Finnish descendant of early Mullica Hill resident pays a visit

For 90 years, Asko Vuorinen's ancestors lived in a stately, red farmhouse atop the hill, 400 miles north of Helsinki, Finland, that they called Mulikka.

"The original house dated back to 1564, and it is said that nearly everyone from the area goes back to Antti Mulikka, who came there, far inland, and built the house," Vuorinen said.

In time, Vuorinen discovered that Antti Mulikka's great-grandson Eric was banished by the Swedish government to the colony of New Sweden, where he built a house similar to the original farmhouse. An amateur historian, Vuorinen researched the Mulikkas and, over the weekend, after a trip to Washington to deliver a talk to an engineering convention, went to see the "new" Mulikka house in the Gloucester County village that bears its name, Mullica Hill.

"It's something old to us, but to him it may seem not quite so old," said Lisa Rysinger, president of the Mullica Hill Historical Society, who was overjoyed to take Vuorinen and his wife, Sinikka, on a tour Saturday afternoon of his presumed ancestor's house, still standing at 20 N. Main St., in Mullica Hill's historic district.

Rysinger said the Vuorinens' visit was fortuitous, as it coincided with the Historical Society's 40th anniversary celebration, so - voilà! - the historical society had its best meeting speaker ever Saturday evening.

Vuorinen, 65, is a retired designer of nuclear and gas-fired power plants from Espoo, a city of 250,000 outside the Finnish capital of Helsinki. He has written books on engineering and Finnish history, and he said his trip to see the Eric Mullica house was a must while he was in America.

The Mullica Hill house is basically brick, with wood floors and ceilings and some decorative wood siding. It has two small expansions - one each to the north and south - built over the last century, but the inner main house is quite large for having been built in 1704 by a man who was essentially a criminal in his native land. Vuorinen said that in Finland, most old houses are made of wood.

Vuorinen said Eric Mullica - no one is certain when the Finnish spelling was changed - and other Finns clear-cut and burned forests in staking their claims and building their homes, which was illegal under Swedish law.

"Their choice was jail or to come to what would be America," Vuorinen said. "Most Swedes didn't want to come here, so they sent the Finns to settle it for them."