Kaarlo Vaismaa

Kaarlo Vaismaa was born in 1869 in Isokyrö and died in 1947 in Tampere.

Kaarlo graduated from high school in Vaasa and started his studies in the theological faculty at Helsinki University in 1890. He left off the studies after the preliminary examination in theology and according to his spiritual call he became a preacher in Free Mission (which in 1923 got the name Free Evangelical Church in Finland)

Kaarlo accomplished a remarkable life work as a missionary at Himalaya, where he travelled for the first time in 1898 together with his wife Hanna ( née Stavanger 1865-1905). They got two children in India. This work period lasted seven years. Hanna died and Kaarlo came to Finland with the little children. During the years 1912-1920 he was for the second time in mission work in Himalaya. There he completed and published the first ABC- book in the Tibetan language.

Between these two mission periods Kaarlo worked as a teacher in the preachers’ school of Free Mission in Tampere.Besides the teacher’s work he became the editor -in-chief for the weekly paper of Free Mission called Suomen Viikkolehti. This happened in 1913. In 1916 he became the chief of Tampere Free Church and in 1923 also a member of the board in the Free Evangelical Church in Finland.

Kaarlo got married for the second time with Emma (née Höglund 1874-1958) They got five children. The life of their big family concentrated in activities in the Free Church and mother Emma’s bakery business. Important fields in life for Kaarlo were also music and gardening with honey bees.

Kaarlo Vaismaa’s children

Risti Hämäläinen (née Vaismaa) (1900-1990)

Armo Vaismaa (1903-1992)

Usko Vaismaa (1907-1998)

Rauha Salmensaari (née Vaismaa) ( 1909-2001)

Laina Vaismaa (1914- 1981)

Kauko Toivo Vaismaa ( 1917-1981)

Helmi Lahja Saarion (née Vaismaa) ( 1917-1995)