Finnish settlements. Brandon itself never had many Finns, but the first to arrive there were Johan Koskelo, Johan Lehto, Louis Seppänen, and Charles Mattson. One W. R. Johnson opened a general store in Brandon in 1914, at a time when there were still several Finnish farmers in the vicinity. One of these, Charles Silvola, sold his farm and moved to the Rio Grande valley of Texas, to be followed by others, but at least one of his eleven children remained in Minnesota to make a name for himself: Richard Hugo Silvola, at one time a representative to the state legislature from St. Louis County.

Todd County

At the turn of the century there were 22 Finns in Todd County, a figure that remained constant until the 1940 census which showed 17 Finns and the 1950 census which listed but 10, out of a total county population of 25,450. In the chief town, Long Prairie, there were several Finns in the 1930s, but in 1950 the statistics listed but one Finn and four second-generation Finns. In Staples, also, there was but one Finn in 1950. Grey Eagle - to which in 1893 there came Johan Ainali, Johan Autio, John Hemmi, Antti Hiltunen, Matti Johnson, Adolf Jokinen, Alex Koski, Johan Meltaus, Mikko Meltaus, Israel Orin (Örn), Alex Paavola, Heikki Paavola, Jacob Paavola and Isak Pattiin - has the rest. Grey Eagle has even had its own Evangelical Lutheran congregation, to which in 1934 belonged 28 members.

Stearns County

In 1900 there was one Finn living in the county, and after an increase to 20 in 1940, the 1950 figure was down to 15. There were Finnish relief committees in Paynesville (H. J. Sauer, chairman), Sauk Centre (D. B. Coughren) and St. Cloud (Wheelock Whitney.)

Hennepin County and Minneapolis

That triangle of land where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers join forms Hennepin County. In that county, at the point where the St. Anthony Falls, to which Father Hennepin, presumably the first white man to see that splendid flow of the Mississippi, gave its name in 1680, lies Minnesota's biggest city. The village established there did not begin to expand rapidly until after 1805, when the American Government reached its agreement with the

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