William Abraham with his numerous state awards for his agricultural achievements.

It was on farming that the chief emphasis of the Finns in Cokato was placed, but did a field once cultivated constitute a lasting memorial to him who had made it out of wilderness? It was in 1906 that a visitor from Finland saw what had been accomplished in Cokato and wrote his impressions : "The last tree stumps are still standing, but soon the axe will be dropped for good. The tired old men and women will be laid to rest alongside those who have already preceded them to the cemetery beside the Laestadian church. A new generation is growing up

Pioneer Memorial Committee members: William Abrahamson, Isaac A.
Barberg, Vernon G. Barberg and William A. Nelson.

on these fertile fields. Forty years from now, who will remember those heroic workers who came from the far reaches of northern Europe to the heart of the new continent to pave the way for these cultivated fields and for progress?" 24

24. WPA, MS op. cit. St. Paul, Minnesota.

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