This week we learn about Eino Kuusela who, at the tender age of 12, took to the woods to avoid the brutality of his foster father in 1927
From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:
On October 4, 1927, a twelve-year-old Finnish boy named Eino Kuusela went missing. Six and a half years earlier, he and his older brother Wilho had been taken into the care of the Children’s Aid Society: their mother was dead, and their father was badly injured at the Steel Plant and was no longer able to care for them. After two and a half years at the children’s shelter, the two Kuusela boys were moved to a farm in Goulais Bay owned by Mr. Frank McKaughan, a druggist by trade. They were expected to work on the farm in exchange for meals, shelter, and clothing.
According to McKaughan, Eino had been playing hookey from school and lying about it. Eino, a good student who had made the honour roll at the Goulais River Mountain School that April, had an explanation. He said that McKaughan worked him so hard in the mornings, that he would be late for school, and his teacher would threaten to whip him; he preferred to skip school on those mornings rather than be late.
Regardless of the reasons, McKaughan was angry with the boy’s truancy. Eino scared that he would receive a whipping as punishment, drove the cows home and started to walk toward Sault Ste. Marie before disappearing into the wilderness.
A few days later, when the boy still hadn’t returned, McKaughan reported him as missing. By the end of the month, the Provincial Police became involved in the search for him. Opinions were split as to whether Eino was lost in the woods or had attempted to return to his father in the Soo. The Sault Daily Star ran a plea for information and ran a description of what he was wearing: “a black and blue checkered mackinaw coat, greyish coloured breaches, black woollen stockings and tan boots.”
By the end of October, the newspaper reported that “farmers [were] beginning to think that something serious [had] happened to [Eino.].” By early November, the newspaper reported that “some alarm [was] being felt for his safety.” Shortly after that when search parties and the provincial police continued to come up empty-handed, he became a lost cause. Assuming he had been eaten by wolves, Eino was declared “officially dead.”
But, as Eino would later reveal, he wasn’t dead at all. As he told the paper, “I stayed in the bush all alone… and slept on logs the first week covering myself up with grain bags I used to get from the barn at night…. Sometimes it was cold… so during the next two weeks I worked on the cave.”
“The cave” was a small shelter, roughly four-by-three-by-three feet, a quarter of a mile away from McKaughan’s farm. Eino had dug it himself with a pick and hung a bag in the entrance to protect him from the elements. When McKaughan’s house was empty, Eino used a spare key and snuck food from the kitchen, largely bread and sugar. When that wasn’t a possibility, he went to the barn and took potatoes and turnips – he ate these raw, not wanting to light a fire and draw attention to himself. When he left his cave, he took care to follow cow paths for as long as possible, hiding his footsteps from the throngs of searchers out looking for him.
Forty days after his disappearance, Eino resurfaced. He had snuck into McKaughan’s kitchen for some more food when the man walked in. Eino hid in the closet, but not well enough. McKaughan opened the closet door and found him. “He was awfully mad,” said Eino. The boy ran off into the woods again the next day at breakfast.
For another 36 days, there was no trace of him. During that time, he endured all sorts of wintery weather – including a blizzard that sunk five ships and, according to the Sault Daily Star, “whipped the waters of Lake Superior into a fury in which nothing could live.”
But finally, in December 1927, Eino returned to McKaughan’s barn, looking for more turnips. Hearing McKaughan coming into the building, Eino hid in a manger but was quickly discovered. McKaughan beat him with a strip of belting, and Eino, terrified, ran back into the woods.
This time, McKaughan and two other men tracked Eino to his cave. Once again, Eino received a terrible beating, this time with a knotted maple branch. He tried to run, but McKaughan caught him. He was brought to the house of Nelson McCauley, where McKaughan used the telephone to call the police and report that Eino had been found.
Eino stayed the night at McCauley’s house before being brought to Sault Ste. Marie and examined by Crown Attorney Welberne Atkin, the Provincial Police, and J.P. Reed of the Children’s Aid Society. Atkin noted the terrible bruising that McKaughan had caused, saying, “I would dislike very much, and that’s putting it [mildly], to see any boy of mine, or any boy I had the slightest interest in, with marks on his left shoulder such as the marks this boy has.”
In Eino’s absence, Frank McKaughan contacted the Children’s Shelter to cancel his agreement to care for the child. Both Kuusela boys went back to the Children’s Shelter. The Children’s Aid headquarters in Toronto tried to downplay the past few months, calling it a “boyish escapade." As they explained in an official statement, “it was probably a revival of primitive instincts that led the boy to take up his abode in the cave.” They also noted that at any point, Eino could have complained about McKaughan to the local Children’s Aid Inspector.
Nevertheless, Frank McKaughan faced some retribution for his actions. He was charged with “assault occasioning actual bodily harm.” When asked how he would plea, he said, “I might as well plead guilty…. To contradict it would be foolishness on my part.” He had already admitted to beating both boys, Eino, on more than one occasion. The Crown felt the belt he used “was a dangerous weapon in the hands of a man the size of the accused when administered to a boy 12 years of age.” The Crown also noted that the beatings were severe, the kind usually “only employed against the worst kind of criminals.”
McKaughan attempted to defend himself, saying that while the beating was excessive, he was provoked by Eino’s poor behaviour, including burglarizing his house. While he felt some regret, he also “explained that he was a highly strung man.” Ultimately, he was given a choice: paying $68 or spending three months in jail. He chose to pay the fine, approximately $1,175 by today’s standards.
As for Magistrate Elliot, he was quite impressed with Eino and his resourcefulness. According to the Sault Daily Star, “It was a most miraculous thing, said the crown. He felt that a boy who was capable of doing what Eino had done had some good in him.”
As for Eino, he briefly became a media sensation. Newspaper articles commented on his round, chubby face. He had taken care of himself so well on his own – or had received such terrible treatment at McKaughan’s – that he “[had] actually gained in weight since he departed from his master.” He said he had a great time living out in his cave, without the responsibilities of school or farm work: “I would rather live in the cave than at Frank McKaughan’s place.”
The story would spread across Canada and the United States, with journalists describing how the young Finnish boy “lived like a bear in his den” for 76 days. One article in the Pittsburgh Post quoted Eino as saying, “I was cold… but I’d rather be cold than beaten. I don’t know how long I was there. Maybe years. And nights, I’d get so lonely and frightened I didn’t dare to sleep, the wolves howled so.” This was a distinct departure from the way that Eino spoke of his time in the woods in other interviews – typically, he said he wasn’t frightened and claimed not to have seen or heard any wolves. Regardless of its accuracy, the article certainly spoke to a fascination with the boy’s story, and how his bravery and resourcefulness captured the hearts and minds of people across North America.
Eino returned to the Children’s Shelter. He would try – and pass – his entrance exam the following June in 1928. He and his brother were the only two from the shelter trying out that year, and he made headlines as newspapers discussed the “cave boy” and his academic pursuits.
Later in 1928, Eino and two friends from the shelter went missing. They took the ferry to Soo Michigan, telling immigration officials that they were going to see a show, before proceeding to walk 20 miles. They slept in the bush and ate wild plums before hitting bad weather and deciding to return; “Caveboy and his companions back at shelter today,” the newspaper proclaimed. The public was clearly still fascinated with Eino’s story – and as for Eino, his time spent living in a cave in Goulais Bay had not discouraged him any from spending time outdoors and striking out in hopes of a better future for himself.
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