fields the men used to go as far away as the Dakotas to seek extra work - at threshing time, for example, they could earn as much as five dollars a day there, back in 1914-15. There have been two cooperative enterprises in Annandale, both of them

with Finns included as founders and directors, the Annandale

Farmers' Elevator Company and the Annandale Farmers' Shipping Company.

Knapp : Between Cokato and French Lake lies the village of Knapp, where Finns have also resided, and where they assisted in the establishment of a cooperative dairy in 1901.

Albion : Lying east of Knapp, Albion included 119 Finns in its population in 1900. A cooperative dairy was established there in 1903.

Stockholm: South of Cokato lies the village of Stockholm,with a population of 862 persons. In 1900, 37 of them were Finns. In addition to the communities mentioned above, there have been smaller groups of Finns, or at least a Finnish family or two, everywhere in Wright County. Year after year, however, their numbers have decreased, from 432 in 1900 to 428 in 1920; 317 in 1930; 234 in 1940; 134 in 1950. Similarly, the percentage of Finns in the population has gone down, since the total population of the county as a whole - 27,000 in 1900; 29,000 in 1950 - has remained fairly constant.

The names of Finns who came to Minnesota have often undergone changes. It often happened that when some Kalle Ylimäki landed in New York the immigration officials `forgot' the first part of the surname they found impossible to pronounce in any event. So, known now as Kalle Mäki, the man might have moved to the Minnesota iron mines, and when the first payroll was called, the boss, trying to pronounce the name, might have asked what 'mäki' really meant, and when he learned that it meant `hill', after that Kalle Mäki was known only as Kalle Hill, and it usually did not take him very long after that to adopt the English version of his given name, too, and so Kalle Ylimäki was transformed into Charles Hill. Many Minnesotans named Hill are actually of Finnish origin. The same process affected many other Finnish American names which were difficult to pronounce, and this is a change which also constitutes a portion of Minnesota history.

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