The Life and Times of Carl Laakso

In April 2023 Ken McPherson interviewed his Aunts Carolyn and Pearl and Cousin Jeanine about their father/grandfather, Carl Laakso, who emigrated to America from Finland in 1891 at the age of 20. In chapter one Carolyn and Pearl tell how at the age of 9 he was sent to work as a shepherd without any formal education and with grit and determination worked at a series of jobs in the new world before starting several dairy and poultry businesses and becoming the director of the local office of the federal farm loan program in Winlock Washington. He helped establish a successful poultry and egg cooperative, WashCoEgg, still in existence and was outspoken advocate for “the cooperative movement”.