Salemaa, The Stauffers - Their Roots and Settling in Finland in the 1800s

In the hunger years of the 1860s three Stauffer brothers from Simmental in Switzerland arrived in Elimäki to work as cattle breeders and dairymen on the af Forselles estates. These young men became attached to the soil of this chilly country and later achieved the position of independent estate owner and cheese trader. Some decades later three of their sisters together with husbands and children followed in their footsteps. The brothers and their brothers-in-law played a significant role in introducing and consolidating cheese dairying in Finland.