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William Paananen, and a brass band, for which the society purchased the instruments, and with Arvid Kastel as first bandmaster, succeeded by Johan Aho and later still by William Paananen's son, John W. Paananen. (Another Paananen son, Ernest, became a well-known concert violinist.)
When the schism came a very short time later and a period of uncertainty followed, the Cromwell hall eventually fell into communist hands. They were willing enough, though, to rent the hall for others to use, but later they began to demand that potential users indicate in advance to the owners the nature of the program they intended to give. This led, naturally, to the organization of another hall association, the Farmers Cooperative Hall Association, made up of 66 shareholders, who purchased land from Nestor Tamminen and built thereon another hall. Later the communists lost their hall to an athletic society, Raju, which tried to keep activity going on in the hall for a time but then grew tired and gave up; in 1953, Carlton County took possession of the property for non-payment of taxes and then sold it to the Aho brothers, who tore down the hall. All that was left was the stone foundation, `a symbol of the communist revolution,' was what the townsfolk called it.
The new, Farmers Hall, was ready for use in 1928, and it was dedicated at midsummer. For the decades which followed, it served as the cultural center of Cromwell's Finns, until old age, fatigue, and lessened numbers overtook them. The hall was sold in 1952 to John Laine and Elmer Holm, at which time the association was also terminated. A few years later Laine and Holm sold the property to a Duluth businessman.
Two young people's groups existed for a time in this region, the Touko society in Automba and the Vellamo society, an athletic club, in Moose Lake. Also, for a time there were Townsend clubs at least in Cromwell and Kettle River, and during World War II, a Finnish relief committee in Moose Lake, with Stanford Dodge as its chairman. For a number of years, also, the Kaleva Ladies had a chapter in Kettle River. And finally, the newest organization is the MFAHS chapter, begun in Cromwell in 1946, whose activity has received previous mention.
Cooperative Activity : Cooperative enterprises in the region number several. Of them, the Barnum Farmers Cooperative Company was established in 1919; it joined the Cooperative Central in 1926. The Denham store was a branch of the Kettle River cooperative; that in Mahtowa, a branch of Cloquet's. The Moose Lake Cooperative Association was founded in 1920 and joined the
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