Creating Fiction from History: Finnie Winkler

Mr. Hyram P. Winkler, Finnie to those who knew and loved him, was a young lad of 16 years when he left his family's wheat fields in Dorchester to labor full-time at the relatively new Waukon Iron Company, which had opened an open-pit mine and ore-washing plant in neighboring Waukon, a mere 17 miles away. The photo pictured here was taken in 1892, several years after Finnie had begun work at the Iron Company.

After a bit over a year of dirty work in the pit, Mr. Winkler, through much blood, sweat and tears, earned a supervisory position in the ore-washing plant. Impressively, young Finnie, now...