.