young, unmarried women who came and signed for homesteads in Eagle Town in 1892. Cornelia built herself a house, but as soon as she owned her homestead she sold it to Bertha Lehto, who then married Mikko Mastola.

Henry Knuutila (from Kalajoki) came with his wife in 1894, and he became one of Eagle Town's important persons, for he spoke English and was able to help his neighbors who had trouble making themselves understood; he was also a surveyor, important in drawing up boundary lines for all these new homesteads. A lay preacher, Johan Daniel Oberg, arrived with his family in 1895. He was a skilled mason and the local chimney maker, but he was also a gifted speaker, the propagator of the Laestadian faith in the community. (He was later a preacher in the Dakotas and in Upper Michigan.)

Elias Laasanen and his wife took a homestead in 1894; Jacob Pohto and his family arrived in 1898; John Hakamäki came in 1895 and later married Sophia Holm. Other newcomers were John Salmi and his

family, 1894; John Iru and wife, 1896; Erick Keskitalo, 1895; Uriel Markkula and wife, 1896. Abraham Saari (Peurasaari) arrived as a bachelor in 1893, took a homestead and married Isak Mäki's daughter So

phia; Henry Saukko, another bachelor, took out his homestead in 1890, and he later married Katri Hautala.

After the turn of the century, dozens of Finnish families continued to arrive, so that by 1910 Eagle Town was a purely Finnish community. Long before this, in 1896, it had its first school, and Matti Heikkilä, Henry Knuutila and Gust Jussila were on the first school board, while among the first pupils in the school were Ada Heikkilä, Jacob Mäki, William Knuutila and Tilda Klavo.

In Wright, the Finns began to arrive in 1894; in the Town of Finlakes, in 1902; in Sawyer, in 1907.

Finnish Organizations : Everywhere throughout this farming region, the Finns set up their own, small congregations. The earliest of them were generally Apostolic Lutheran, and among their preachers were Matti Reed in Automba, John K. Ylen in

Kettle River's Co-op feed mill.

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