[1] Pohto was an uneducated man of peasant stock who is known for his collection that saved a significantly large number of pre-19th century Finnish literature.
[2][3] Pohto was born into a poor peasants' family in the Western Finnish Ostrobothnia region.
At the age of eight, Pohto worked as a herder, and also earned his living by begging.
Pohto acquired most of his books from manor houses and vicarages throughout Finland.
[4] In 1857, Pipping published a bibliography of Finnish literature, about 5,000 of 6,603 titles of these were collected by Pohto.