10/22/2026
Did you know there was a great cultural battle that tore Finnish families apart in Brantwood and Clifford Wisconsin in the early 20th century? The hatred was so intense that two separate cemeteries were established.
The story of the Finnish "Red" and "White" cemeteries in the small community of Brantwood (and nearby Clifford) in Price County, Wisconsin, is one of the most intriguing cultural footprints of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath in rural North America.
It is the story of how a bloody geopolitical conflict thousands of miles away split a quiet Wisconsin farming and logging community so deeply that even in death, neighbors refused to lie in the same ground.
1. Background: The Old World Conflict
To understand the division in Brantwood, one must look to Finland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire. Many Finns immigrated to the Upper Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) including Price County to work in mining, logging, and farming.
When the Russian Revolution of 1917 overthrew the Tsarist regime and brought the Bolsheviks to power, Finland declared independence. However, ideological strife immediately engulfed Finland, triggering the brutal Finnish Civil War of 1918:
The "Reds" (Punaiset): Socialist working-class Finns, supported by Bolshevik Russia, who fought for a radical socialist state.
The "Whites" (Valkoiset): Conservative, religious, landowning, and middle-class Finns, supported by Imperial Germany, who fought for a capitalist republic and sought to purge communist influence.
The Whites won a decisive victory in 1918, resulting in severe punishment, mass imprisonments, and executions of Red sympathizers in Finland.
2. The Ideological Divide Comes to Brantwood
In the early 1900s, Brantwood and Clifford in northern Wisconsin had become dense hubs for Finnish immigrants. The immigrants brought with them strong cultural traditions, strict work ethics, and deep political consciousness.
As news of the 1917 Russian Revolution and the 1918 Finnish Civil War reached Wisconsin, the local Finnish community fractured into the same bitter ideological factions as their homeland:
The "White Finns": Aligned with the Lutheran Church, church traditions, conservative values, and anti-communist sentiment. They viewed communism as a threat to faith, family, and order.
The "Red Finns": Highly active in labor unions (such as the IWW - International Workers of the World - and local worker cooperatives), social halls, and leftist political circles. Many joined the Socialist Party of America or the Communist Party USA. They viewed the Russian Revolution as a victory for the working class.
This wasn't just a political disagreement; it shaped daily social life. The community split into separate social halls, separate co-op grocery stores, separate temperance societies, and separate churches. Red Finns and White Finns often refused to speak to one another or patronize each other's businesses.
3. The Two Cemeteries: Divided in Death
The ideological fracture reached its absolute peak when it came to burial grounds.
The conservative "White" Finns buried their dead in consecrated churchyards, such as the Knox Mills Cemetery and public civic grounds, where Christian services were held.
The radical "Red" Finns, many of whom were secularists, atheists, or rejected church authority, established their own private burial grounds—most notably the Clifford Public Cemetery (also known as the socialist/workers' cemetery):
The White Grounds: Maintained by the church, adorned with traditional religious symbols (crosses), and reserved for churchgoers and conservative community members.
The Red Grounds: Established independently by radical worker associations. Burials here were secular, often featuring eulogies focused on labor solidarity, social justice, and equality rather than traditional Christian liturgy.
Locals in Price County came to refer to these distinct burial sites informally as the Red Cemetery and the White Cemetery.
4. Legacy and Modern Significance
Over the decades, as the original immigrant generations passed and the Cold War waned, the intense political hostility faded. Today, the descendants of both factions live side-by-side in peace, and local historical groups (such as the Knox Creek Heritage Center in Brantwood) work to preserve the history of both sides.
The "Red and White" cemeteries stand as silent monuments to an era when global political upheavals—from Petrograd to Helsinki—echoed directly into the northwoods of Wisconsin, leaving a permanent mark on the landscape.
