Steve Ristola’s story offers a direct link between the first Finnish settlers of the Owen-Withee area and the community that exists there today. Through his family line, the history of migration, farm settlement, hardship, and continuity in Clark County remains not only remembered, but visible in the present.
The Ristolas were part of a broader Finnish movement that left a lasting mark on the Owen-Withee area. Like many Finnish-American families in the early twentieth century, they first settled in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before moving to Clark County, Wisconsin. Names such as Wirtala, Ristola, Finnula, Maki, Keskimaki, Hautamaki, and Laakso remain woven into the area’s labor, faith, and community life.
Steve’s grandfather, Nestor Ristola, arrived in rural Withee in 1914 during the early years of Finnish settlement in the area. The family settled in Section 15 of the Town of Hixon, where life centered on farm work, close family ties, and the demands of making a living from difficult land. The values the Ristolas carried with them—hard work, thrift, cooperation, and the Finnish sauna tradition—remained part of family life across generations.
Pioneer farm life could be made even harder by sudden disaster. Family memories recall the tornado of June 13, 1930, which badly damaged the Nestor Ristola farm along with other nearby properties during a severe weather event in west-central Wisconsin.
The Ristola family’s years near Withee reflected the demanding life shared by many early farm families in the area. What makes their story especially valuable is that it can still be traced across several generations, from pioneer settlement to modern community life in Withee and Owen. The same qualities that helped the first Ristolas endure rural hardship—resilience, discipline, and loyalty to family—remained visible as later generations moved beyond the farm while maintaining ties to the place where the family first took root.
Steve’s aunt Anna Ristola carried that family history into the wider community. After helping on her parents’ farm, she became part of everyday life in Owen-Withee through her work in local businesses and later at the Clark County Health Care Center. Her life bridged the world of the first Finnish settlers and the modern community their labor helped build.
Today, that family story continues through Steve Ristola, a grandson of Nestor Ristola and a direct connection to the Finnish roots planted in rural Withee more than a century ago. His father, Eugene Ristola, one of Nestor’s sons, graduated from Withee High School in 1938, linking the family’s first generation of settlers to the institutions of a growing community. Like many young people of his time, Eugene later moved away and eventually settled in Iowa. Steve was born in Iowa, but in recent years he returned to Owen to live in the house that once belonged to his aunt Anna Ristola.
Details from Steve’s daily life show how this history continues in practical ways. Though born in Iowa, he has returned to the community rooted in his family’s past and now lives in Owen. He volunteers his carpentry and handyman skills where needed, including at the old Norwegian Lutheran Church in rural Curtiss, and he takes part in local history festivals, events, and community activities. Through those efforts—and through his gift for storytelling—he helps keep area history present in public memory.
Steve Ristola’s importance lies not only in the family memories he preserves, but in the way his life connects the pioneering past of the Owen-Withee area with its present identity. Through him, the story of Finnish settlement in Clark County remains more than a chapter of local history; it continues as part of the living character of the community.
In that sense, Steve Ristola stands as both a descendant of the area’s early settlers and a present-day witness to the endurance of their traditions, labor, and community ties. It’s a pleasure to know you, Steve.